Inequality and the State

Erscheinungsjahr 2004
ISBN: 978-0-19-927663-9
Verlag: OUP Oxford

Buch, Englisch, 312 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 637 g

This book is about inequality, how the State affects distribution through its spending programmes and through taxation, and what the public thinks of these three issues. It describes and analyses one of the biggest social changes in Britain since the Second World War: the dramatic widening of the income distribution since the end of the 1970s, the growth of poverty, and the factors that have driven them. And it examines how government social spending and the taxes that pay for it affect this distribution, and why they take the forms they do. Each part of the discussion is set in the context of public attitudes as revealed by the rigorous and long-running British Social Attitudes survey, and of Britain's position by comparison with other countries.

Against this background, the book analyses changes in policy since New Labour came to government in 1997, discusses the impacts of these changes, and looks at the constraints and pressures on future policies, before concluding with a discussion of the dilemmas facing policy-makers as they try to meet competing aims in reducing poverty and inequality, growing demands on social spending, and the constraints and opportunities created by public attitudes.

Zielgruppe

Academics, researchers, and students of social and public policy, sociology, and economics. Policy-makers in central government, and serious lay readers.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Hills, John

Fachgebiete

• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Volkswirtschaftslehre Allgemein Mikroökonomie
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Regierungspolitik Wirtschafts- und Finanzpolitik
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Volkswirtschaftslehre Allgemein Makroökonomie
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Wirtschaftspolitik, politische Ökonomie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- 1: Introduction

- Part 1: Income inequality and poverty in Britain

- 2: Income inequality in the UK: extent and trends

- 3: Poverty, deprivation, and exclusion

- 4: Why has the income distribution changed?

- 5: Income dynamics and social mobility

- Part 2: The impact of policy

- 6: Social spending and the boundaries between public and private sectors

- 7: Tax and welfare

- 8: Distribution and redistribution

- Part 3: Where do we go from here?

- 9: New Labour, welfare, and distribution

- 10: Constraints and pressures

- 11: Conclusions: The spending pit or the tax pendulum?

Über Autor(innen)

John Hills is Director of CASE and Professor of Social Policy at the London School of Economics. He was Co-Director of the LSE's Welfare State Programme, and has worked as an economist and advisor in governental and non-governmental institutions in the UK and internationally.