Opening the Black Box of Cabinet-level Politics: Explaining Disaggregated Public Social Expenditure Changes in Affluent, Parliamentary Democracies with Cabinet-level Politics and Institutions

The book takes a look at social expenditure in affluent democracies in times of fiscal austerity. The study analyzes expenditure changes in nine social policy areas between 1980 - 2010, from an intra-cabinet perspective by considering the partisan affiliation of responsible spending ministers and effects of budgeting reforms.

Thus, the analysis contributes to the question of whether parties or institutions matter.