The Politics of Social Risk: Business and Welfare State Development

The Politics of Social Risk: Business and Welfare State Development. By Isabella Mares. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003. xvii + 319 pp. Figures, tables, references, index. Cloth, $65; paper, $24. ISBN: cloth 0-521-82741-8; paper 0-521-53477-1.

Isabella Mares's book is not a history, but it will be of interest to historians nonetheless. She has developed a theoretical model in order to explain the behavior of employers when they are faced with the introduction of an institutionally organized social security system. By comparing events in Germany and France between the years 1880 and 1990, she confirms her theory that employers did not always oppose the introduction of …