Tim Hicks - Political Science

Partisan Strategy and Path Dependence: The Post-War Emergence of Health Systems in the UK and Sweden

tim2p — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 10:49:13 +0000

I have a paper just published in ‘Comparative Politics’. Get your ‘official’ copy via IngentaConnect or your ‘unofficial’ copy via SSRN.

Here’s the abstract:

Why did a highly redistributive, nationalized health care system emerge in the UK, where the Left was comparatively weak, while a more redistributively neutral, cash-centric, insurance-based system was pursued in Sweden, where the Left was strong? The explanation is two fold. First, in contrast to the Swedish Social Democrats, the weakness of the British Labour Party constrained it to pursue redistribution via health policy. Second, given the redistributive goals of the National Health Service, it became imperative for the Labour Party to construct a system that would be difficult for future Conservative governments to retrench. More generally, this formulation posits rational actors operating in the kinds of processes typically studied by historical institutionalists. The result is a tendency for a type of path dependence by design.

Op-eds to consider

tim2p — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 17:44:38 +0000

For those in my PO4730 class pondering what to write their op-ed assignment on, here are a few pieces that you might find inspiration from. The idea is to respond as a social scientist, of course.

John Kay (FT) arguing that “Corporate tax should be fair and shared“
Paul Johnson (FT) arguing “If you want to tax the rich, do it fairly“
Sean Coughlan (BBC News) on how “Downward mobility haunts US education“
Kathleen Lynch (UCD) arguing “Charity no substitute for action on inequality
Vincent Browne (Irish Times) on “Why the American dream is just a mirage“
Elaine Byrne (Irish Independent) arguing that “It’s class warfare they want, not private education cuts“
Seamus Milne (Guardian) on “A roll call of corporate rogues who are milking the country“
Ian Jack (Guardian) asking “Why are our attitudes to poverty at home and abroad so different?“
Gavin Kelly (Guardian) arguing that “George Osborne’s strivers have a shock in store“
Kelvin McKenzie (Telegraph) arguing that “overtaxed South needs its own party“
(Updated 2012/12/4) Robert Skidelsky (Social Europe) arguing that “Inequality is Killing Capitalism“

Comparative data on university enrolment

tim2p — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 17:09:04 +0000

We were discussing the causes of ‘market inequality’ in class today. Amongst other things, we discussed the importance of skill-biased technological change. This led some people to wonder what the comparative data looks like on higher education enrolment across countries. If there is rising demand for skilled workers, have some countries been better at meeting this demand than others?

I wondered, and so went to the Eurostat web site. From the ‘Population and social conditions’ theme, I got hold of what seems like a reasonable proxy for university enrolment figures from the ‘Education and training’ section, and then figures for the number of people in the 20-24 age cohort for each country. Taking the ratio of the two, multiplied by 100, I then calculate an (approximate) enrolment rate for each country.

Without further comment on the reliability of the calculations or what the appropriate inferences are, I offer, below, the plots for these data for the countries that seem to be of most direct interest for the class. (No population data available for the USA from Eurostat, I’m afraid. I’m sure it’s available elsewhere, but I’m not going to look for it.)

If you would like to look at the original data and/or see the Stata code that merges it and then generates the plot, try the following: pop2024.csv, unienrol.csv, and highereducation.do.

Red State, Blue State 2012 Links

tim2p — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 00:16:48 +0000

Last week was “Red State, Blue State” (“What’s the Matter with Kansas?” week in The Politics of Inequality class. Here are a few readings/listenings that bring things up to the present day:

The This American Life take on Red State Blue State
Peter Kelner (YouGov) on “How Obama won“
Gabriel Lenz (Berkeley) answering whether “Mitt Romney’s Conservative Shift Hurt or Help Him in the General Election?“
Simon Jackman (Stanford) on How Obama won: the swing state swings“
Andrew Gelman (Columbia) saying that “richer people continue to vote Republican“
Andrew Gelman saying that “The Republicans are the party of the middle class and rich; the Democrats are the party of the poor, middle-class, and rich“
Andrew Gelman and Avi Feller with “Red-blue maps for different slices of the population“
Robert Vanderbei (Princeton) with 3D maps of vote choice

“Pay over the last 25 years” from the ONS

tim2p — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 12:54:22 +0000

(Hat tip to Mark Pack at Lib Dem Voice.)

Assorted politics of inequality links

tim2p — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 22:42:23 +0000

My ‘Politics of Inequality’ (PO4730) class has been talking about a variety of things in the past five weeks that have found recent expression on the web.

John Rentoul on The Rich Don’t Get Richer, providing some opinion and data on the British wealth distribution.
John Rentoul (again) on Vince Cable and social mobility, making a point about the need for conceptual clarity (on the latter) as well as related policies.
Tyler Cowen providing a pointer to a study on Surnames and the laws of social mobility.

Economist report on “Inequality and the world economy”

tim2p — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 00:05:17 +0000

The Economist have a special report this week on inequality, entitled “True Progressivism“. They argue that, “A new form of radical centrist politics is needed to tackle inequality without hurting economic growth”. There’s also a podcast of a discussion with the author. Maybe interesting for PO4730 students.

Employment Ideas for (Trinity/Irish) Politics Graduates

tim2p — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 16:51:58 +0000

I am experimenting with maintaining a page on Employment Ideas for Trinity Politics Graduates. The idea is that it may be helpful for both undergraduate and graduate students. Suggestions are welcome.

Disclaimer: I’m not in any way vouching for any of these organisations, or suggesting that they have vacancies, let alone that they will hire you.

My Lords Reform Proposal: Abstention Voting for ‘Experts’

tim2p — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 20:29:43 +0000

I have a post up on the Oxford/Cambridge Politics In Spires group blog where I propose a way of reforming the House of Lords.

In brief, the idea is that abstentions should count as ‘votes’ for an Appointments Commission list. The result, I think, would be a chamber that was directly elected, broadly representative, deliberative and populated with ‘experts’, as well as clearly subordinate to the House of Commons. What’s not to like?

See Getting the House in Order: brainstorming a novel approach to Lords reform for more details.

Update (2012/06/08)

I now have a related post on this at LibDemVoice. Commenters seem opposed, but not for good reasons.

Inequality podcasts

tim2p — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 01:48:13 +0000

In case the library is getting you down but you still want to think about the politics of inequality, some podcasts:

BBC Analysis programme on “Profits before pay” (mp3 from 20 February 12). Includes discussions of inequality trends and their economic and political causes.
BBC Analysis programme on “Capitalists against the Super Rich” (mp3 from 23 January 12). Includes discussions of political responses to the financial crisis and inequality.
BBC Analysis programme on “Neue Labour” (mp3 from 2 March 12). Includes discussion of how different patterns of training and employment have implications for inequality and industry.
There are actually lots of interesting BBC Analysis programmes.
This American Life episode 459 on “What Kind of Country?“. Includes interesting story on a Colorado town’s refusal to pay (more) taxes.