After the Welfare State: Financial Welfare and the Social Sciences

2005 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 383-384 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gordon L Clark
2019 ◽  

Interest groups within the context of changing welfare states have gained widespread attention within the social sciences. Welfare states and interest groups are being faced with new challenges (e.g. in the context of several changes, such as new social risks). Schwache Interessen (weak interests) (such as poorly qualified ones) are also gaining more attention. This book discusses several different fields of interest representation in the welfare state. It analyses in what way constellations of interest representation have changed in modified welfare state environments. Several different organisations are analysed, including labour unions, the employers’ association and political parties. Moreover, the book also takes umbrella organisations of municipalities, social courts and educational policymakers into account. Until now, they have gained little attention from scholars. With contributions by: Lena Brüsewitz, Imke Friedrich, Sascha Kristin Futh, Tanja Klenk, Ulrike A.C. Müller, Frank Nullmeier, Sabine Ruß-Sattar, Friedbert Rüb, Wolfgang Schroeder, Benedikt Schreiter, Michaela Schulze, Florian Steinmüller, Christoph Strünck, Felix Welti


2013 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 448-464
Author(s):  
Chaim Shinar

When the debate on globalization started in the early 1990s, the dominant assumption was that globalization was a shocking new phenomenon. Moreover, this new development was seen as an attempt to undermine the sovereignty and economic functions of the nation state, hence undermining the fundamental basis of the welfare state. According to this perspective, the welfare state was expected to collapse as a result of economic constraints. Some influential publications promoted the idea that countries would find themselves captured in a global trap. At least in the field of social sciences, this thesis was interpreted differently: the weakening of the nation state by globalization was considered a myth that served as an excuse for cutting government budgets. Since then, the social sciences have developed an approach to globalization as a long-term trend within the capitalistic framework, driven by economic and political developments and dependent on pre-existing social conditions.


Author(s):  
Jenny Andersson

This chapter discusses the rise of the idea of Sweden as a particular model of welfare capitalism in the social sciences from the 1930s onwards. Drawing on a constructivist approach to political economy, it proposes that prevailing analytical concepts of the Swedish model as a politics-against-markets type of intervention into the capitalist economy are today falsified, as both the welfare state and social democracy have been thoroughly caught up in the process of marketization. The defining features of welfare capitalism in its original sense have undergone a transformation. Neoliberalism was introduced in Sweden, the chapter concludes, through the welfare state, functioning as a de facto series of quasi markets.


2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann Cecilie Bergene ◽  
Per Bonde Hansen

The Norwegian model of industrial relations has received a lot of praise. It is generally thought of as the pinnacle of the welfare state, a reason why Norway is not severely hit by crises, is highly adaptable, and thus still going strong. This article discusses the historical circumstances in which the model arose with a view to analyze the preconditions for its further existence, arguing that the model must be understood as consisting of, and thus dependent upon, shifting historical subjects. This calls for an analysis of the concrete interactions between various agents, and how it has changed over time and space. In this effort, historical accounts are combined with theories developed within the social sciences in order to explain the dynamics of these interactions. We will argue that the contemporary notion of a Norwegian model of industrial relations, and the accompanying praise, is an ahistorical conceptualization verging on a dogma, and that profound reconfigurations of power relations between the agents of labor and capital need to be taken into account.


2021 ◽  

This volume examines Arnold Gehlen’s theory of the state from his philosophy of the state in the 1920s via his political and cultural anthropology to his impressive critique of the post-war welfare state. The systematic analyses the book contains by leading scholars in the social sciences and the humanities examine the interplay between the theory and history of the state with reference to the broader context of the history of ideas. Students and researchers as well as other readers interested in this subject will find this book offers an informative overview of how one of the most wide-ranging and profound thinkers of the twentieth century understands the state. With contributions by Oliver Agard, Heike Delitz, Joachim Fischer, Andreas Höntsch, Tim Huyeng, Rastko Jovanov, Frank Kannetzky, Christine Magerski, Zeljko Radinkovic, Karl-Siegbert Rehberg and Christian Steuerwald.


2006 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
pp. 407-425
Author(s):  
Alpar Losonc

Recently Claus Offe has put the question that concerns the fate of the European model of social capitalism: Can the model of social capitalism survive the European integration in the context of certain contemporary tendencies? Offe has presupposed that the mentioned model is challenged by the processes of globalization and the integration of the post socialist countries into the European Union. The working hypothesis of the article is that there is an opportunity to provide a coherent answer to this question. The article consists of two parts. In the first part the author starts with the Polanyi's socio-economic theory and emphasizes the importance of this approach for the analyzing of the tendencies of capitalism in Western Europe and in the post socialist countries. The author argues that with the Polanyi's theory we are able to explicate the forms of the embedded liberalism in Western Europe after 1945 and the orientation of non-embedded neo-liberalism and the functioning of the workfare state after the crisis of the Keynesian welfare state. Despite the tendencies of the globalization projected by neo-liberalism, the central element of the social capitalism namely, the welfare state, remains with the dimensions of the continuity. In the next part the author points out that there is an asymmetrical structure between the Western-Europe and non-Western part of Europe concerning the socialization of capitalism. The neoliberalisation in accordance with the model of the transfer of ideal-type of capitalism is more strongly implemented in the countries of transition. In addition, the mentioned theoretical approach provides opportunities to explain the failures of implementing of neo-liberalism in the post socialist countries. On the basis of the endorsing of the socio-economic aspects we can address the issue pointed out by Offe.


2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 227
Author(s):  
Azwar Azwar Azwar ◽  
Emeraldy Chatra ◽  
Zuldesni Zuldesni

Poverty is one of the social problems that the government can never completely solve. As a result, other, more significant social issues arise and cause social vulnerability, such as conflict and crime. As a province that is experiencing rapid growth in the last ten years, the West Sumatra find difficulty to overcome the number of poor people in several districts and cities.  The research outcomes are the models and forms of social policy made by West Sumatra regencies and cities governments in improving the welfare of poor communities. It is also covering the constraints or obstacles to the implementation of social policy and the selection of welfare state models for the poor in some districts and municipalities of West Sumatra. This research is conducted qualitatively with a sociological approach that uses social perspective on searching and explaining social facts that happened to needy groups. Based on research conducted that the social policy model adopted by the government in responding to social problems in the districts and cities of West Sumatra reflects the welfare state model given to the poor. There is a strong relationship between the welfare state model and the form of social policy made by the government.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nagihan Ozkanca Andic ◽  
Ekrem Karayilmazlar

The Public Expenditure/GDP ratio is one of the most significant metrics that measure the state's share of the economy. It can be said that there is an interventionist state type in countries where this rate is high, or it can be argued that the share of the public sector in the economy is low in countries where this rate is low. It is also possible to argue that the countries' economic, sociological, and political factors play an essential role in determining this ratio. Regulations, which are the most important tools of the welfare state, may arise through economic controls as well as through social policies. This study aims to find an answer to the question of whether this situation is possible for a developing country such as Turkey while Nordic countries, which determine a system different from other welfare models, succeed in raising social welfare without giving up the principles such as equality and justice that they have despite the globalization effect. The data obtained by various methods were subjected to comparison using the Data Envelopment Analysis method in order to achieve this purpose. <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0777/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>


2005 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadine Richez-Battesti

This article seeks to analyze the social impacts of the Economic and Monetary Union and to reflect on the new modalities for producing social norms within this new context. First, after pointing out limits to the nominal convergence that the treaty stipulates for the interim phase, we mil present the new forms of adjustment pursuant to the EMU and their impacts on the welfare state. We will then turn to the responses of some economists to the introduction of a single currency and coordination of budgetary policies, including fiscal federalism. We will try to show the desirability of a European welfare state that would introduce some coherence between the different levels (local, national, Europe-wide) and forms (legislative and union-management) of social regulation ; in essence, a reworking of the idea of social subsidiarity.


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