Dismantling the Welfare State?: Reagan, Thatcher and the Politics of Retrenchment

Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics

by Paul Pierson

This book offers a careful examination of the politics of social policy in an era of austerity and conservative governance. Focusing on the administrations of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, Paul Pierson provides a compelling explanation for the welfare state's durability and for the few occasions where each government was able to achieve significant cutbacks. The book will appeal to those interested in the politics of neo-conservatism as well as those concerned about the development of the modern welfare state. It will attract readers in the fields of comparative politics, public policy, and political economy.

Genres: Nonfiction, Political Science, Politics, History, Economics

224 pages, Paperback

First published October 28, 1994

About the author

Paul Pierson is Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley, where he holds the Avice Saint Chair in Public Policy. Before taking this position in 2004, he was professor of government at Harvard University, where he taught from 1988 to 2004.

Pierson's first book, Dismantling the Welfare State? (1994), won the American Political Science Association's Kammerer Prize for the best book published on American national politics and policy in 1994. He has been the recipient of a number of prestigious fellowships, among them a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Jean Monnet Fellowship at the European University Institute in Florence, and a Russell Sage Foundation Fellowship.

Professor Pierson is an Affiliated Scholar at the Center for American Progress, where his work concentrates on comparative public policy, political economy, and the welfare state. His writing has appeared in Politics and Society, Comparative Political Studies, and Governance. Pierson is currently working on two books on long-term changes in the American political system. He lives in Berkeley, California.

Reviews

[Mike Edwards · Rating 4 out of 5]

A detailed look at the early days of the conservative backlash against the welfare state, focusing on the political tactics of undercutting fundamentally popular social programs.

[Dylan Groves]

highly recommended.