New research: expect increase in public disorder as spending and service cuts bite, warns social policy expert
Read the full paper free of charge, from the Social Policy and Society journal, published by Cambridge University Press.
Peter Taylor-Gooby, Professor of Social Policy at the University of Kent, predicts more riots, strikes and demonstrations as spending cuts and a far-reaching restructure of public services begin to make permanent changes to the nature of UK society.
His findings are based on a detailed analysis of demonstrations and major strikes in 26 countries with welfare states over 25 years from 1980 to 2005.
Researching strikes, riots and demonstrations all over Europe and as far from home as Japan, the US and Australia, Taylor-Gooby examined the social policy changes happening at the time of spikes in disorder and found a strong link between policies designed to restrict the welfare state and levels of citizen dissatisfaction with government that resulted in action on the streets.
Taylor-Gooby's study is one of the few to compare actual civil unrest with concurrent social policy changes, using authoritative statiscs from international agencies. Previous studies have relied mainly on testing people's attitudes and feelings toward their government at a time of cuts and restructures.
Read the full paper free of charge at: http://journals.cambridge.org/taylor-gooby
