Blame avoidance behaviour (BAB) has become an increasingly popular topic in political
science. However, the preconditions of BAB, its presence and consequences in various …

This article challenges the dominant assumptions in the literature that cutting social policy
incurs voter wrath and that political parties can efficiently internalise electoral fallout with …

Recent literature shows that radical right parties (RRPs) present moderate or blurry
economic stances. However, this paper argues that this blurriness is restricted to only one of …

Governments have great difficulties designing politically sustainable responses to rising
public debt. These difficulties are grounded in a limited understanding of the popular …

Will voters punish the government for cutting back welfare state entitlements? The
comparative literature on the welfare state suggests that the answer is yes. Unless …

This article analyzes the impact of economic voting in federal elections for the German
parliament. It combines theories of coalition politics and cabinet decision making—like prime …

This article takes stock of and reviews the comparative literature on blame avoidance
strategies in social policy reform to identify the conditions under which blame avoidance …

Why did the Eurozone crisis prove to be so difficult to resolve? Why was it resolved in a
manner in which some countries bore a much larger share of the pain than other countries …

The European debt crisis has uncovered serious tension between democratic politics and
market pressure in contemporary democracies. This tension arises when governments …

How much and in which direction have the welfare states of Western democracies changed
over the past decades? Moreover, under which conditions have governments enacted these …