The Critics of Welfare

2021 ◽  
pp. 52-70
Author(s):  
Gerda Hooijer ◽  
Desmond King
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Institutional Change ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
The Political ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
Vested Interests ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
Political Right ◽  
The Welfare State

This chapter explores how the welfare state’s critics, from the political right and the left, have contributed to institutional change through their ideas and advocacy. It discusses the neoliberal, conservative, social democratic, and right-wing populist critiques on the welfare state. These ideas are important to understand changes to the welfare state because they create the momentum for institutional disturbance. The chapter’s focus on the critics emphasizes the endogenous undercurrents disrupting welfare states, as well as the path-shaping capacity of new ideas. It shows that political reforms of the welfare state are not only driven by functional needs, vested interests, institutional habits, and public opinion, but also by ideas and their political advocates.

Comparative Social Policy and Political Conflict in Advanced Welfare States: Denmark and Sweden

1979 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 269-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gøsta Esping-Andersen
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Political Conflict ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Policies ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Welfare State

There has developed an abundant literature on the social and political determinants of social policies, but few have addressed the question of how state policies, once implemented, affect the system of stratification in civil society. This article examines the political consequences of social policy in Denmark and Sweden, countries in which a social democratic labor movement has predominated for decades. Superficially, these two highly developed welfare states appear very similar. Yet, the political and social contexts in which their social policies have evolved differ substantially. I shall demonstrate the argument that the traditional welfare state approach may be conducive to a new and powerful political conflict, which directly questions the legitimacy of the welfare state itself, unless government is successful in subordinating private capitalist growth to effective public regulation. In Denmark, where social democratic governments have failed to match welfare state growth with more control of private capital, social policy has tended to undermine the political unity of the working class. Consequently, the Social Democratic Party has been weakened. Social welfare programs, in effect, have helped create new forms of stratification within the working class. In Sweden, social democratic governments have been quite successful in shifting a decisive degree of power over the private market to the state. This has helped avert a crisis of the welfare state, and has also been an important condition for continued social democratic hegemony and working-class unity. I conclude that social reform politics tend to be problematic from the point of view of the future power of social democratic movements.

Managing Decentralization: The Strategy of Institutional Differentiation in German Industrial Relations

1999 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 52-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolfgang Schroeder ◽  
Rainer Weinert
Keyword(s):  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Organization ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Collective Bargaining Agreement ◽  
The Political ◽  
Process Of Change ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
Institutional Differentiation ◽  
The Welfare State

The approach of the new millennium appears to signal the demiseof traditional models of social organization. The political core ofthis process of change—the restructuring of the welfare state—andthe related crisis of the industrywide collective bargaining agreementhave been subjects of much debate. For some years now inspecialist literature, this debate has been conducted between theproponents of a neo-liberal (minimally regulated) welfare state andthe supporters of a social democratic model (highly regulated). Thealternatives are variously expressed as “exit vs. voice,” “comparativeausterity vs. progressive competitiveness,” or “deregulation vs.cooperative re-regulation.”

5. Varieties

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Garland
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Welfare Regime ◽  
Welfare Regimes ◽  
Developed Country ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Government Involvement ◽  
Welfare State Regimes ◽  
The Welfare State

Every developed country has a distinctive welfare state of its own. Welfare states generally rely on the same basic institutions, but these institutions can operate in different ways. Welfare state programmes are government programmes, but while public authority is necessary to establish, fund, and regulate these programmes, the nature of government involvement varies. Three worlds of welfare have been identified: social democratic; conservative; and liberal. ‘Varieties’ describes the welfare state regimes that developed in Sweden, Germany, and the USA, each of which exemplifies one of these ‘worlds’ of welfare. It goes on to consider briefly the welfare regimes beyond the ‘three worlds’ and how Britain’s welfare regime has changed over time.

Welfare, Populism and Welfare Chauvinism

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bent Greve
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Mixed Methods Approach ◽  
The Rich ◽  
The Welfare State

In the wake of the financial crisis, and with increasing numbers of people in precarious and low paid jobs, there has been a surprising surge of support for populist right-wing political parties who often promote an anti-welfare message. Tougher approaches and welfare chauvinism is on the agenda in many countries, with policies which reduce the welfare state for those seen as undeserving and changes often disproportionally benefit the rich. Why are voters seemingly not concerned about growing inequality? Using a mixed methods approach and newly released data, this book aims to answer this question and to show possible ways forward for welfare states.

From welfare state to participation society: austerity, ideology or rhetoric?

2019 ◽  
pp. 101-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Menno Fenger ◽  
Babs Broekema
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Budget Deficit ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
European Countries ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Policies ◽  
Do So ◽  
The Welfare State

In his first annual speech to parliament in 2013, Dutch King Willem-Alexander announced the end of the era of the welfare state and proclaimed the Participation Society. He stated that the process of individualization, combined with the need to reduce the government's budget deficit leads “to a slow transition of the classical welfare state into a participation society. Everyone who is able to do so, is asked to take responsibility for his or her own life and environment”. This shift towards a participation society is not unique for the Netherlands. Many European countries have experience reforms of their welfare states that limit the responsibility of the state and increases the responsibility of individual citizens. This chapter discusses the backgrounds of Dutch Participation Society in the political discourse, and analyses how and to what extent the ideas of the Participation Society have actually been translated into the content of social policies, their implementation and their consequences.

The Historical and Political Foundations of the Welfare State: A Lost Opportunity for the Left?

1993 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 311-334 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas E. Ashford
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
Critical Junctures ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
National Welfare ◽  
Political Foundations ◽  
Democratic Parties ◽  
Policies And Programs ◽  
The Welfare State

The recent flood of books on the failures of the European social democratic parties in the 1980s suggests that since the turn of the century the democratic left failed to see political opportunities provided by the growth of the welfare state. Two factors make the apparent political oversight of particular interest. First, the historical sequence of enlarging benefits and programs was remarkably similar across countries. Second, early in their development the social democratic left developed fairly detailed policy initiatives for the economy but had much less detailed proposals for social policies and programs. Broadly speaking, the left usually perceived social programs and policies as marginally important instruments for macrosocial change in income redistribution and transfer of wealth but of little political importance. These tendencies are most apparent in the postwar construction of national welfare states but are visible at various critical junctures in political decisionmaking since 1900.

Allochthons, Colonizers, and Scroungers: Exclusionary Populism in Belgium

2006 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bambi Ceuppens
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
Democratic Tradition ◽  
Western European ◽  
Democratic Parties ◽  
European Welfare States ◽  
The Welfare State

Abstract:This article analyzes the growth of autochthony in Belgium as an example of the increasing popularity of autochthony discourses in Western Europe. Autochthony discourses, which try to reserve the benefits of the welfare state to those who are said to really belong, tend to thrive in prosperous Western European welfare states with a strong Social-Democratic tradition that refuse to accept that they have become immigrant countries. In federalized Belgium, however, autochthony has a much stronger appeal in Flanders, which historically was dominated by Christian-Democratic parties, than in Wallonia, which remains a Social-Democratic bulwark. Analyzing Western European autochthony in terms of welfare chauvinism helps explain the ways in which prosperous Flemings, unlike impoverished Walloons, can afford to buy into the neoliberal rhetoric of choice and thus create themselves as autochthons.

The Politics of Welfare in Turkey

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erdem Yörük
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Assistance ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
The Political ◽  
Electoral Support ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Welfare State

This chapter examines the political dynamics that have shaped the transformation of the Turkish welfare system since the 1960s. Over the years, income-based social assistance policies have supplanted employment-based social security policies, while the welfare state has significantly expanded. To explain why and how the Turkish welfare state has expanded during neoliberalism and why social policies have shifted from social security to social assistance, the chapter focuses on the rivalries between mainstream parties and the impact of grassroots politics, as well as the political mechanisms that mediate and transform structural pressures into policies. The chapter illustrates that political efforts to contain the political radicalization of the informal proletariat and to mobilize its electoral support have driven the expansion of social assistance policies during the post-1980 neoliberal period. State authorities now see the informal proletariat as a more significant political threat and source of support than the formal proletariat whose dynamism drove the expansion of the welfare state during the pre-1980 developmentalist period. The chapter provides a historical analysis of the interaction between parliamentary processes and social movements in order to account for the transformation of welfare provision in Turkey. It concludes by locating Turkey in a larger context, in which other emerging markets develop similar welfare states as a response to similar political exigencies.

Privatizing Risk without Privatizing the Welfare State: The Hidden Politics of Social Policy Retrenchment in the United States

2004 ◽  
Vol 98 (2) ◽  
pp. 243-260 ◽  
Author(s):  
JACOB S. HACKER
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Institutional Change ◽  
The United States ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Unintended Consequence ◽  
The Face ◽  
Risk Protection ◽  
The Welfare State

Over the last decade, students of the welfare state have produced an impressive body of research on retrenchment, the dominant thrust of which is that remarkably few welfare states have experienced fundamental shifts. This article questions this now-conventional wisdom by reconsidering the post-1970s trajectory of the American welfare state, long considered the quintessential case of social policy stability. I demonstrate that although most programs have indeed resisted retrenchment, U.S. social policy has also offered increasingly incomplete risk protection in an era of dramatic social change. Although some of this disjuncture is inadvertent—an unintended consequence of the very political stickiness that has stymied retrenchment—I argue that the declining scope of risk protection also reflects deliberate and theoretically explicable strategies of reform adopted by welfare state opponents in the face of popular and change-resistant policies, a finding that has significant implications for the study of institutional change more broadly.

scholarly journals The Political Economy of Governance Capacity and Institutional Change: The Case of Basic Income Security Reform in European Welfare States

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 243-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Haagh
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Institutional Change ◽  
Economic Security ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
The Political ◽  
Basic Income ◽  
Policy Debate ◽  
Governance Capacity ◽  
Income Security ◽  
Trade Offs

This article will situate public debates about – and experiments in features of – basic income within European countries in the context of welfare state crisis and change. Treating access to basic income security as a policy problem, I argue basic income policy debate highlights the need for multi-level and multifactorial analysis of public governance capacity as a key factor in driving the relationship of basic income with welfare state transformation. Drawing on the cases within this themed section, I attempt to tease out what comparatively are long-run conditionsforbasic income within state and society, and what are the political and institutional trade-offs at the current juncture. Exploring contributing determinants of governance corrosion and adaptation of public economic security structures under globalisation contributes to deepen our understanding of contemporary patterns of institutional change.

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