Thesis (M.A.)--University of Nevada, Reno, 2008. / "December, 2008." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 69-80). Online version available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.S.W.)--University of Hong Kong, 1990.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 517-547). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 517-547).

This thesis reassess the so-called 'Historical School of Economics' of Gustav Schmoller and his colleagues Lujo Brentano, Adolf Held and Georg Friedrich Knapp, analysing the close relationship between the development of historical economics and the rise of social reform in Germany. It reveals that there is little evidence for a cohesive 'Historical School' and suggests that it was not primarily an outgrowth of romantic and historicist currents of thought as is commonly believed. Schmoller and his colleagues were a pragmatic, empirically-inclined group of statistically-trained economists who drew inspiration from the advances made in the natural sciences. Having directly observed the effects of rapid urbanisation, industrialisation, and the rise of labour movements and socialism in Prussia and abroad, they became dissatisfied with classical economic doctrines and laissez-faire, subjecting these to empirical tests and criticism. Drawing inspiration from British reforms and developments throughout Europe, they devised alternative hypotheses and made innovative policy recommendations. They were also important professionalisers of economics, modifying the curriculum, organising professional bodies, and creating new monographs and journals, the latter substantially aided by the interest and generosity of a leading publisher. Using empirical studies, statistics and history as analytical and critical tools, they sought practical solutions to economic and social problems by disseminating information to both the public and government officials through publications, conferences and petitions. They became leading advocates of trade union rights, factory inspection, worker protection laws, education reforms, worker insurance, agricultural reforms, and the democratisation of industrial relations. Their influence on economic and social policy, while indirect, was considerable, especially through government officials. However, the close association of historical economics with reform and social policy also made them a conspicuous target of criticism within academia and politics. Despite this, by the early 1890s the research methods and social legislation they propounded were gaining wider currency not only in Germany but also in Austria.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed May 30, 2007). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 176-179).]

The thesis examines the political dynamics behind the contemporary trend towards pension privatization in Europe. Its aim is to develop a theoretical model that can explain not only why governments have increasingly replaced their public pay-as-you-go systems with private fully-funded schemes, but also why there is considerable diversity both in the extent and in the content of pension privatization. Private pension funds can indeed be governed by a variety of institutional arrangements and can have very different types of links with the financial system. They do not necessarily contribute to a financialization of the economy. The thesis takes issue with the idea that pension privatization would be primarily the result of a new pensions orthodoxy promoted by international organizations such as the World Bank or of an electoral strategy that consists in attracting the votes of the middle class. I argue that the driving force behind the more or less dramatic rise of funded pensions in Europe is a series of lobbying campaigns launched by the financial industry, and their varying influence. Financial firms have a vested interest in the development of a market in private pensions, which should profit them as an industry. However, pension reform is an issue that matters to voters and can therefore prove dangerous for party politicians. Moreover, it involves complex changes that directly affect key material interests of employers and workers. In this context, the success of financial firms’ campaign for pension privatization depends on their capacity to forge alliances with a variety of actors. This in turn contributes to limit the influence financiers can exert. The argument is tested using a comparative historical analysis of pension debates in the United Kingdom, France and Poland since the beginning of the 1980s.

Submitted by Mayara Simon Bezerra null (mayarasimonbe@yahoo.com.br) on 2018-02-05T17:52:21Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação Mayara OK.pdf: 1747594 bytes, checksum: 4b0922826f8afdd90ee85f7df739b5ab (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Jacqueline de Almeida null (jacquie@franca.unesp.br) on 2018-02-06T13:38:17Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Bezerra_MS_me_fran.pdf: 1747594 bytes, checksum: 4b0922826f8afdd90ee85f7df739b5ab (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-02-06T13:38:17Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Bezerra_MS_me_fran.pdf: 1747594 bytes, checksum: 4b0922826f8afdd90ee85f7df739b5ab (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-08-31 / A presente pesquisa teve por objetivo conhecer o trabalho interdisciplinar desenvolvido com crianças vítimas de violência sexual, através das políticas de atendimento existentes no município de Penápolis/SP. A criança vítima de abuso sexual necessita de atenção especial, visto que seu desenvolvimento físico, emocional, social, cognitivo e comportamental pode ser afetado por este tipo de violação de direitos. Ao ser constatada a violação, as crianças devem ser encaminhadas aos órgãos competentes para serem inseridas nas políticas de atendimento e receberem acompanhamento adequado. Este trabalho requer profissionais capacitados diante das transformações societárias configuradas na sociedade atual e que se refletem na vida de milhares de crianças e suas famílias, para que estas, ao chegarem aos locais de atendimento não sejam vitimizadas novamente, revivendo a violência pela qual foram submetidas. Destaca-se aqui o trabalho interdisciplinar, considerado fundamental no atendimento a criança vítima de abuso sexual, que devido sua complexidade demanda a contribuição de profissionais de diferentes áreas, comprometidos com um mesmo objetivo: o atendimento integral à criança vítima de violência sexual. O trabalho interdisciplinar, realizado numa perspectiva crítica, possibilita a compreensão da criança em sua totalidade, como sujeito de direitos, buscando a efetivação destes e sua proteção. Através desta pesquisa conhecemos as políticas de atendimento no município compreendidas entre saúde, assistência social, segurança pública e justiça, bem como o trabalho do conselho tutelar. Na realidade pesquisada, a falta de recursos humanos e serviços específicos de atendimento se configuram como alguns dos principais desafios a efetivação destas políticas em Penápolis. Por outro lado, também identificamos o trabalho interdisciplinar desenvolvido pelos profissionais, bem como o trabalho do assistente social aliado a perspectiva interdisciplinar. A interdisciplinaridade foi identificada pelos profissionais aliada a visão de totalidade, com a integração de saberes e a troca de conhecimentos. Outro ponto evidenciado no estudo foi a aproximação da compreensão que os demais profissionais que compõem a equipe possuem sobre o trabalho desenvolvido pelo assistente social, ao que constatamos ser considerado de fundamental importância, sobretudo, considerando-se que é responsável pelos primeiros contatos com a criança e sua família após a ocorrência da violência sexual. / The present research developed to meet the interdisciplinary work developed with children victims of sexual violence through the existing attendance policies in the city of Penápolis/SP. The child victim of sexual abuse needs special attention, since its physical, emotional, social, cognitive and behavioral development can be affected by this type of violation of rights. Once the violation is noted children victims should be directed to competent organs to be inserted into policies and receive appropriate care and follow-up, which requires skilled professionals on a corporate transformations that configure the current society and is reflected in lives of thousands of children and their families. Protecting children from being victimized again, reliving the violence by which they were submitted. We highlight here the interdisciplinary work, considered crucial in meeting child victim of sexual abuse, because your complexity demand, contribution of professionals from different areas, committed to the same goal: the integral assistance to the child victim of sexual violence. The interdisciplinary work, carried out in a critical perspective, enables the understanding of child in your entirety as a subject of rights, seeking the execution of these and your protection. Through this research we know the policies of the municipality between health, social assistance, public safety and justice and child services, in which the lack of human resources and service-specific services are configured as some of the main challenges the effectiveness of these policies in Penápolis and identify the interdisciplinary work developed by professionals, as well as the social work combined with interdisciplinary professional's perspective. Another highlighted is the study of the comprehension of professionals about the work done by the social team, to be considered of fundamental importance, especially considering that is responsible for the first contacts with the child and your family after the occurrence of sexual violence.

This thesis examines the political process of health care reform between 1989 and 1998 in the most advanced sizable political economy in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) – the Czech Republic. Its aim is to explain the political process bringing about post-Communist health policy change and stimulate new debates on welfare state transformation in CEE. The thesis challenges the conventional view that post-Communist health care reform in CEE was designed and implemented to improve the health status of the people, as desired by the people themselves. I suggest that this is a dangerous over-rationalisation, and argue that post-Communist health care reform in the Czech Republic was the by-product of haphazard democratic political struggle between emerging elites for power and economic resources. The thesis employs the analytical narrative method to describe and analyse the actors, institutions, ideas and history behind the health policy change. The analysis is informed by welfare state theory, elite theory, interest group politics theory, the assumptions of methodological individualism and rational choice theory, and Schumpeter’s doctrine of democracy. Its focus is on the interests of health policy actors and how they interacted within an unhinged, but fast-consolidating, institutional framework. The results demonstrate that, while historical legacies and liberal ideas featured prominently in the rhetoric accompanying health policy change, in Realpolitik, these were merely the disposable, instrumental devices of opportunistic, self-interested elites. The resultant explanation of health policy change stresses the primacy of agency over structure and formulates four important mechanisms of health policy change: opportunism, tinkering, enterprise, and elitism. In conclusion, the relevance of major welfare state theories to the given case is assessed and implications for welfare state research in CEE are drawn.

This dissertation presents a theoretical framework about which voters parties distribute to and with which policies. To develop this full framework of distributive policies, the dissertation proceeds in two stages. First, it analyses which voters parties have more incentives to target distributive policies. Second, it also develops the conditions under which political parties can focus exclusively on these voters or need to combine this strategy with appeals to a broader electorate. The first part of the argument analyses which voters parties have at the centre of their distributive strategies, or, in the words of Cox and McCubbins (1986) to whom parties will give an available extra dollar for distribution. The argument is that core voters provide more efficient conditions for distribution, contradicting Stokes’ (2005) claim that a dollar spent on core voters is a wasted dollar. The explanation is twofold. First, core supporters might not vote for another party, but they can get demobilised. Once we include the effects on turnout, core voters are more responsive. Their party identification makes them especially attentive and reactive to economic benefits provided by their party. Secondly, incumbents cannot individually select who receives a distributive policy, and not all voters are equally reachable with distributive policies. When a party provides a policy, it cannot control if some of those resources go to voters the party is not interested in. Core supporters are more homogenous groups with more definable traits, whereas swing voters are a residual category composed by heterogeneous voters with no shared interests. This makes it easier for incumbents to shape distributive benefits that target core voters more exclusively. These mechanisms define the general distribution hypothesis: parties will focus on core voters, by targeting their distributive strategies to them. The second part of the dissertation develops the conditions under which politicians stick to this distributive strategy or, instead, would provide more universalistic spending to a more undefined set of recipients. The conventional argument explaining this choice relies on the electoral system, arguing that proportional systems give more incentives to provide universalistic policies than majoritarian systems. This dissertation challenges this argument and provides two other contextual conditions that define when parties have a stronger interest in their core supporters or in a more general electorate. First, the geographic distribution of core supporters across districts is a crucial piece of information to know the best distributive strategy. When parties’ core supporters are geographically concentrated, they cannot simply rely on them, as the party will always fall short of districts to win the election. Therefore, parties will have greater incentives to expand their electorate by buying off other voters. This should reduce the predicted differences between electoral systems in the provision of universalistic programmes. Secondly, the policy positions of candidates are a result of strategic considerations that respond to other candidates’ positions. Thus, I argue that parties adapt their distributive strategies to the number of competing parties, independently of the electoral system. In a two-party scenario, parties need broader coalitions of electoral support. In equilibrium, any vote can change the electoral outcome. As more parties compete, the breadth of parties’ electorates is reduced and parties will find narrow distributive policies more profitable. In summary, the main contribution of this dissertation one is to provide a new framework to study distributive politics. This framework makes innovations both on the characterisation of swing and core electoral groups, and the rationale of parties’ distributive strategies, contributing to advance previous theoretical and empirical research.