One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2009 In this new work, the authors make another major contribution to the field of comparative political economy by examining in a thorough manner the various factors that influence the different trajectories of social policy (primarily the development and reform of welfare policies) in middle-income countries of Latin America, East Asia, and ... Read moreEastern Europe... This will be an important and widely cited work in the field.
Choice The in-depth comparative investigation into the welfare states in developing and former-communist countries provided in Development, Democracy, and Welfare States is unprecedented. This book will likely be the point of departure for most future work on welfare states in any of these regions... The conclusion of the book, in addition to presenting the significant findings of this initial investigation, could be read as a research agenda for students of welfare-state (re)formation in Latin America, East Asia, and Eastern Europe.
Kristin Nickel Makszin, Czech Sociological Review [T]he first of its kind and one that opens new paths... The main strength of the book is ... its very articulate comparative historical analysis covering a range of policy issues and countries. The book is already a must-read and excellent contribution to the field.
Emre Uckardesler, International Review of Modern Sociology Development, Democracy, and Welfare States transforms the comparative study of welfare states or regimes outside of the advanced industrial countries... [I]t goes much further than its predecessors in integrating a detailed and original analysis of cross-national statistical data into an excellent synthesis of existing literature... Development, Democracy, and Welfare States makes an enormous contribution to the field of comparative political economy.
Jeremy Seekings, Perspectives on Politics This book, written by a leading partnership of political scientists, is a milestone of synthesis, a valuable source of data, and a model for macro-comparative history.
Jeremy Adelman, International History Review [T]his book is insightful and will be influential in the annals of comparative political economy... For students of comparative welfare states, this book is a must-read because Haggard and Kaufman have set a high standard for further comparative inquiry.
Yun Fan, Taiwan Journal of Democracy Haggard and Kaufman's work is praiseworthy for its painstaking execution of an empirically robust comparative project aimed at pattern identification
an endeavor crucial for analyzing the three regions once regarded as fundamentally distinct... This book is insightful and will be influential in the annals of comparative political economy... For students of comparative welfare states, this book is a must-read because Haggard and Kaufman have set a high standard for further comparative inquiry.
Yun Fan, Journal of Democracy [T]he book truly excels in constructing a new, parsimonious, and concise middle-range theory of the political economy of the welfare state in the emerging markets through a broad comparison that successfully narrows the range of explanatory variables. It also presents a convincing counterargument against dire predictions of a 'neo-liberal' revolution and massive rollbacks of the key social programs in the new democracies. Without a doubt the book makes an outstanding contribution to literature that will benefit student, and scholars of both comparative social policy and eastern Europe for many years to come.
Tomasz Inglot, Slavic Review There is lot to like about this book. The scope of it alone is impressive. In almost 450 fact-packed pages, including a reference list of almost 50 pages, as well as six Appendix-sections of method and illustrative graphs, Stephan Haggard and Robert R. Kaufman take the reader on a journey of social policy in a wide range of countries in Latin America, East Asia and Eastern Europe. This fact alone could very well make this the text-book on the particular subject matter.
Daniel Ankarloo, East Asia Quarterly Development, Democracy, and Welfare States ... is an outstanding historical analysis of the development in three regions: Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Eastern Europe.
Juan Carlos Echeverry, Business History Review Show Less