The Welfare State and Relative Poverty in Rich Western Democracies, 1967-1997

This chapter focuses on both the expenditures and the revenues of the welfare state. Using the latest data available, it depicts and analyses major developments in social spending and public revenues in twenty-one advanced Western democracies since 1980. The entry discusses measurement issues, depicts the determinants of cross-national differences in spending and revenue levels identified in the literature, and sheds light on the impact of social spending and taxation on social outcomes, such as income inequality. It is argued that spending and revenue figures, irrespective of several shortcomings, provide important indicators of both the logic and pattern of welfare state development.

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Efficiency and the Rise of the Welfare State

The Machinery of Government ◽

10.1093/oso/9780197509616.003.0004 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 149-186

Author(s):

Joseph Heath

Keyword(s):

Welfare State ◽

20Th Century ◽

Economic Model ◽

Economic Models ◽

State Spending ◽

The Public ◽

Public Economic ◽

Western Democracies ◽

The Welfare State

Even among supporters of the welfare state there are several different theoretical reconstructions of the normative commitments that are taken to underlie it, all of which are in tension with one another. The three normative purposes most commonly cited are equality, community, and efficiency. These give rise to a corresponding set of models, which I refer to as the egalitarian, communitarian, and public-economic models of the welfare state. The objective of this chapter is to show that the public-economic model of the welfare state, though the least popular among political philosophers, is actually the most plausible. Not only does it provide a superior account of the existing configuration of welfare-state activities, but it alone is able to explain why, in all Western democracies, state spending rose almost continuously over the course of the 20th century.

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Fact or fiction? Welfare cuts and fiscal adjustments

Journal of Public Policy ◽

10.1017/s0143814x13000251 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 34 (1) ◽

pp. 63-92 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Georg Wenzelburger

Keyword(s):

Economic Growth ◽

Welfare State ◽

Public Debt ◽

Social Spending ◽

Public Finances ◽

Long Run ◽

Fiscal Adjustments ◽

Social Expenditures ◽

Western Democracies ◽

The Welfare State

AbstractGovernments in the industrialised western democracies have repeatedly been advised to curb the welfare state when adjusting public finances in order to stabilise public debt in the long run and to create economic growth. This recommendation has been founded on a vast body of research on fiscal adjustments, which has come to the conclusion that cutting social expenditures leads to expansionary and more sustainable budget consolidations. This paper adds to the existing literature suggesting a more nuanced view, which challenges the simplicity of the “cutting-welfare” advice: first, we find that whereas less social spending is indeed associated with expansionary and successful adjustments, this is not the case for overall welfare state generosity. Second, disaggregating the welfare state in its components reveals that a reduction of pension generosity is indeed related to successful adjustments whereas reducing unemployment generosity does not seem to play a major role.

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Incarceration and Relative Poverty in Cross-National Perspective: The Moderating Roles of Female Employment and the Welfare State

Social Service Review ◽

10.1086/692357 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 91 (2) ◽

pp. 293-318 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Aaron Gottlieb

Keyword(s):

Welfare State ◽

Female Employment ◽

Relative Poverty ◽

National Perspective ◽

Cross National ◽

The Welfare State

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Planning Approaches to the Welfare State Crisis

Government and Opposition ◽

10.1111/j.1477-7053.1985.tb01092.x ◽

1985 ◽

Vol 20 (3) ◽

pp. 386-395

Author(s):

Bernard Cazes

Keyword(s):

Welfare State ◽

Command And Control ◽

Growth Potential ◽

Economic Recovery ◽

Control Mechanisms ◽

And Control ◽

Radical Transformation ◽

Western Democracies ◽

Planning Approaches ◽

The Welfare State

MY INTENTION IN THIS ARTICLE IS TO PRESENT A BIRD'S-EYE view of various planning approaches to the welfare state crisis that are currently being initiated or at least discussed in a number of Western democracies. They fall into three broad categories which, I believe, bear some relation to the kind of diagnosis made about the 'crisis' to be dealt with. First of all, those who believe that the welfare state's main weakness comes from the disappearance of sustained, fast growth of the GNP, put their hopes in economic recovery in Beyond this strictly quantitative solution there are interpretations of the welfare state's predicament in terms of dee - order to return as soon as possible to ‘welfare state as usual’. seated, ‘structural’ imbalances which allegedly require fairly radical transformation in order to provide this ailing system with the more effective command and control mechanisms needed to make it viable again, Finally some people argue that the welfare state has exhausted its growth potential alto ether, so that its crisis can only be overcome through a quaftative change toward a different system (hence the phrase ‘metasystemic’ solution).

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Pourquoi l'État libéral? - T.R. Marmor, J.L. Mashaw, P.L. Harvey. America's Misunderstood Welfare State. New York: Basic Books, 1990.

Canadian Journal on Aging / La Revue canadienne du vieillissement ◽

10.1017/s0714980800013799 ◽

1993 ◽

Vol 12 (3) ◽

pp. 406-410

Author(s):

Martine Bungener

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

New York ◽

Public Opinion ◽

Welfare State ◽

The United States ◽

Positive Effects ◽

The Subject ◽

Western Democracies ◽

The Welfare State

ABSTRACTThere has been a long-running debate over the welfare state between its opponents and protagonists for decades, not only in the United States, but in all advanced western democracies. The authors of this publication simultaneously defend the positive effects of the welfare state and offer an analysis of the reasons for the suspicion of public opinion on the subject. But the debate over the welfare state crisis can best be analysed, in light ofF. Ewald's work, not as an avatar, but as representing an episode in the system's very means of reproduction.

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