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Chapter 1 - Enduring Issues

from Part I - Overview

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2021

Peter H. Lindert
Peter H. Lindert
Affiliation:
University of California, Davis
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Summary

Human societies have always needed safety nets to catch those who end up in need. The risks have always been there. Only recently has there been a global surge in government social spending. The major historical issues raised by this long delay are introduced in this chapter. Readers are given spoiler alerts about whether it had to be government that spread the nets, and about whether large-spending countries got the mix of social spending wrong more often than did low-spending governments. The conventional arguments for and against tax-based social spending are introduced.

Keywords

social spendingsafety netspolitical economypensionseducationredistribution
Type
Chapter
Information
Making Social Spending Work , pp. 3 - 10
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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  • Enduring Issues
  • Peter H. Lindert, University of California, Davis
  • Book: Making Social Spending Work
  • Online publication: 01 April 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108784467.001
Available formats
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  • Enduring Issues
  • Peter H. Lindert, University of California, Davis
  • Book: Making Social Spending Work
  • Online publication: 01 April 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108784467.001
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Enduring Issues
  • Peter H. Lindert, University of California, Davis
  • Book: Making Social Spending Work
  • Online publication: 01 April 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108784467.001
Available formats
×