Politics & Government
Policy Diffusion and Welfare State Retrenchment
Quick fact
Research shows that welfare state retrenchment policies, like pension reforms or cuts in unemployment benefits, tend to spread across countries: when one nation enacts a cut, neighboring or similarly positioned countries are more likely to follow suit, driven by economic competition and policy learning.
Why this is interesting
Why did several European countries introduce similar pension cutbacks within a few years of each other—was it coincidence or a mix of international imitation and pressure?