Abstract
This article examines the impact of incumbent parties, corporatism, the prevailing variety of capitalism, and the number of veto players on the reduction in the public health care effort in advanced countries during the period of welfare retrenchment (1986-95). Using cross-national data for 14 OECD countries, it is revealed that as the number of veto players increased, the reduction in public health care effort slowed. The reduction was more rapid in corporatist countries than in pluralist countries, and more rapid in coordinated market economies than in liberal market economies. On the other hand, this study finds no partisan effect for the reduction in public health care effort. It is argued that employers and trade unions in coordinated market economies have common stakes in the national economy, and cooperate accordingly to realize a rapid reduction in the public health care effort.
