Public state ownership within varieties of capitalism: regulatory foundations for welfare and freedom

Abstract

In this paper I argue public state ownership - the extent the public 'owns' the state through mechanisms of inclusivity and exclusivity in governing - can help explain divergent public policy and human development outcomes across varieties of capitalist state. An upshot is to question the neutralist premise of the varieties of capitalism (VOC) literature that different systems are equally effective. I maintain more attention ought to be paid to background factors that explain how public sector traditions that are more responsive to collective interests in human development-protective institutions generate conditions for policy coherence. I argue modalities of human development - or human economy - generate constraints on governing which entail that human development-sensitive institutions and policies are more effective. Examining contemporary punitive welfare-to-work regimes, I argue variation in public state ownership explains a more directly punitive orientation in Britain, and a more contained and 'educative' design and implementation, in Denmark.