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Coming together or drifting apart? Income maintenance in Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom

Pierson, Christopher; Humpage, Louise

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Authors

Christopher Pierson

Louise Humpage



Abstract

There has been long-standing debate in the comparative welfare state literature as to whether social policy regimes come to look more alike over time (“converge”) or else retain their distinctiveness. In this article, we explore this question through a detailed interrogation of the social policy record since 1996 of three states widely classified as “liberal”: Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. Overall, we find that the social/economic pressures faced by all three countries are more similar now than they were two decades ago and that each has sought to legitimize its politic response to the global financial crisis (GFC) in similar ways. In terms of the three policy areas we explore, we find convergence is much more substantial in “welfare-to-work” than in either child-contingent support, or pensions. But we also find that any straightforward convergence story is unsustainable, despite the GFC and accelerating globalization, and partisan effects remain important.

Citation

Pierson, C., & Humpage, L. (2016). Coming together or drifting apart? Income maintenance in Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. Politics and Policy, 44(2), 261-293. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12150

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Jan 13, 2016
Online Publication Date Apr 17, 2016
Publication Date Apr 17, 2016
Deposit Date Feb 29, 2016
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Politics and Policy
Print ISSN 1555-5623
Electronic ISSN 1747-1346
Publisher Wiley
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 44
Issue 2
Pages 261-293
DOI https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12150
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/784903
Publisher URL https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/polp.12150
Additional Information This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Coming together or drifting apart? Income maintenance in Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom / Chris Pierson, Louise Humpage (2016) Politics & Policy, vol. 44, no. 2, p. 261-293 , which has been published in final form at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/polp.12150/pdf. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.

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