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Harold L. Wilensky

Professor Emeritus of Political Science

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Harold L. Wilensky is Professor Emeritus of Political Science. His teaching assignment in the department included Comparative Political Economy; Comparative Public Policy; and Labor, Professions, and Bureaucracy. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has twice been a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. He is the author or co-author of 13 books and more than 70 articles. His books include Industrial Society and Social Welfare (Russell Sage, 1958 hb; Free Press Macmillan, 1965 enl. edn.pb); Organizational Intelligence: Knowledge and Policy in Government and Industry (Basic Books, 1967,1969); The Welfare State and Equality (California, 1975); Democratic Corporatism and Policy Linkages (Institute of Governmental Studies, 1987); and Intellectuals in Labor Unions (Free Press, 1956). Before joining the University of Califomia in 1963, he taught at the University of Michigan and the University of Chicago, where he received his Ph.D. in Sociology.

His most recent book is Rich Democracies (University of Calif. Press, 2002). Here is the publisher's announcement:

Rich Democracies: Political Economy, Public Policy and Performance
HAROLD L. WILENSKY

 

"Rich Democracies will be an instant classic. Chock full of new findings, it provides the definitive account of what taxing, spending, and public policies mean for the wellbeing of people. It is a model of broad comparative research, combining quantitative analysis, case studies, and historical context. Written in an accessible style, it will also serve as a valuable textbook in courses accenting contemporary society, politics, and public policy, both for graduate students and advanced undergraduates. The conclusion that consensual decision-making serves a nation's citizens better than confrontation has enormous practical relevance for designing democratic institutions."
-Arend Lijphart, former President of the American Political Science Association

 

"A truly amazing accomplishment; a comprehensive treatment of structure and change in modern societies. Always addressing central questions in the social sciences, always empirically careful and methodologically sensitive, relentlessly comparative, Wilensky provides a powerful explanation of similarities and differences in the institutions, policies, and performance of rich democracies. In lucid, often colorful language, he knocks down widely accepted ideological accounts of contemporary civilization, left, right, and center."
-Neil Smelser, Director, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences

"A monumental work, brilliant in its breadth and depth. A major contribution to debates about the functions of government, markets, and voluntary associations."
-Lowell Turner, Professor of Labor and Industrial Relations, Comell University

In this landmark work, the culmination of 30 years of systematic, comprehensive comparison of 19 rich democracies, Wilensky answers two basic questions: (1) What is distinctly modem about modern societies -- in what ways are they becoming alike? (2) How do variations in types of political economy shape systern performance? He specifies similarities and differences in the structure and interplay of government, political parties, the mass media, industry, labor, professions, agriculture, churches, and voluntary associations. He then demonstrates how differences in bargaining arrangements among these groups lead to contrasting policy profiles and patterns of taxing and spending, which in turn explain a large number of outcomes: economic performance, political legitimacy, equality, job security, safety and risk, real health, the reduction of poverty and environmental threats, and the effectiveness and fairness of regulatory regimes.

Drawing on quantitative data and case studies covering the last 50 years and more than 400 interviews he conducted with top decision makers and advisors, Wilensky provides a richly detailed account of the common social, economic, and labor problems modern governments confront and their contrasting styles of conflict resolution. The result is new light on the likely paths of development of rich democracies as they become richer. Assessing alternative theories, Wilensky offers a powerful critique of such images of modem society as "post-industrial" or "high tech," "the information age" or the alleged dominance of "globalization."

Because he systematically compares all of the rich democracies with at least three million population, Wilensky can specify what is truly exceptional about the United States, what it shares with Britain and Britain abroad (Canada, Australia, New Zealand) and what it shares with all or almost all of the West European democracies, Israel, and Japan. He gives careful attention to which successful social and labor policies are transferable across nations and which are not.

Rich Democracies will interest both scholars and practitioners. It combines the perspectives of political economy (the interplay of markets and politics) and political sociology (the social bases of politics). It will be especially useful in courses on comparative political economy, comparative politics, European politics, public policy, political sociology, the welfare state, American government, advanced industrial societies, and industrial relations.

941 pages, 7 x 10", 19 line illustrations, 89 tables. $45.00 paper 0-520-23279-8

A detailed Table of Contents, lists of tables and figures, and the 20 page Preface are available online, http://go.ucpress.edu/wilensky.

Excerpts from reviews:

• "An exemplar of rigorous analysis, intolerant of fuzziness and imprecision." - Rudolph Klein, Journal of Public Policy
• "Everyone interested in the performance of rich democracies, the differences among them in the second half of the twentieth century, and the causes of these differences must turn to [this] book." - Wolfgang C. Muller, Perspectives on Politics
• · "Majestic. . .Offers trenchant observations that have eluded other observers…. Readers tired of pundits spouting clichés about the leading democracies will be grateful to Wilensky for writing this book." - Peter R. Orszag, former White House Economic Advisor, Science
• · "Rich Democracies merits space on one's shelf next to the sociological classics." - Arthur S. Alderson, Contemporary Sociology

Wilensky's most recent articles are an intellectual autobiography, "A Journey Through the Social Sciences," in Comparative European Politics: The Story of a Profession, edited by Hans Daalder, 309-327 (London: Pinter, 1997 and 1999) and "Social Science and the Public Agenda: Reflections on the Relation of Knowledge to Policy in the United States and Abroad" Journal of Health Policy, Politics, and Law, 22 (October 1997): 1251-1275. "Reflections on Disability Based on a Comparison of 19 Rich Democracies," In: B. Marin, C. Prinz, and M. Queisser, eds., Transforming Disability Welfare. Policies, Aldershot, England, Ashgate, 2004, pp. 285-290. "Is There a Crisis of the Welfare State? In Handbook of Public Policy, eds. B. Guy Peters and Jon Pierre, Sage, 2006, ch.11. " Can Social Science Shape the Public Agenda?" Contexts, May, 2005. "Migration and Politics: Explaining Recent Nativist Protest in Rich Democracies." In Mark Kesselman and Joel Krieger, Readings in Comparative Politics, Houghton Mifflin, June 2006. 254-266. "Tradeoffs in Public Finance: Comparing the Wellbeing of Big Spenders and Lean Spenders," International Political Science Review 27 (October, 2006): 333-358. From 2003 to 2006 Wilensky reported his findings in 39 lectures and keynote addresses in 15 countries in Europe and Asia and a dozen more talks in the USA.