Comparative Political Economy of Welfare States

Author: (American) Thomas et al., translated by Jiang Hui, Yu Haiqing, Shen Genqu
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2003-09-01
Features: To fully and correctly understand capitalism in order to learn from and draw on all the civilized achievements of capitalist societies and build a socialism superior to capitalism, the authors have launched the "Contemporary Capitalism Research Series" with the strong support of Chongqing Publishing House for the reference of readers. This series primarily translates the works of foreign scholars on contemporary capitalism, and will also introduce the studies of Chinese scholars on contemporary capitalism at appropriate times. The editors believe that knowing oneself while also knowing others will help our socialism with Chinese characteristics seize opportunities and withstand challenges, thereby accelerating our development and gaining the initiative in the world order of the coming new century, placing us in a more favorable position. The new methods of comparative and historical research in political economy have not yet been integrated into a comprehensive framework or recognized as an important field of comparative research. Most recent works have emphasized historical or qualitative methods rather than broad quantitative research. Existing textbooks on comparative methods were written before these new methods were widely adopted. Thus, the research presented in this book fills a gap in the field of comparative political economy. In the introduction, the authors provide a general overview of the comparative research process and the methods used by researchers over the past decade. In subsequent chapters, renowned scholars in the field explain specific methods and demonstrate them by applying each method to social and economic policies in developed industrial countries. In the conclusion, Thomas Janoski and Alexander Hiski clarify the ambiguous concept of "political economy" and point out four potential future directions for the comparative political economy of the welfare state in the coming decades.