Public Policy to Reduce Inequalities Across Europe: Hope Versus Reality

0
0

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations.There is a broad consensus across European states and the EU that social and economic inequality is a problem that needs to be addressed. Yet inequality policy is notoriously complex and contested. This book approaches the issue from two linked perspectives. First, a focus on functional requirements highlights what policymakers think they need to deliver policy successfully, and the gap between their requirements and reality. We identify this gap in relation to the theory and practice of policy learning, and to multiple sectors, to show how it manifests in health, education, and gender equity policies. Second, a focus on territorial politics highlights how the problem is interpreted at different scales, subject to competing demands to take responsibility. This contestation and spread of responsibilities contributes to different policy approaches across spatial scales. We conclude that governments promote many separate equity initiatives, across territories and sectors, without knowing if they are complementary or contradictory. This outcome could reflect the fact that ambiguous policy problems and complex policymaking processes are beyond the full knowledge or control of governments. It could also be part of a strategy to make a rhetorically radical case while knowing that they will translate into safer policies. It allows them to replace debates on values, regarding whose definition of equity matters and which inequalities to tolerate, with more technical discussions of policy processes. Governments may be offering new perspectives on spatial justice or new ways to reduce political attention to inequalities.

Page Count:
217

|

Publication Date:
2022-11-25

Specialty Boutique

Politics & Social Sciences

POLITICS & GOVERNMENT

New, Used & Rental Textbooks

Public Affairs & Policy

Community Tags

Similar Books

Cfr 21 Rev 1996
Baptist Health School of Nursing Registered Nursing 4306 Fall 2009
Chatham University 2013 Textbook Bundle A
Chatham University 2014 Textbook Bundle
MCC Penn Valley 2009 Nursing Package
Chatham University 2015 Textbook Bundle
Chatham University 2017 Textbook Bundle
Corning Community College 2017 Nursing Bundle
Chatham University 2013 Textbook Bundle B
Baptist Health School of Nursing 3105/3205
New York University and McGraw-Hill Physiology Course Bundle
2009 Chatham University Package II
2011chatham University Package
Chatham University and McGraw-Hill Textbook 2014 PKG
ICD-9-CM Expert for Physicians 2010, Vols 1&2 + Current Procedural Coding Expert 2010 Pkg