UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) Party politics as we knew it? Failure to dominate government, intraparty dynamics and welfare reforms in continental Europe Korthouwer, G.H.P. Publication date 2010 Document Version Final published version Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Korthouwer, G. H. P. (2010). Party politics as we knew it? Failure to dominate government, intraparty dynamics and welfare reforms in continental Europe. Uitgeverij BOXPress. General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam (https://dare.uva.nl) Download date:05 Oct 2021 Party Politics as We Knew It? Knew as We Politics Party Party Politics as We Knew It? is an investigation of welfare state reforms in Austria, Germany and the Netherlands from the early 1980s to 2006. In Party Politics as We Knew It? the post-World War II era, social democrats and Christian democrats played a central role in building and expanding welfare states. This book argues Failure to Dominate Government, Intraparty Dynamics that these parties still have room for policy choices but, especially since the 1990s, choices are different than predicted and explained by current dominant and Welfare Reforms in Continental Europe theories on the politics of welfare state reform. Their main weakness seems to be that they fail to pay attention to changes of dominant coalitions within social democratic and Christian democratic parties. Against a background of contextual challenges (fiscal austerity and changing constituencies), the cata- lyst for such internal change is a situation of failure to dominate government. Gerben Korthouwer What’s “Left” for the Left?What’s “Right” for the Right? Gerben Korthouwer Party Politics as We Knew It? Failure to Dominate Government, Intraparty Dynamics and Welfare Reforms in Continental Europe This research was funded by the Amsterdam School for Social Science Research (ASSR, nowadays the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research), the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research and the EQUALSOC network. The ASSR contributed to the reproduction of this PhD thesis. © Gerben Korthouwer, 2010 Cover design: Proefschriftmaken.nl || Printyourthesis.com Printed: Proefschriftmaken.nl || Printyourthesis.com Published by: Uitgeverij BOXPress, Oisterwijk ISBN 978-90-8891-214-6 PARTY POLITICS AS WE KNEW IT? FAILURE TO DOMINATE GOVERNMENT, INTRAPARTY DYNAMICS AND WELFARE REFORMS IN CONTINENTAL EUROPE. ACADEMISCH PROEFSCHRIFT ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam op gezag van de Rector Magnificus prof. dr. D.C. van den Boom ten overstaan van een door het college voor promoties ingestelde commissie, in het openbaar te verdedigen in de Agnietenkapel op vrijdag 3 december 2010, te 12:00 uur door Gerben Hendrikus Petrus Korthouwer geboren te Alkmaar Promotiecommissie Promotor: Prof. dr. B. Kittel Co-promotor: Prof. dr. H.G. de Gier Overige leden: Prof. dr. J.W. de Beus Prof. dr. A.C. Hemerijck Prof. dr. G.R.D. Underhill Prof. dr. J. Visser Prof. dr. J. Zeitlin Faculteit der Maatschappij- en Gedragswetenschappen Acknowledgements After having spent four years toiling over a dissertation on a daily basis and one year on an ad hoc basis, writing an acknowledgement should be easy. Ha. Two pages of my dissertation are nothing compared to these two pages. You know that many people actually read these pages, along with the summary. Initially, your are also saddled with the burden of possibly forgetting to thank someone. Soon afterwards, you accept that thanking everyone requires writing another book. Indeed, writing a PhD thesis may sometimes feel like an individual journey, but the list of people who contributed to my development as a scholar and a policy maker is long. First, I want to thank my supervisors Brian Burgoon, Erik de Gier and Bernhard Kittel for their continued support and knowledgeable insights over the years. Brian, your inspiring course gave a crucial boost to my curiosity about welfare state development and got me interested in writhing a dissertation in the first place. Whether I wanted to submit a research proposal to the Amsterdam School for Social Science Research (ASSR, nowadays the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research) or discuss life after a PhD, you were always there to help and encourage me. Erik, nothing less applies to you. Moreover, I would like thank you for emphasizing the societal contribution at which social science research should aim. Bernhard, above all, I have come to know you as a dedicated supervisor who has played a decisive role in various stages of my research by making seemingly simple comments that led me to think through and improve the general argument. Further, I am grateful for opening many doors in Austria and Germany, not least the door of your own apartment in Vienna where I could stay over for nearly two months. I was lucky enough to be part of two different tracks at the University of Amsterdam: the ASSR and the Governance as Learning Program. At the ASSR, a special thanks to my friend and wedding arranger Ward Berenschot, the International Political Economy PhD club, Jos de Beus, Annette Freyberg-Inan and Philip van Praag for academic advice and inspiration, the secretariat including Anneke, Miriam, Hermance and Teun; Hans and José, and many friends and fellow PhD students, including Alexandru, Corina, Christian, Damian, Deasy, Helmy, Hester, Imrat, Jasper, Leang, Luc, Marlous, Mihai, Silke, Victor and many more. At the Governance as Learning Program, thanks to Jelle Visser for having faith in my capabilities, sending me to the US to learn more about European social policy and introducing me to many inspiring people like Marc van der Meer. Anton Hemerijck, thank you for all our stimulating discussions and the great work experience at the Scientific Council for Government Policy. Jonathan Zeitlin, my trip as a visiting scholar to the University of vii Wisconsin-Madison has far exceeded my expectations. I am grateful for all your generosity with time, and prompt and constructive feedback, also after having returned to Amsterdam. My fellow PhD students and friends Bart, Birgitte, Nynke, Minna, Peter and Rob thanks for everything. I would like to express my special thanks to Jens Alber, Peter Biegelbauer, Bernhard Ebbinghaus and Reinhart Schneider for offering me the opportunity to reside as a visiting scholar at the Institute of Higher Education in Vienna, the Mannheim Center of European Social Policy and the Science Center Berlin. Thank you to all the interviewees, who willingly shared time with me and offered assistance and crucial insights. Without you, this book could not have been written. I owe you enormous debt for giving me a pleasant, guided tour through the black box of intraparty politics and the maze of welfare state reform. You may not agree with everything I have written and surely will not find all the information you handed to me. As such, the responsibility of any errors or omissions is mine. At times, it was not easy to have a life outside academia, and I have not always spent as much time with family and friends as I would have liked. Yet, you all helped to keep me going. Despite the fact that many of you do not (fully) understand what I have been doing, you all believe that I am doing something great. However, my deepest gratitude goes to my parents and my wife Kátia for their love and support, and to Antônio. Even though Antônio still has to learn to talk, all of you have taught me that there are much more important things in life than work. viii Contents List of Figures and Tables xiii Abbreviations xv 1 Introduction 1.1 The Question 1 1.2 Outline of the Argument 3 1.3 Theoretical Contributions 11 2 Parties as Policy Choice-Makers 2.1 Party Politics as We Knew It? 15 2.2 Why Parties Matter Less and Less 18 2.3 Why We Need New Insights on Parties and Welfare Reform 26 2.4 Bridging Theories on Party Organizations and Parties’ Social Policy Preferences 32 2.4.1 Identifying Groups within Traditional Pro-Welfare Parties 33 2.4.2 The Dominant Coalition 35 2.4.3 Contextual Challenges and Elite Circulation 38 2.4.4 Phase I: Failure to Dominate Government as a Catalyst 40 2.4.5 Phase II: Change in Dominant Coalition Composition 46 2.4.6 Phase III: Modifying Internal Rules and the Party’s Policy Preferences 46 3 Research Design 3.1 The Value of Small-N Research 51 3.2 Austria, Germany and the Netherlands: A Most Similar Systems Design 54 3.3 The Choice of Welfare State Programs 59 3.4 The Choice of Time Period 62 3.5 Operationalizing Welfare Reform 65 4 Developments in Electoral Contexts in Austria, Germany and the Netherlands 4.1 Developments within Party Systems 69 4.2 Developments within the Electorate