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Coalitions and Trade-Offs in Policymaking
Abstract Submissions Closed
RC19 Sociology of Poverty, Social Welfare and Social Policy (host committee)
Language: English
Session Type: Oral
The financial and social sustainability of welfare states are high on the political agenda in most, if not all, countries around the globe. Financial sustainability relates to the costs and affordability of social policy, whereas social sustainability links to issues of low income, economic hardship, and inequality. Interest groups and interest organizations strive to achieve predominantly social sustainability for the ones they represent, be it the young, the elderly, the workers, the unemployed, men, women, single parents, migrants, etc. Yet, how do these interest groups deal with potential financing trade-offs? Do some manage to obtain rights at the expense of others, or are effective coalitions formed that strike a better balance between social and financial sustainability?
In this session we invite papers that address potential trade-offs between financial and social sustainability in social policymaking, and how they can be resolved. We are particularly interested in papers providing new insights on the political economy of redistribution, and how countries by new ways of political coalition-making between interest groups may encourage positive-sum solutions in social policymaking that cut across age, gender, ethnicity, family composition, etc. We welcome both quantitative and qualitative papers that are either comparative in character or based on developments in single countries.
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