Old-Age Security in Comparative Perspective [Hardcover]

This work makes extensive use of seven well-developed historical case studies describing the evolution of public old-age security in industrial nations (Germany, United Kingdom, Sweden, and the United States) and developing nations (Brazil, Nigeria, and India). The authors focus on specifying contexts in which general theoretical perspectives can be used to account for these developments. One of the few studies which integrates historical and quantitative data, this accessible work will prove helpful to students and researchers of the welfare state, aging policy, and comparative sociology.

Williamson and Pampel make an obvious contribution to the academic literature.... --Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare

Williamson and Pampel are to be congratulated for achieving simultaneous breakthroughs in the comparative study of modern social policies. Creatively synthesizing quantitative and comparative historical methodologies, they also bring Third World and advanced-industrial nations into a common framework of analysis. An extraordinary achievement--because recent comparative histories have focused only on highly industrial nations. This book is also theoretically creative, building upon and synthesizing theoretical ideas from several schools of thought. I expectOld-Ave Security inComparative Perspectiveto attract wide interest among scholars, students, and public policy analysts. --Theda Skocpol,Harvard University

A major accomplishment!Old Age Security in Comparative Perspectiveis tightly argued, scholarly in its detail, but always lucid and clear to read. The analytical structure of the book is exemplary. By combining carefully constructed case studies with confirmatory quantitative analysis, the authors go a long way to achieving the methodological synthesis that many have called for but few have achieved. This is the first book to systematically incorporate the developing countries of thls=