Bricks in the wall: the politics of housing in Europe

Abstract

Housing has important economic, political, and social ramifications for Western Europe and beyond. Despite its importance in shaping economic and political outcomes, however, housing remains in the peripheral vision of major comparative political economy debates. This introduction to the special issue accomplishes four objectives. First it demonstrates how housing defies current political economy typologies by failing to conform to their theoretical and empirical predictions. Second it summarises the current state of housing research within political science, which still remains in its infancy. Third it highlights how the contributions in this special issue expand our understanding of how housing causes and is shaped by political and economic outcomes in Europe. Finally, this introduction concludes by outlining how the special issue contributions demonstrate housing’s importance for the welfare state, political preferences and electoral shifts, regulatory and redistributive policies, and financialisation and household indebtedness in Europe.

Keywords:

• Housing
• housing regimes
• welfare state
• financialisation
• comparative political economy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 In federal systems, property taxes can be a major source of funding for primary and secondary education.

2 Countries falling into this category include the UK, the Scandinavian countries, the Netherlands, Ireland and (increasingly over the 2000s), Spain.

3 Countries falling into this category include Austria, Belgium, France, Germany and Italy.

4 High levels of outright ownership reduces exposure to market volatility. Consequently, the familial productionist housing regime, which most Southern European countries conform towards, may be less commodified than the social democratic housing market (Norris, 2016).

5 One major deficiency with the self-insurance argument, however, is the fact that homes are highly illiquid whereas pensions are not (see Van Gunten and Kohl 2019). Individuals would only be able to realise consumption smoothing with home-ownership if they sold their home, although in countries where it is possible, individuals can use their homes as collateral for loans and (home-equity) lines of credit (see also Delfani et al. 2014).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alison Johnston

Alison Johnston is Associate Professor of Political Science and Public Policy, Oregon State University. Her recent book – From Convergence to Crisis: Labor Markets and the Instability of the Euro (published by Cornell University Press) – examines how domestic (industrial relations) institutions interact with European monetary integration in exposing countries to debt crises. Her current research focuses on the political economy of housing and sovereign credit ratings. Her work has appeared in Comparative Political Studies, Comparative Politics, Politics & Society and the Journal of Common Market Studies, among others. [[email protected]]

Paulette Kurzer

Paulette Kurzer is Professor in Political Science at the School of Government and Public Policy, University of Arizona. She has written articles for Governance, the Journal of European Public Policy and German Politics, among others. Her research focuses on housing markets and housing policy. [[email protected]]