Rich Democracies, Poor People: How Politics Explain PovertyPoverty is not simply the result of an individual's characteristics, behaviors or abilities. Rather, as David Brady demonstrates, poverty is the result of politics. In Rich Democracies, Poor People, Brady investigates why poverty is so entrenched in some affluent democracies whereas it is a solvable problem in others. Drawing on over thirty years of data from eighteen countries, Brady argues that cross-national and historical variations in poverty are principally driven by differences in the generosity of the welfare state. An explicit challenge to mainstream views of poverty as an inescapable outcome of individual failings or a society's labor markets and demography, this book offers institutionalized power relations theory as an alternative explanation. |
Contents
| 3 | |
2 Rethinking the Measurement of Poverty | 23 |
3 Mythical and Real Patterns in Poverty | 45 |
4 The Welfare State and Poverty | 70 |
5 The Politics of Poverty | 94 |
6 The Poverty of Liberal Economics | 121 |
7 Structural Theory and Poverty | 145 |
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Rich Democracies, Poor People:How Politics Explain Poverty: How Politics ... David Brady No preview available - 2009 |
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absolute measures affluent democracies affluent Western democracies analyses Brady chapter child poverty Children in Single-Mother collective political actors countries decommodification deindustrialization different from zero effect on poverty Elderly Population elderly poverty Esping-Andersen female labor force feminization of poverty Figure high poverty Huber and Stephens inequality institutionalized power relations Korpi labor force participation labor market latent coalitions Leftist collective political Leftist parties Leftist politics levels of poverty liberal economics low poverty Manufacturing Employment measures of poverty official measure overall headcount poverty patterns in poverty poor poverty line poverty measure poverty research poverty threshold power relations theory power resources theory PR system pre-fisc Proportional Representation random effects models reduce poverty relative measure scholars significantly different single motherhood single-mother families Smeeding social exclusion social policies social science Sociology standard deviation Standardized Effects structural theory Sweden tion U.S. poverty United Kingdom University Press welfare generosity index women working-age adults York