Abstract
The chapter synthesizes the theories in the previous chapter into the reform cycle. The cycle starts with changing economic and social conditions. These create a demand for new ideas, which need to be articulated by different policy entrepreneurs, who interact with and activate power resources and interests, which influence institutional and policy changes. Also statecraft is defined and three major kinds of reforms strategies are developed: Popperian, Kuhnian, and Machiavellian.
The reform cycle and the reform strategies will serve as hypotheses to be studied in the case studies. Moreover, remaining puzzles are identified: How and why liberal and welfare-enhancing policy ideas, rather than the opposite, become implemented, and how the collective action problem involved in reform is solved.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Books and Articles
Armingeon, K., & Giger, N. (2008). Conditional Punishment: A Comparative Analysis of the Electoral Consequences of Welfare State Retrenchment in OECD Nations, 1980–2003. West European Politics, 31(3), 558–580.
Baldwin, D. (1985). Economic Statecraft. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Baumol, W. (1990). Entrepreneurship: Productive, Unproductive, and Destructive. Journal of Political Economy, 98(5), 893–921.
Béland, D. (2005). Ideas and Social Policy: An Institutionalist Perspective. Social Policy & Administration, 39(1), 1–18.
Bergh, A. (2009). Den kapitalistiska välfärdsstaten. Stockholm: Nordstedts akademiska förlag.
Bresser-Pereira, L., Maravall, J., & Przeworski, A. (1993). Economic Reforms in New Democracies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bulpitt, J. (1986). The Discipline of the New Democracy: Mrs Thatcher’s Domestic Statecraft. Political Studies, 34(1), 19–39.
Fernandez, R., & Rodrik, D. (1991). Resistance to Reform: Status Quo Bias in the Presence of Individual-Specific Uncertainty. The American Economic Review, 81(5), 1146–1155.
Giger, N. (2011). Is Social Policy Retrenchment Unpopular? How Welfare Reforms Affect Government Popularity. European Sociological Review, 28(5), 691–700.
Giger, N., & Nelson, M. (2010). The Electoral Consequences of Welfare State Retrenchment: Blame Avoidance or Credit Claiming in the Era of Permanent Austerity? European Journal of Political Research, 50(1), 1–23.
Goldstein, J. (1993). Ideas, Interests, and American Trade Policy. Ithaca: Cornell University.
Hall, P. A. (1989). The Political Power of Economic Ideas. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Hall, P. A. (1993). Policy Paradigms, Social Learning, and the State: The Case of Economic Policymaking in Britain. Comparative Politics, 25(3), 275–296.
Hall, P. A. (1997). The Role of Interests, Institutions, and Ideas in the Comparative Political Economy of the Industrialized Nations. In M. Lichbach & A. Zuckerman (Eds.), Comparative Politics: Rationality, Culture, and Structure. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Jacobs, A. M. (2011). Governing for the Long Term. Democracy and Politics of Investment. New York: Cambridge University Press.
James, T. S. (2016). Neo-statecraft Theory, Historical Institutionalism and Institutional Change. Government and Opposition, 51(1), 84–110.
Kaplan, M. (1952). An Introduction to the Strategy of Statecraft. World Politics, 4(04), 548–576.
Karlson, N. (2013). The Limits of Pragmatism in Institutional Change. In H. Lindberg (Ed.), Knowledge and Policy Change. Newcastle: Scholars Publishing.
Kingdon, J. W. (1984). Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies. Boston: Little Brown.
Kono, D. Y. (2006). Optimal Obfuscation: Democracy and Trade Policy Transparency. American Political Science Review, 100(3), 369–384.
Kuhn, T. (1962). The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Kuhn, T. (1970). The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (2nd ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Lindbom, A. (2007). Obfuscating Retrenchment: Swedish Welfare Policy in the 1990s. Journal of Public Policy, 27(02), 129.
Machiavelli, N. (1984). The Prince (P. Bondanella & M. Musa, Eds.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Mahoney, J., & Thelen, K. (Eds.). (2010). Explaining Institutional Change: Ambiguity, Agency and Power. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Majone, G. (1992). Evidence, Argument, and Persuasion in the Policy Process. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Mastanduno, M. (1998). Economics and Security in Statecraft and Scholarship. International Organization, 52(4), 825–854.
McCloskey, D. (1985). The Rhetoric of Economics. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
Pierson, P. (1994). Dismantling the Welfare State? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Pierson, P. (1996). The New Politics of the Welfare State. World Politics, 48(2), 143–179.
Pierson, P. (2001). Post-Industrial Pressure on the Mature Welfare States. In P. Pierson (Ed.), The New Politics of the Welfare State. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Popper, K. (1934). Logik der Forschung. Vienna: Verlag von Julius Springer.
Popper, K. (1945). The Open Society and Its Enemies. London: Routledge.
Popper, K. (1957). The Poverty of Historicism. London: Routledge.
Prince, M. (2010). Avoiding Blame, Doing Good, and Claiming Credit: Reforming Canadian Income Security. Canadian Public Administration, 53(3), 293–322.
Riker, W. H. (1986). The Art of Political Manipulation. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Skocpol, T. (1996). Boomerang. New York: W.W. Norton & Co..
Snow, D., Rochford, B., Worden, S., & Benford, R. (1986). Frame Alignment Processes, Micro Mobilization, and Movement Participation. American Sociological Review, 51(4), 464–481.
Starke, P. (2008). Radical Welfare State Retrenchment: A Literature Review. Social Policy and Administration, 40(1), 104–120.
Streeck, W., & Thelen, K. (2005). Beyond Continuity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Tepe, M., & Vanhuysse, P. (2010). Who Cuts Back and When? The Politics of Delays in Social Expenditure Cutbacks, 1980–2005. West European Politics, 33(6), 1214–1240.
Usher, A. P. (1934). A Liberal Theory of Constructive Statecraft. The American Economic Review, 24(1), 2–10.
Vis, B. (2010). The Politics of Risk-Taking—Welfare State Reform in Advanced Democracies. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
Vis, B., & Kersbergen, K. (2007). Why and How Do Political Actors Pursue Risky Reforms? Journal of Theoretical Politics, 19(2), 153–172.
Weaver, R. (1986). The Politics of Blame Avoidance. Journal of Public Policy, 6(4), 371–398.
Williamson, J. (Ed.). (1994). The Political Economy of Policy Reform. Washington, DC: Institute for International Economics.
Wilson, P. I. (2000). Deficit Reduction as a Causal Story: Strategic Politics and Welfare State Retrenchment. The Social Science Journal, 37(1), 97–112.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Karlson, N. (2018). Reform Cycles and Reform Strategies. In: Statecraft and Liberal Reform in Advanced Democracies . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64233-8_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64233-8_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-64232-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-64233-8
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)