A Framework for the Comparative Study of Social Services

Abstract

Comparative research on welfare states has most focused on social transfers as the depen dent variable. As demographic changes make social services increasingly important ingredi ents of welfare state production, however, it will be necessary to shift the research agenda accordingly, and to take servtces more system atically into account. Building on Stein Rok kan's approach to the study of European political development, this article specifies some tasks for the comparative study of social services. Following a short overview of the topics and phases of comparative welfare state research, it proposes a set of variables for the mapping of variations in service supply as well as a check-list of variables which might help to explain such variations. The new research per spective is then applied to a comparative analysis of services for elderly people in Euro pean countries, which is based on a re-analysis if the country reports for the European Com mission's Observatory on Older People in Europe. Denmark and the Netherlands are shown to have more highly developed levels of social service supply than Germany. Such cross-country variations are related to differ ences in the modes of regulation, of financing, and of service delivery, and to the degree that decision makers at these crucial points are related to consumer interests. A theoretical conclusion relates the proposed new perspec tive to the work of Stein Rokkan. It is argued that variations of social transfer provisions could be analysed in terms of the class cleavage and of the power relations between capital and labour, but that the study of social services requires a shift in the theoretical perspective which puts more emphasis on centre-periphery relations and on church-state relations.