Social Justice and the German Labour Market
A Critical Inquiry into Normative Institutional Analysis- Authors:
- Publisher:
- 2019
Summary
The neoliberal transformation of welfare state institutions has intensified social inequalities, raising questions of social justice across European varieties of capitalism. In Germany, this transformation occurred with Third Way social democracy and the consequent Hartz reforms. After ten years of reducing unemployment, this ‘Hartz Regime’ is now cited as a model for reforming other European political economies. Despite this apparent success, it has also received criticism for exacerbating the social injustices of neoliberal capitalism, ultimately leading to the question: how do we know if the German Hartz Regime is socially just?
Drawing on the Frankfurt School of critical theory, this study demonstrates not only how to develop a theory of social justice for empirically studying labour market institutions, but also illustrates it through an extensive study of the German case. The result is both unsurprising and reinforces classical social democratic concerns: not only the Hartz Regime, but capitalism itself, is inherently unjust. By accepting this previously recognised conclusion, the book provides a critical framework for the normative evaluation of empirical institutions, effective for studying the varieties of social (in)justice in contemporary capitalism beyond Germany.
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Bibliographic data
- Copyright year
- 2019
- ISBN-Print
- 978-1-78661-352-3
- ISBN-Online
- 978-1-78661-353-0
- Publisher
- Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham
- Language
- English
- Pages
- 236
- Product type
- Book Titles
Table of contents
- Contents No access
- List of Tables, Figures, and Graphs No access
- List of Acronyms No access
- Acknowledgements No access
- Introduction. Normative Theory and Empirical Research No access Pages 1 - 10
- Chapter One. Defining the Hartz Regime No access Pages 11 - 18
- Chapter Two. Theories of Justice and Comparative Political Economy No access
- Chapter Three. Social Justice between System and Lifeworld No access
- Chapter Four. Social Justice in Contemporary Labour Markets No access
- Chapter Five. Methodology and Method No access
- Chapter Six. From Lifeworld to System: Action Orientations and the Hartz Regime No access
- Chapter Seven. From System to Lifeworld: Normative Constraints and Instrumental Reasoning in the Social Structure of German Capitalism No access
- Chapter Eight. Conclusion: Linking Wealth Inequality to Social Justice No access
- Appendix No access Pages 215 - 216
- Bibliography No access Pages 217 - 230
- Index No access Pages 231 - 234
- About the Author No access Pages 235 - 236





