Towards a Two‐dimensional Analysis of Welfare Ideologies

Abstract

This article provides a critical analysis of some accounts of welfare ideologies which have appeared in the last eight years. It is argued that in these accounts welfare ideologies have been presented as ranged along a continuum from “anti‐collectivist”, “market liberal”, or “residual” to “Marxist” or “structural” with intermediate positions variously described as “political liberal”, “reluctant collectivist”, “social democratic”, “Fabian socialist”, or “institutional”. It is further argued that these one‐dimensional accounts are seriously misleading because they fail to give sufficient recognition to the part played by conservatism in the development and justification of modern interventionist states and because they identify Marxism with collectivism and ignore the anti‐collectivist strand in socialist thought. These elements are more easily accommodated within an alternative two‐dimensional framework for the analysis of welfare ideologies which is briefly outlined.