Includes bibliographical references (p. 269-293) and index.

Problem and theory. The politics of when -- Theorizing intertemporal policy choice -- Programmatic origins : intertemporal choice in pension design. Investing in the state : the origins of German pensions, 1889 -- The politics of mistrust : the origins of British pensions, 1925 -- Investment as political constraint : the origins of U.S. pensions, 1935 -- Investing for the short term : the origins of Canadian pensions, 1965 -- Programmatic change : intertemporal choice in pension reform. Investment as last resort: reforming U.S. pensions, 1977 and 1983 -- Shifting the long-run burden : reforming British pensions, 1986 -- Committing to investment : reforming Canadian pensions, 1998 -- Constrained by uncertainty : reforming German pensions, 1989 and 2001 -- Conclusion. Understanding the politics of the long term.

"This book examines how democratic governments manage long-term policy challenges, asking how elected politicians choose between providing policy benefits in the present and investing in the future"-- Provided by publisher.

"In Governing for the Long Term, Alan M. Jacobs investigates the conditions under which elected governments invest in long-term social benefits at short-term social cost. Jacobs contends that, along the path to adoption, investment-oriented policies must surmount three distinct hurdles to future-oriented state action: a problem of electoral risk, rooted in the scarcity of voter attention; a problem of prediction, deriving from the complexity of long-term policy effects; and a problem of institutional capacity, arising from interest groups' preferences for distributive gains over intertemporal bargains. Testing this argument through a four-country historical analysis of pension policymaking, the book illuminates crucial differences between the causal logics of distributive and intertemporal politics and makes a case for bringing trade-offs over time to the center of the study of policymaking"-- Provided by publisher.