Social Insurance, Distributive Criteria and the Welfare Backlash: A Comparative Analysis

1982 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 421-447 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara A. Rosenberry

With some notable exceptions, comparative research on the welfare state falls generally into one of two categories: qualitative and generally descriptive case studies and large-scale quantitative efforts at explanation. Case studies have progressed past the point of being essentially journalistic descriptions of the peculiarities of the policy development process or the policies of a particular society. It is nevertheless true that there has been little progress in moving beyond the case study approach towards building a theory about how and why societies make particular decisions about the priorities and organization of their social welfare efforts. On the other hand, while large-scale aggregate analysis yields theoretical statements about the character of ‘the welfare state’, those conclusions are often so general as to be ‘difficult to relate to… how particular substantive problems have been [and might be] handled.’

1978 ◽  
Vol 21 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. 9-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stein Kuhnle

The beginning of our present stage in the development of the welfare state can be traced to Bismarck's large-scale social insurance schemes of the 1880s. The article compares various political and economic macro-characteristics of the Nordic countries at that time, and proposes hypotheses about the timing of legislation in the Nordic nations, and about the likelihood for Nordic imitations of the principle of compulsory insurance. The article discusses why Denmark was expected to become, and in fact became, a forerunner in the Nordic context, and why the principle of compulsory insurance stood a better chance of gaining acceptance in Norway than in Denmark and Sweden.


2013 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 258-275
Author(s):  
Herbert Obinger ◽  
Shinyong Lee

Several scholars have hypothesized that the unprecedented expansion of the welfare state during the immediate post-war decades was to some degree related to fierce regime competition in the bipolar world that emerged in the aftermath of the Second World War. This paper uses the case study method to provide a more nuanced analysis of the causal mechanisms linking the Cold War and the welfare state. Focussing on Germany and Korea, which in methodological terms can be regarded as most-likely cases, we examine whether and, if so, to what extent the Cold War rivalry has influenced national social policy development in these divided countries. We argue that two causal mechanisms, competition and demarcation, were important in this respect. Both mechanisms were closely related to the need of governments to enhance regime legitimacy in a period of military tension and political conflict.


2002 ◽  
Vol 35 (6) ◽  
pp. 713-743 ◽  
Author(s):  
LINDA A. WHITE

This article examines the legacy of American and Canadian welfare state development to explain surprisingly comparable levels of child care provision. It highlights the ironies of policy history while demonstrating the importance of ideas as independent causal factors in the development of public policies and the effect of their institutionalization on future policy development. Maternalist, nativist, and eugencist imperatives led U.S. governments to intrude in areas normally considered part of the private sphere and led to the adoption of policies to respond to a perceived decline primarily of the White population. These policies provided a normative and institutional basis for future government involvement in child care funding and programs, even after the conditions that led to the original policies changed. In Canada, the lack of large-scale entrenchment of similar ideas constrained an otherwise more interventionist government and made it more difficult for child care policies to find governmental and societal acceptance.


2012 ◽  
Vol 17 (6) ◽  
pp. 1198-1226 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luca Bossi ◽  
Gulcin Gumus

In this paper, we set up a three-period stochastic overlapping-generations model to analyze the implications of income inequality and mobility for demand for redistribution and social insurance. We model the size of two different public programs under the welfare state. We investigate bidimensional voting on the tax rates that determine the allocation of government revenues among transfer payments and old-age pensions. We show that the coalitions formed, the resulting political equilibria, and the demand for redistribution crucially depend on the level of income inequality and mobility.


2021 ◽  
pp. 120633122110193
Author(s):  
Max Holleran

Brutalist architecture is an object of fascination on social media that has taken on new popularity in recent years. This article, drawing on 3,000 social media posts in Russian and English, argues that the buildings stand out for their arresting scale and their association with the expanding state in the 1960s and 1970s. In both North Atlantic and Eastern European contexts, the aesthetic was employed in publicly financed urban planning projects, creating imposing concrete structures for universities, libraries, and government offices. While some online social media users associate the style with the overreach of both socialist and capitalist governments, others are more nostalgic. They use Brutalist buildings as a means to start conversations about welfare state goals of social housing, free university, and other services. They also lament that many municipal governments no longer have the capacity or vision to take on large-scale projects of reworking the built environment to meet contemporary challenges.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
PATRICIA FRERICKS ◽  
MARTIN GURÍN ◽  
JULIA HÖPPNER

Abstract Family is one of the major principles of welfare state redistribution. It has, however, rarely been at the centre of welfare state research. This contribution intends to help remedy the research gap in family-related redistribution. By examining the German welfare state which is known to be both redistributive and family-oriented, we want to answer the question of how and how far the German welfare state institutionalises family as a redistributive principle. Our case-study of German welfare state regulations in terms of family is based on the tax-benefit microsimulation model EUROMOD and its Hypothetical Household Tool (HHoT). We differentiate 54 family forms to adequately reflect our three theoretical assumptions, which are: (1) redistributive logics differ across family forms, and in part markedly; (2) these differences are not the result of one coherent set of regulations, but of an interplay of partially contradictory regulations; (3) family as a redistributive principle manifests itself not only in terms of additional benefits to families, but also in terms of particular obligations of families to financially support family members before they are entitled to public support. These aspects have hardly been analysed before and combining them allows a clear evaluation of family-related redistribution.


Author(s):  
Bipin Chadha ◽  
R. E. Fulton ◽  
J. C. Calhoun

Abstract Information-Integration is vital for keeping manufacturing operations competitive. A case study approach has been adopted to better understand the role of information in integrated manufacturing. Information is now considered a corporate asset. Creation, processing, movement, and security of information is therefore as important as that of the products/services of an enterprise. The case studies have helped in identifying the issues involved in developing an information system and supporting software framework for a manufacturing enterprise. The case studies have helped in refining an integration model, and identifying the characteristics desirable in modeling methodologies and tools. This paper describes a case study dealing with integrated manufacture of optical fiber products. A phased development and implementation approach was adopted where a small, manageable slice of the system is considered for the case study followed by functional modeling (IDEF0) and data flow modeling (Data Flow Diagrams). This identifies the pieces of information of interest. The information relationships are modeled using Extended Entity Relationship (EER) diagrams which are then mapped on to a relational model. The relational tables thus obtained were implemented on a commercial Database Management System. The functional constraints and application interfaces were then built using SQL and commercial application interface tools. The sections in the paper describe the functional models, data flow diagrams, EER diagrams, relational database design, and user/application interfaces developed for the system. Implementation experiences and observations are discussed followed by plans for the next phase of the system.


2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 358-385 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalie Todak ◽  
Michael D. White ◽  
Lisa M. Dario ◽  
Andrea R. Borrego

Objective: To provide guidance to criminologists for conducting experiments in light of two common discouraging factors: the belief that they are overly time-consuming and the belief that they can compromise the ethical principles of human subjects’ research. Method: A case study approach is used, based on a large-scale randomized controlled trial experiment in which we exposed participants to a 5-s TASER shock, to describe how the authors overcame ethical, methodological, and logistical difficulties. Results: We derive four pieces of advice from our experiences carrying out this experimental trial: (1) know your limitations, (2) employ pilot testing, (3) remain flexible and patient, and (4) “hold the line” to maintain the integrity of the research and the safety of human subjects. Conclusions: Criminologists have an obligation to provide the best possible evidence regarding the impact and consequences of criminal justice practices and programs. Experiments, considered by many to be the gold standard of empirical research methodologies, should be used whenever possible in order to fulfill this obligation.


Author(s):  
Daniel Fernando Carolo ◽  
José António Pereirinha

AbstractThis paper presents a data series on social expenditure in Portugal for the period 1938-2003. The series was built with the aim of identifying and characterizing the most significant phases in the process leading up to the current welfare state system in this country. The establishment of a social insurance (Previdência) in 1935 was one of the founding pillars of the Estado Novo (New State). Reforms to Social Welfare (Previdência Social) in 1962, while in the full throes of the New State, policy measures taken after the revolution of 1974 and a new orientation for social policy following the accession of Portugal to the European Economic Community (EEC) in the mid-1980s brought about significant transformations in the institutional organizational structure that provided welfare and conferred social rights in Portugal. To understand this process, knowledge is needed of the transformations to the institutional structures governing the organizations that provided welfare, welfare coverage in terms of the type of benefit and the population entitled to social risk protection, the magnitude of spending on benefits associated with these risks, as well as how benefits were allocated between the institutions. We built a data series for the period 1938-1980, which can then be matched to data already published in the OECD Social Expenditure Database from 1980 onwards. As a result, a consistent series for social expenditure from 1938 to 2003 was obtained. The methodology used to create the series enabled us to measure the impact of the variation in population coverage for social risks and the average generosity of benefits on the relative share of social expenditure in GDP. We present an interpretive reading for the full period, covering the New State and the Democracy from 1974, of the process of building the welfare state in Portugal.


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