Asbjørn Wahl: The Rise and Fall of the Welfare State (2009/2011)
Filed under book | Tags: · neoliberalism, politics, welfare state, work
In an age of government imposed austerity, and after 30 years of neo-liberal restructuring, the future of the welfare state looks increasingly uncertain. Asbjørn Wahl offers an accessible analysis of the situation across Europe, identifies the most important challenges and presents practical proposals for combating the assault on welfare.
Wahl argues that the welfare state should be seen as the result of a class compromise forged in the 20th century, which means that it cannot easily be exported internationally. He considers the enormous shifts in power relations and the profound internal changes to the welfare state which have occurred during the neo-liberal era, pointing to the paradigm shift that the welfare state is going through. This is illustrated by the shift from welfare to workfare and increased top-down control.
As well as being a fascinating study in its own right that will appeal to students of economics and politics, The Rise and Fall of the Welfare State also points to an alternative way forward for the trade union movement based on concrete examples of struggles and alliance-building.
First published in Norwegian as Velferdsstatens vekst – og fall?, Gyldendal Arbeidsliv, Oslo, 2009
Translated by John Irons
Publisher Pluto Press, 2011
ISBN 0745331408, 9780745331409
246 pages
review (Sophie Smith, Socialist Review)
Comment (0)Horvat Branko: Politička ekonomija socijalizma (1982/84) [Croatian]
Filed under book | Tags: · capitalism, economy, marxism, political economy, politics, proletariat, socialism, theory, yugoslavia
In this important book Branko Horvat advances a type of Yugoslav Marxism referred to by many as Yugoslav ‘Praxis’ Marxism, a name adopted from the journal Praxis that promoted a humanist style of socialist thought from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s. For years, Horvat has been directly associated with many of the authors who originally founded this journal, and his work illustrates his indebtedness to them.
Originally published as The Political Economy of Socialism, New York, 1982
Translated by Dubravko Mihaljek and Mia Miki
Publisher ČGP Delo, Globus, Izdavačka djelatnost, Zagreb
546 pages
via Ignorant Schoolmaster and His Committees
Raja Shehadeh: Strangers in the House: Coming of Age in Occupied Palestine (2002/2009)
Filed under book | Tags: · biography, human rights, israel, memoir, middle east, palestine, politics
“Raja Shehadeh was born into a successful Palestinian family with a beautiful house overlooking the Mediterranean. When the state of Israel was formed in 1948 the family were driven out to the provincial town of Ramallah. There Shehadeh grew up in the shadow of his father, a leading civil rights lawyer. He vowed not to become involved in politics or law but inevitably did so and became an important activist himself.In 1985 his father was stabbed to death. The Israeli police failed to investigate the murder properly and Shehadeh, by then a lawyer, set about solving the crime that destroyed his family. InStrangers in the House, Shehadeh recounts his troubled and complex relationship with his father and his experience of exile – of being a stranger in his own land. It is a remarkable memoir that combines the personal and political to devastating effect.”
Originally published in 2002
English edition
Publisher Profile Books, London, 2009
ISBN 1846682509, 9781846682506
238 pages
PDF (updated on 2020-9-27)
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