Böcker av Christian Aspalter

This book bridges the disciplines of micro-economics and social policy in general, and, in particular, behavioral/explanatory social policy and public choice theory, plus Leibenstein¿s X-efficiency theory. Being trained as an economist and social policy scientist, the author leaps out of the comfort zone of most social policy scientists and experts, right into the exciting world of micro-economic theory, and then extending and connecting those theories to explain major social, political and economic conundrums of our time. In doing so, the book offers a new set of theoretical¿and practical¿explanations derived from the general proposition of micro-economic theory, of how government officers, policymakers, administrators and the people themselves alike are, by and large, motivated in their daily as well as strategic (long-term) decision-making. Using a meta-analytical approach (based on a number of grand theories), this book also explains systemic factors behind human behavior and the thereof resulting shortcomings in lifetime outcomes (health, wealth and happiness of a person) and at the same time societal, policy-making, and economic outcomes on societal level, and in global comparison.The outcomes thereof can be measured exactly (and hence validated), especially through the method of empirical comparative social science/economic research. Here, the author also (but not only) introduces the new method of using Aspalter's Standardized Relative Performance (SRP) Index in measuring exactly complex, aggregate performances of multiple governments, and that at the same time also across the entire world.

This book presents a new step farther into the twenty-first century, for the first time truly combining a comprehensive global data analysis with social policy theory development. The theory of global ideal-typical welfare regimes, also known as the ¿Ten Worlds of Welfare Regime Theory¿, as set forth earlier by Christian Aspalter, is now in this book tested empirically using a quantitative global data analysis for the first time. The strong and rich results fully vindicated the Ten Worlds Theory. All in all, about 150 countries are included in this test, measuring numerous variables on two main dimensions, i.e., povertization and inequality. The innovative approach of using a new indicator, Aspalter¿s Standardized Relative Performance Index, is applied, which facilitated the exact measurements of distances between relative performances of each variable, each dimension, each country, and each ideal-typical welfare regime (in relation to one another, respectively). In addition, one explanative and one normative meta-study is added to the book, to point to ways to understand and deal with the global culprit of inequality and, hence, poverty.¿On the backdrop of decades of comparative theoretical and empirical research we now, for the first time, have a truly global analysis of welfare regimes.¿ ---- Peter Abrahamson, Department of Sociology, University of Copenhagen

This book introduces readers to the world of ideal types within the readings of Max Weber by giving a theoretical understanding of ideal types, as well as applying the development of ideal types to an array of social policy arenas.The 21st century has seen the development of welfare regime analysis marked by two differing strands: real-typical welfare regime analyses and ideal-typical welfare regime analysis; the latter focusing on the formation, development, and application of ideal types in general comparative social policy. Designed to provide new theoretical and practical frameworks, as well as updated in-depth developments of ideal-typical welfare regime theory, this book shows how Weber's method of setting up and checking against 'ideal types' can be used in a wide variety of policy areas, such as welfare state system comparison, comparative social and economic development, health policy, mental health policy, health care system analysis, gender policy, employment policy, education policy, and so forth.The book will be of interest to all scholars and students working in the fields of social policy, including health policy, public policy, political economy, sociology, social work, gender studies, social anthropology, and many more.

This book introduces readers to the world of ideal types within the readings of Max Weber by giving a theoretical understanding of ideal types, as well as applying the development of ideal types to an array of social policy arenas.

Owing to rapid economic development and the onset of population ageing, social work has become a major means of delivering social services and relieving and preventing social problems at an individual, family, and community level in East Asia.

This work examines the historical, political, and social backdrops to the social welfare systems in the most developed welfare state systems of East Asia: Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and the People's Republic of China.

Aspalter asserts that the belief that the development of high standard welfare states is primarily based on the ideology that pro-welfare, mostly leftwing, parties dominate welfare state literature and common thought in the Western world. Instead, in this examination of the welfare states of East Asia, Aspalter and his contributors show that they grew as naturally as they did in most Western countries, but that the reasons for this are other than pro-welfare ideologies. The five welfare states-Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore-are residual welfare states with low levels of welfare benefits and provision when compared to extended welfare states in Western Europe. While East Asian welfare states have experienced a hefty increase in welfare provision that has been regulated or provided by the state since the early 1970s, all five were set up and expanded by conservative governments with clear anti-welfare ideologies.The case studies provided by Aspalter and his contributors suggest that welfare state development in East Asia is caused to a large extent by social protests in general, and, for welfare in particular, by competition in democratic elections, and by the changing role of women. Social and demographic factors, such as the rise of the age structure of the population, do not cause welfare state expansion in the first place. They cause street protests, and street protests convince all kinds of governments-if they rule out the use of force-to implement social welfare. Moreover, politicians, who are afraid to lose elections, also take up welfare issues, which they would not do without electoral competition between candidates and parties. As Aspalter makes clear, governments do not have to wait until major protests occur or until they have lost an election in order to promote social welfare. The anticipation of such an event is sufficient. This book provides new insights on the development of welfare systems that will be of particular interest to scholars, students, and other researchers involved with social welfare, East Asian studies, and comparative politics.