2. Partisan Politics and Inequality in Western Europe
(with various colleagues)
This project assesses the relationship between politics and markets in Western Europe, with the purpose of understanding the very different evolution of social and economic inequality over the last quarter century in European countries facing similar external pressures. This research focuses on three main areas:
The first (co-authors Mark Blyth and Daniel Wincott) emphasizes the distinction between different types of European 'social models', arguing that state-market relationships can be conceptualized along two dimensions: the level of 'liberalism' or 'statism' of the legal and regulatory institutions, and the extent of income redistribution through the welfare state. I argue that the pressures for structural reform are relatively easy to handle for 'liberal' regimes, and that 'liberal' regimes can be combined with extensive redistribution to produce high economic performance and low income inequality. 'Statist' regimes often have weak economic performance and relatively high income inequality, even with extensive welfare states. This implies that structural reform does not have to mean the dismantling of the welfare state or the abandonment of social cohesion.
The second (partly co-authored with Mark Blyth) looks at how electoral politics - and in particular the behaviour of political parties on the left - influences the policy decisions and processes of institutional change which affect state-market relationships in the advanced democracies of Europe. Here my research seeks out the reasons for left parties adopting differing ideological positions and strategies of electoral mobilization, and in particular their approach to the use of legislation and regulation to achieve social ends. I argue that the presence of a strong religious cleavage appears strongly associated with the adoption of 'statist' political economy strategies in European left parties, and that cleavage structures affect the ability of working class interests to organize viable mass parties. This adds a more substantive ideological and organizational dimension to the popular arguments about the role of electoral institutions in determining opportunities for redistributive politics. Part of this research contributes to a wider project on 'Cartel parties' with Mark Blyth and Riccardo Pelizzo.
A third part of my research in this area consists of contributions to the 'RECWOWE' European research network where I am participating in research groups in the area of welfare reform and labour market policy (specifically in the cases of the UK, Spain and Italy). Here my co-authors are Christa van Wijnbergen and Elisabetta Gualmini.
Papers and Publications
Hopkin, J. and C. van Wijnbergen (2009). 'Europeanization and Welfare State Change in the UK: Another Case of Fog Over the Channel?', paper presented to RECWOWE workshop, Sciences Po, Paris, January.
Hopkin, J. and M. Blyth (2009) 'In Search of the Elusive Trade-Off: Economic Efficiency and Income Equality in Western Europe'.
Hopkin, J. and D. Wincott (2006). 'New Labour, Economic Reform and the European Social Model'. British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 8(1): 50-68.
Hopkin, J. and D. Wincott. 'Having It All? Economic Efficiency, Social Equality and the Lisbon Process', paper presented at seminar on 'Britain and Europe', Demos, London 21 June 2005.
Hopkin,
J. and M. Blyth 'How
Many Varieties of Capitalism? Structural Reform and Inequality in Western
Europe', paper presented at the annual
meeting of the American Political Science Association, Chicago, 1-5 September
2004.
Hopkin, J. and M. Blyth. 'Globalization Didn't Make You Do It: Cartel Politics and Social Democratic Policy Change', paper presented to 14th Conference of Europeanists, Chicago, 11-13 March 2004.
Hopkin,
J. 'The Emergence and Convergence of the Cartel Party:
Parties, State and Economy in Southern Europe', paper presented to 13th Conference of Europeanists, Chicago, 14-16 March 2002.