Changing Inequalities and Societal Impacts in Rich Countries

There has been a remarkable upsurge of debate about increasing inequalities and their societal implications, reinforced by the economic crisis but bubbling to the surface before it. This has been seen in popular discourse, media coverage, political debate, and research in the social sciences. The central questions addressed by this book, and the major research project GINI on which it is based, are: - Have inequalities in income, wealth and education increased over the past 30 years or so across the rich countries, and if so why? - What are the social, cultural and political impacts of increasing inequalities in income, wealth and education? - What are the implications for policy and for the future development of welfare states? In seeking to answer these questions, this book adopts an interdisciplinary approach that draws on economics, sociology, and political science, and applies a common analytical framework to the experience of 30 advanced countries, namely all the EU member states except Cyprus and Malta, together with the USA, Japan, Canada, Australia and South Korea. It presents a description and analysis of the experience of each of these countries over the past three decades, together with an introduction, an overview of inequality trends, and a concluding chapter highlighting key findings and implications. These case-studies bring out the variety of country experiences and the importance of framing inequality trends in the institutional and policy context of each country if one is to adequately capture and understand the evolution of inequality and its impacts.Foreword ; Preface ; 1. Introduction ; 2. Revisiting Grand Narratives of Growing Inequalities: Lessons From 30 Country Studies ; 3. Australia: Inequality and Prosperity and their Impacts in a Radical Welfare State ; 4. Austria: The Bastion of Calm? Stability and Change in Inequalities in Times of Welfare State Reforms and Employment Flexibilization ; 5. Between Economic Growth and Social Justice: Different Inequality Dynamics in the Baltic States ; 6. Belgium: When Growing Background Inequalities Meet Resilient Institutions ; 7. Bulgaria: Rising Inequality in the Period of Transition and Restrictive Incomes Policy ; 8. Rising Inequality and Its Impact in Canada: The Role of National Debt ; 9. Sources and Impact of Rising Inequality in Denmark ; 10. Finland: Growing Inequality with contested consequences ; 11. France: How Taxation Can Increase Inequality ; 12. Germany: Rising Inequality and the Transformation of Rhine Capitalism ; 13. Greece: The (Eventual) Social Hardship of Soft Budget Constraints ; 14. Hungary: A Country Caught in its Own Trap ; 15. Ireland: Inequality and its Impacts in Boom and Bust ; 16. Italy: How Labour Market Policies Can Foster Earnings Inequality ; 17. Rising Inequality in Japan: A Challenge Caused by Population Aging and Drastic Changes in Employment ; 18. Korea: The Great U-Turn in Inequality and the Need for Social Security Provisions ; 19. Luxembourg: Has Inequality Grown Enough to Matter? ; 20. The Netherlands: Policy-Enhanced Inequalities Tempered by Household Formation ; 21. The Rise of Inequalities in Poland and their Impacts: When Politicians Don't Care but Citizens Do ; 22. Portugal: There and Back Again, An Inequality's Tale ; 23. Romania: High Rising Inequality over Two Decades of Post Communist Transformation ; 24. Slovakia and the Czech Republic: Inequalities and Convergences after the Velvet Divorce ; 25. Slovenia: An Equal Society Despite the Transition ; 26. Spain: What Can We Learn From Past Decreasing Inequalities? ; 27. Sweden: Increasing Income Inequalities and Changing Social Relations ; 28. Divided We Fall? The Wider Consequences of High and Unrelenting Inequality in the UK ; 29. The United States: High and Rapidly-Rising Inequality ; 30. Learning from Diversity about Increasing Inequality, its Impacts, and Responses?