Social Security vs. Educational Opportunity in Advanced Industrial Societies: Is There a Trade-Off?

Abstract

This research investigates whether specific types of welfare states have different effects on social policy outcomes, to see if variations in national welfare systems are related to the particular institutionalization of the welfare state. It builds on the work of Esping-Andersen (1990), who identified three kinds of welfare regimes in advanced industrial societies, and the effort of Francis Castles (1989) to identify the causes for variation in educational spending by Western societies. Specifically, Castles's model to explain educational spending was modified to examine the applicability of EspingAndersen's welfare state typology to the field of educational policy. The three welfare state types were then tested to determine if variation in educational spending could be associated with the particular constitution of the welfare state. Finally, it was explored if, as Heidenheimer (1981) has suggested, there is evidence of a trade-off between education and other social security policies as alternative welfare state strategies. Esping-Andersen (1990) has identified three distinctive welfare regimes in advanced industrial societies-liberal, conservative, and social democratic. His typology arranges Western welfare states into three clusters, each organized around its own discrete logic of organization, stratification, and societal integration (Esping-Andersen 1990, 3). They differ by their unique social policy agendas and coverage for healthcare, unemployment, and old age compensation benefits. Although education was not among the policy provisions included in Esping-Andersen's description of the social welfare package, it should be. Education policy is clearly one component of a nation's total public policy package; and it is not independent of other social policies. It is the position of this paper that there is a specific relationship between the types of social security programs found in Western societies and the kind of educational policies they support. Therefore, EspingAndersen's typology can also be applied to the field of education policy, and welfare regimes will then also cluster according to their educational policy