scholarly journals Comparative Social Policy: A Historical Overview of the Field

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 39
Author(s):  
Varvara Lalioti
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Historical Overview ◽  
Field Of Study ◽  
Welfare Capitalism ◽  
New Era ◽  
The Future ◽  
Evolutionary Phase ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Welfare State

This article aims to provide a succinct historical overview of comparative social policy. Typified by both challenges and benefits, comparative social policy started to experience a period of growth in the 1960s, a time characterized by the dominance of the socalled Keynesian welfare state. It will be argued that the publication of Esping-Andersen’s Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism in 1990, during a period marked by the  omnipotence of the so-called Schumpeterian welfare state, coincides with the beginning of a new era for comparative social policy, one that has resulted in it being recognized as a separate field of study. The article discusses the main characteristics of each evolutionary phase of comparative social policy, as exemplified by the preponderance of descriptive studies and the functionalist family of welfare state explanations in the pre-1990 years and the dominance of the welfare state taxonomies in the post-1990 period. In spite of the challenges that are yet to be overcome, the proliferation of studies in the field transmitspositive messages about the future of comparative social policy.

‘A Re-Specification of the Welfare State’: Conceptual Issues in ‘The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism’

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 247-258 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Powell
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Theoretical Work ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Theoretical Underpinning ◽  
Welfare Capitalism ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Welfare State

In his path-breaking account of ‘The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism’, Gøsta Esping-Andersen (1990) aimed to provide a ‘re-specification of the welfare state’. This article examines the claim of Esping-Andersen that his account draws on the theoretical work of Polanyi, Marshall and Titmuss. It then explores the conceptual critique of Esping-Andersen which led to his 1999 revision, with its rather different theoretical underpinnings. It concludes that some of the theoretical underpinning of this work is unclear both in the work of Esping-Andersen and in subsequent accounts, resulting in a largely atheoretical debate. Concepts such as de-commodification do not appear to be clearly drawn from their stated ‘parent’ authors, and may not sum up the content or essence of welfare states. The ‘re-specification of the welfare state’ must be a larger part of the strategy of the welfare modelling business in the future.

Social justice and the three worlds of welfare capitalism

2002 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
WOLFGANG MERKEL
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Policy Analysis ◽  
Welfare Capitalism ◽  
Political Preferences ◽  
Theoretical Question ◽  
The Normative Question ◽  
The Welfare State

This essay relates the normative discussion about social justice in political philosophy to empirical results from social policy analysis, thus linking two lines of discussions that have hitherto run mostly separately. The argument will be developed by answering four questions. The normative question: what regulative ideas of social justice does the debate about justice in political philosophy supply? The action-theoretical question: what criteria for judgement and political preferences can be found for a justice-oriented politics? The empirical question: how can the ‘three worlds of welfare capitalism’ be judged in the light of these hierarchically ordered criteria of justice? And finally the institutional question: which logic should underpin a reform of the welfare state, if this reform is to be both socially just and at the same time realistically achievable.

scholarly journals Generational conflict, consumption and the ageing welfare state in the United Kingdom

2010 ◽  
Vol 30 (8) ◽  
pp. 1439-1451 ◽  
Author(s):  
PAUL HIGGS ◽  
CHRIS GILLEARD
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Welfare Policy ◽  
Generational Conflict ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Future ◽  
Future Viability ◽  
Working Out ◽  
The Welfare State

ABSTRACTThe British welfare state is over 60 years old. Those who were born, grew up and who are now growing old within its ambit are a distinctive generation. They have enjoyed healthier childhoods with better education than previous populations living in Britain. That they have done well under the welfare state is accepted, but some critics have argued that these advantages are at the expense of younger cohorts. The very success of this ‘welfare generation’ is perceived as undermining the future viability of the welfare state, and some argue that the current levels of income and wealth enjoyed by older cohorts can only be sustained by cutbacks in entitlements for younger cohorts. This will lead to a growing ‘generational fracture’ over welfare policy. This paper challenges this position, arguing that both younger and older groups find themselves working out their circumstances in conditions determined more by the contingencies of the market than by social policy.

Parties

2021 ◽  
pp. 297-312
Author(s):  
Manfred G. Schmidt
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Golden Age ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Demographic Ageing ◽  
Partisan Theory ◽  
Democratic Parties ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Second World ◽  
The Welfare State

This chapter focuses attention on short-term and long-term impacts of political parties on social policy in advanced democracies. According to a wide variety of both comparative research and in-depth country studies, partisan effects have influenced the structure and expansion of the welfare state in the post-Second World War period to a large extent. Particularly strong have been these effects in the ‘Golden Age’ of the welfare state in the 1960s, 1970s, and in some countries also in the 1980s—mainly due to policy choices of leftist and Christian democratic parties. More mixed has been the explanatory power of partisan theory after the ‘Golden Age’. In view of critical circumstances, such as a major fiscal crisis of the state and the pressure generated by demographic ageing, but also due to massive changes in their social constituencies, a considerable number of pro-welfare state parties accepted recalibration and cutbacks in social policy in order to consolidate budgets.

Introduction: Twenty Five Years of the Welfare Modelling Business

2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 241-245 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Powell ◽  
Armando Barrientos
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Policy Research ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Comparative Political Economy ◽  
Subsequent Work ◽  
Welfare Capitalism ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Breaking Work ◽  
The Welfare State

Gosta Esping-Andersen's (1990) The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism has become one of the most cited works in social policy (over 20,600 Google Scholar citations; 20 October 2014). This path-breaking work, with its identification of three distinct forms of welfare capitalism in high income countries, has become the basis for a whole academic industry described as the Welfare Modelling Business (Abrahamson 1999; Powell and Barrientos 2011). According to Headey et al. (1997: 332), it has become a canon in comparative social policy against which any subsequent work must situate itself. Abrahamson (1999) notes that, since the publication of the book, every welfare state scholar has referred to Esping-Andersen's tripolar scheme. Scruggs and Allen (2006: 55, 69) remark that it ‘is difficult to find an article comparing welfare states in advanced democratic countries (or a syllabus on social policy) that does not refer to this seminal work’, and ‘it is hard to overstate the significance of the impact of The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism (TWWC) on comparative studies of the welfare state’. Its seminal status is evidenced by the extent to which it continues to be cited in articles on comparative welfare states. It also remains required reading for most (graduate) students of comparative political economy and social policy (Scruggs and Allen, 2008). Kröger (2011) claims that, with few exceptions, comparative social policy research is shaped by welfare regime analysis. Arts and Gelissen conclude that TWWC is a defining influence upon the whole field of comparative welfare state research (2010: 569). Danforth (2014) writes that the ‘three worlds’ typology has become one of the principal heuristics for examining modern welfare states. In short, TWWC is a ‘modern classic’ (Arts and Gelissen, 2002).

Two stabilization plans for a developed economy: West Germany and Israel

2000 ◽  
Vol 27 (5/6) ◽  
pp. 471-518
Author(s):  
Anghel N. Rugina
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Stable Equilibrium ◽  
West Germany ◽  
New Era ◽  
Social Thinking ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Almost All ◽  
New System ◽  
The Welfare State

Investigates, in Part 1, the effects of West German stagnation in the 1980s following on from the welfare state doctrine of the 1960s and 1970s, which led to an economic and social crisis becoming inevitable. Shows this is not purely a German problem but one that also affects almost all other capitalist countries – either developed or developing. Expresses irony that the former communist bloc countries should also be engulfed in such crises. Proffers explanations and recommendations to offset the problems in Germany. Part II looks at Israel and how it has begun to emerge from its 1974 austerity programme by Rabin. States that Israel must initiate a new system of stable equilibrium to open a new era that is very possible, but involves economic and social thinking to avoid previous mistakes.

Development, Welfare Policy, and the Welfare State

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gyu-Jin Hwang
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Welfare Regimes ◽  
Political Factors ◽  
Welfare Capitalism ◽  
State Expansion ◽  
Intellectual Interest ◽  
Economic Inquiry ◽  
The Welfare State

One of the most significant structural transformations in postwar capitalist democracies has been the rise of the welfare state. The theoretical intent of the traditional sociological and economic inquiry into the welfare state has focused less on trying to understand the welfare state itself and more on to what extent and under what conditions welfare provisions influence social and economic outcomes such as equality, employment, and labor market behavior. Over time, however, scholars have turned toward historical and political factors. G. Esping-Andersen identified three types of welfare state that seem incongruent with the real worlds of welfare capitalism: the “liberal,” “conservative/corporatist,” and “social democratic.” In contrast to the period until the mid-1980s that focused on welfare state expansion, the late 1980s saw the emergence of new streams of literature whose emphasis was on welfare state retrenchment. More recently, scholars have advanced the argument that the globalization of capital markets has effectively increased the power of capital over governments that seek to expand or maintain relatively high levels of social protection and taxation. Another notable trend is the increased intellectual interest in the relation between development and social policy and the growing interface between social policy and economic policy. A question that arises is whether distinctive welfare regimes have the ability to survive, particularly if their norms clash with those of the competition, or Schumpeterian workfare state.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document