ABSTRACT
Chapter 4 charts the rise and fall of public housing in a number of nation states and seeks to explore the reasons why it has fallen out of favour. Among the questions asked by this chapter are: what does the treatment accorded to public housing tell us about the conduct of contemporary politics? And what factors explain government support for homeownership? For much of the twentieth century, governments were willing to invest in public housing; however, over the past forty years or so, there has been a reluctance to maintain subsidies.
