Most of the papers presented in this 1964 volume are an outgrowth of the Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society sponsored by the Russell Sage Foundation. The purpose of the seminar was to supply a focal point for discussion and research on the changing nature of military organization in the United States. The papers seek to probe the extent to which the military establishment and the military profession were adapting to the new requirements of international relations. Contributors: Albert D. Biderman, Maury D. Feld, Oscar Grusky, Kurt Lang, Moshe Lissak, Roger W. Little, John P. Lovell, Richard W. Seaton, William Simon, and Mayer N. Zald.

An extension of the 1916 “Industrial Disputes and the Canadian Act, Facts about Nine Years’ Experience with Compulsory Investigation in Canada” pamphlet, with a focus on whether the Canadian Industrial Disputes Investigation Act could be replicated in the United States.

Ben M. Selekman, Department of Industrial Studies, Russell Sage Foundation

Winner of the 2019 Viviana Zelizer Best Book Award from the Section of Economic Sociology of the American Sociological Association

“Monica Prasad begins with an unabashedly favorable view of European welfare states yet gives validity to conservative concerns over taxing production rather than consumption. Readers from all political suasions shouldn’t be deterred by whether they agree with theses like these. By reading Starving the Beast, they will garner much better understanding of the history, events, and forces surrounding the conversion of the Republican party to being the Santa Claus of tax cutting.”

—Eugene Steuerle, Institute Fellow and Richard B. Fisher Chair, The Urban Institute

“Republican commitment to tax cuts is one of most consequential and problematic features of modern American politics. Monica Prasad's fascinating book, Starving the Beast, offers a compelling new explanation of how this came to be.”

—Lane Kenworthy, professor of sociology and Yankelovich Chair in Social Thought University of California, San Diego

Since the Reagan Revolution of the early 1980s, Republicans have consistently championed tax cuts for individuals and businesses, regardless of whether the economy is booming or in recession or whether the federal budget is in surplus or deficit. In Starving the Beast, sociologist Monica Prasad uncovers the origins of the GOP’s relentless focus on tax cuts and shows how this is a uniquely American phenomenon.

Drawing on never-before seen archival documents, Prasad traces the history of the 1981 tax cut—the famous “supply side” tax cut, which became the cornerstone for the next several decades of Republican domestic economic policy. She demonstrates that the main impetus behind this tax cut was not business group pressure, racial animus, or a belief that tax cuts would pay for themselves. 

Rather, the tax cut emerged because in America--unlike in the rest of the advanced industrial world—progressive policies are not embedded within a larger political economy that is favorable to business.  Since the end of World War II, many European nations have combined strong social protections with policies to stimulate economic growth such as lower taxes on capital and less regulation on businesses than in the United State.  Meanwhile, the United States emerged from World War II with high taxes on capital and some of the strongest regulations on business in the advanced industrial world.  This adversarial political economy could not survive the economic crisis of the 1970s.

Starving the Beast suggests that taking inspiration from the European model of progressive policies embedded in market-promoting political economy could serve to build an American economy that works better for all.

MONICA PRASAD is professor of sociology and faculty fellow in the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University.

Winner of the 2019 Distinguished Scholarly Monograph Award Presented by the Labor and Labor Movements Section of the American Sociological Association

Winner of the 2018 William G. Bowen Award Presented by the Industrial and Labor Relations Section of Princeton University

“If you think declining job quality is an inevitable outcome of globalization, computerization, or financialization, think again. Where Bad Jobs Are Better systematically dismantles doom and gloom arguments to offer an empirically-based account of how reasonable reforms to U.S. employment and labor law could help ensure that hourly retail jobs are at least pretty darn good. Françoise Carré and Chris Tilly show how institutional structures, social norms, and worker voice combine to create meaningful variation in the quality of seemingly similar retail jobs. No book on the retail sector approaches either the insights or the comprehensiveness as that offered by Where Bad Jobs Are Better.”

—Susan Lambert, associate professor, School of Social Service Administration and codirector, Employment Instability Researchers Network, University of Chicago

“This richly comparative book decisively punctures the myth that retail jobs are inherently bad jobs. By comparing two retail sectors in the United States and retail jobs in seven countries, Françoise Carré and Chris Tilly show how institutions shape the quality of retail jobs and point to ways that bad jobs in retail and other service sectors can be upgraded.”

—Arne L. Kalleberg, Kenan Distinguished Professor of Sociology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

“Retail is the largest employment sector in the United States—and Françoise Carré and Chris Tilly offer the most comprehensive and thorough analysis of the management and employment practices in retail that we have. Based on ten years of careful field studies coupled with national data, they explain how the industry has evolved, why so many retail jobs are ‘bad,’ and why this is not inevitable. Their rich descriptions of working conditions across many retail sectors and countries show the negative effects of bad jobs on working families, and show that employers have a choice in their business and labor strategies. By tracing Wal-Mart across several countries, they show how the same employer can behave differently in different environments. Timely, accessible, engaging, important—Carré and Tilly speak to a broad audience of academics, practitioners, and policymakers—providing key insights on how to turn bad jobs into good ones.”

—Rosemary Batt, Alice Hanson Cook Professor of Women and Work and chair, Department of Human Resource Studies, ILR School, Cornell University

Retail is now the largest employer in the United States. For the most part, retail jobs are “bad jobs” characterized by low wages, unpredictable work schedules, and few opportunities for advancement. However, labor experts Françoise Carré and Chris Tilly show that these conditions are not inevitable. In Where Bad Jobs Are Better, they investigate retail work across different industries and seven countries to demonstrate that better retail jobs are not just possible but already exist. By carefully analyzing the factors that lead to more desirable retail jobs, Where Bad Jobs Are Better charts a path to improving job quality for all low-wage jobs.

In surveying retail work across the U.S., Carré and Tilly find that the majority of retail workers receive low pay and nearly half work part-time, which contributes to high turnover and low productivity. Jobs staffed predominantly by women, such as grocery store cashiers, pay even less than retail jobs in male-dominated fields, such as consumer electronics. Yet, when comparing these jobs to similar positions in other countries, Carré and Tilly find surprising differences. In France, though supermarket cashiers perform essentially the same work as cashiers in the U.S., they receive higher pay, are mostly full-time, and experience lower turnover and higher productivity. In Germany, retailers are required by law to provide their employees notice of work schedules six months in advance. And as the authors show in a chapter on Wal-Mart around the world, while the company is notorious for its low-quality jobs in the U.S., in many countries including China and Mexico, Wal-Mart is unionized, pays more than its competitors, or both. 

The authors show that disparities in job quality are largely the result of differing social norms and national institutions. For instance, weak labor regulations and the decline of unions in the U.S. have enabled retailers to cut labor costs aggressively in ways that depress wages and discourage full-time work. On the other hand, higher minimum wages, greater government regulation of work schedules, and stronger collective bargaining through unions and works councils have improved the quality of retail jobs in Europe.

As retail and service work continue to expand, American employers and policymakers will have to decide the extent to which these jobs will be good or bad. Where Bad Jobs Are Better shows how stronger rules and regulations can improve the lives of retail workers and boost the quality of low-wage jobs across the board.

FRANÇOISE CARRÉ is research director at the Center for Social Policy at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.

CHRIS TILLY is professor of urban planning at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Two Worlds of Childhood is a cross-cultural study of child rearing and education in the U.S. and the Soviet Union, published in 1970. Bronfenbrenner conducted research in the Soviet Union to study child rearing in the family and collective settings.

URIE BRONFENBRENNER was professor of Psychology and of Child Development and Family Studies at Cornell University, and one of the founders of the Head Start Program.

A summary of reports issued by the British Ministry of Munitions published in 1917, including work on labor regulations, the employment of women and youth, and a comparison of the munitions industries of England and France.

HENRIETTE R. WALTER, Investigator, Division of Industrial Studies, Russell Sage Foundation

This is a pamphlet of two reports on munition work during World War I, the second is by Henriette R. Walter, entitled Munition Workers in England and France: A Summary of Reports Issued by the British Ministry of Munitions.

AMY HEWES was professor of economics and sociology at Mount Holyoke College.

The Russell Sage Foundation early in 1908 carried out a study on insurance in Europe. This volume presents the results of the study conducted by Frankel and Dawson, covering about six months, it gives full detail on the various kinds of European insurance, their methods of operation, their finances and their relations with governments.

LEE K. FRANKEL was vice-president of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company.

MILES M. DAWSON was fellow of the American Statistical Association and the Actuarial Society of America.