The American Welfare State in Comparative Perspective: Reflections on Alberto Alesina and Edward L. Glaeser, Fighting Poverty in the US and Europe

In: Perspectives on politics: a political science public sphere, Band 4, Heft 2, S. 315-326

Abstract

Comments on Alberto Alesina & Edward Glaesers recent book Fighting Poverty in the US and Europe (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004). Two points need clarification: 1) this is not a book about specially designed government policies to alleviate poverty; & 2) Alesina & Glaesers empirical analysis is directed at explaining why European governments spend more on social transfers than the US government does. Alesina & Glaesers account of American exceptionalism is schematically illustrated. The questions regarding first causes & the use of paired comparison or Large-N comparative analyses are addressed. The author concludes that Alesina & Glaesers book represents an advance on recent quantitative analyses of OECD patterns of social spending but that a framework is needed that orders additional variables & yields specific propositions about how they matter. Tables, Figures, References. E. Sanchez