Originally published in 1978, this book analyses three main approaches to national housing policy in the 20th Century in Sweden, the UK and USA. It reviews policy developments and considers the impact of policy on the housing conditions and costs of different sections of the community. A major theme is that British and American governments, contrary to their stated objectives, have actually increased housing inequality by allowing homeowners tax concessions which are more generous than the housing welfare programmes available to tenants. The political pressures which produced this outcome in Britain and the USA, but a quite different and more egalitarian outcome in Sweden, are carefully discussed. Throughout the book, policy making is regarded as involving trade-offs between what is politically feasible and what is operationally feasible. This framework enables readers to view policy making from the perspective of politicians and civil servants as they react to diverse demands and pressures and seek to devise housing programmes which embody incentives to which housing financiers builders and consumers will respond.

Based on evidence from Europe and North America and the findings of an Australian survey, the authors highlight links between personality and life events and resulting levels of happiness and distress, and offer recommendations for enhancing personal well-being. Written by a reader in political science and a professor of psychology.

Western Welfare Capitalisms in Good Times and Bad provides an insightful appraisal of policy priorities and outcomes in four Western regimes: the Anglo-American liberal regimes, Southern European ‘proto-corporatist’ regimes, the historically social democratic Scandinavian regimes, and Western European conservative-corporatist regimes.

Finds that "wealth affects life satisfaction more than income" and "non-durable consumption expenditures also prove at least as important to happiness as income." - abstract.

First published in 1974, British Cabinet Ministers is about the opportunities and constraints of executive political office. It is mainly based on interviews with fifty contemporary British Ministers and twenty-five senior civil servants. Hitherto political observers have referred simply to ‘strong’ and ‘weak’ Ministers, which begs the question ‘“strong” or “weak” at what?’ Here Ministers are classified into five types—policy initiators, policy selectors, Executive and Ambassador Ministers, and Minimalists—depending on their different approaches to their jobs. The problems Ministers face in achieving their objectives are analysed and case studies are presented of the performance in office of different types of Ministers. In this context, we review the skills and abilities of politicians themselves and the range and quality of advice they can expect to receive in Whitehall. In the final section, the author considers the consequences for British government of the finding that Ministers are better qualified to perform some of their roles than others, and also indicates lines of inquiry that need to be further pursued by students of executive political leadership.