RICH DEMOCRACIES, POOR PEOPLE by David Brady ( 9780195385915 )

Item Details

Title:

RICH DEMOCRACIES, POOR PEOPLE
HOW POLITICS EXPLAIN POVERTY

By:

Format:

Paperback

List price:	£33.99
We currently do not stock this item, please contact the publisher directly for further information.

ISBN 10:

0195385918

ISBN 13:

9780195385915

Publisher:

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS INC

Pub. date:

1 August, 2009

Pages:

280

Description:

This book highlights that among affluent Western societies, there is immense cross-national and historical variation in poverty, and seeks to determine what makes poverty so entrenched in some affluent democracies when it is a solvable problem in others. Brady points out that where poverty is low, equality has been institutionalized, and that where poverty is widespread, there has been a failure to institutionalize equality. This book effectively tackles the issueof how this collective responsibility is conceived and institutionalized, by defining the mechanisms that shape this ideology, or prevent it from coming into being, thus taking a broad new approach towards eliminating poverty.

Synopsis:

Poverty 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. The power of coalitions for egalitarianism, Leftist political groups and parties, and the social policies they are able to institutionalize shape the amount of poverty in society. Where poverty is low, equality has been institutionalized. Where poverty is widespread, exemplified by the U.S., there has been a failure to institutionalize equality.A comprehensive and state-of-the-art study, Rich Democracies, Poor People places the inherently political choices over resources and the political organization of states, markets, and societies at the center of the study of poverty and social inequality.

Illustrations:

26 black and white halftones, 33 line illustrations

Publication:

Imprint:

Oxford University Press Inc

Returns:

Returnable

Some other items by this author:

1666 (PB)

CHRISTIAN BRETHREN IN MANCHESTER AND DISTRICT (PB)

COMPARING EUROPEAN WORKERS