Classic Welfare State Research Articles

Do welfare regimes matter? Perceptions of welfare in contemporary word

PurposeThis paper takes an ideal type of different welfare regimes as a starting point. It investigates with survey data people's experiences and expectations towards the welfare state and its functioning against various social risks. The paper discusses questions like, are there differences in perceptions between welfare regimes? And what is the role of the welfare state regime in explaining those differences?Design/methodology/approachThis research article is based on OECD survey data and classical welfare state classifications. The analysis of welfare regimes provides both a theoretical and methodological structure for study. The study-applied analysis of variance (one-way ANOVA) to test a hypothesis that regimes matter analyses more nuanced aspects of current and prospects to the near future welfare state provision.FindingsThis examination suggests that welfare regimes still matter even though the differences in averages were not as immense as expected. Perceptions in different welfare regimes also have priorities related to the willingness to pay more taxes in order to receive better access to services and financial support if needed. In Nordic countries, the acute priority based on survey data is investment in education and re-training. In Continental Europe, more financial support is needed for pensions. Overall, respondents representing emerging Eastern European and Mediterranean welfare regimes think that welfare provision should be financed more compared to other welfare regime respondents. Health is a universal and unifying issue, particularly in ageing welfare states, and brings health as a traditional and central question again.Originality/valueRespondents' perceptions work as people's voice and assessments are used to gain a contemporary understanding of welfare and about welfare state functioning.

The Rise and Fall of Social Housing? Housing Decommodification in Long-run Comparison

AbstractThe comparative study of housing decommodification lags behind classical welfare state research, while housing research itself is rich in homeownership studies but lacks comparative accounts of private and social rentals due to missing comparative data. Building on existing works and various primary sources, this study presents a new collection of up to forty-eight countries’ social housing shares in stock and new construction since the first housing laws around 1900. The interpolated benchmark time series generally describes the rise and fall of social housing across a residual, a socialist, and a Northern-European housing group. The decline was steeper than for the classical welfare state, but the degree of erosion was surprisingly small in some countries where public housing associations remained resilient. Within the broader housing welfare state, social housing correlates positively with rent regulation and allowances, but negatively with homeownership subsidies and liberal mortgage regulation. A multivariate analysis shows that social housing is rather explained by housing shortages and complementarities with rental and welfare policies than by typical welfare state theories (GDP, political parties). Generally, the paper shows that conventional housing typologies are difficult to defend over time and argues more generally for including housing decommodification in welfare state research.

The hidden homeownership welfare state: an international long-term perspective on the tax treatment of homeowners

AbstractWelfare is traditionally understood as social security decommodifying labour markets or as social investment policies. In the domain of housing, however, welfare for homeowners is largely hidden in the tax codes’ fiscal exemptions. Based on a content analysis of legislation, this article introduces a novel yearly database of 37 countries between 1901 and 2020 to uncover the “hidden welfare state” of taxes on imputed rent, deductibility of mortgage payments, housing capital gains tax, and value-added tax on newly built dwellings. Summary indices of homeownership attractiveness and neutrality of the tax code show that fiscal homeownership policies have been in decline until the 1980s and risen ever since. They are in place where finance is liberally and labour restrictively regulated. Contrary to the classical welfare state, they are not associated with an economic logic of industrialism or left-wing governments. They rather are an alternative to rent regulation used by Common-law jurisdictions or smaller countries. As welfare for property owners, the logic of fiscal homeownership welfare diverges from the classical welfare for the labouring classes.

Promoting inclusive innovation for disabled people in four countries: who does what and why?

Disability policy is often characterized as comprising three different components: citizenship rights, labor market integration and social protection. In this study, we present a fourth component – disability-related innovation. Specifically we analyze two critical interrelated questions: what governments do to guide innovation in this area; and do patterns of greater government disability policy involvement in social-democratic welfare states apply in the case of innovation? Utilizing a qualitative comparison of Germany, Israel, Sweden and the United States, we find that while policy across all countries is at first glance decisively similar, the important differences that exist cannot be satisfactorily explained within the classical welfare state typology framework. Countries that are leaders in terms of social support for disabled people – Germany and Sweden – are not necessarily leaders in disability-related innovation. This is particularly noticeable in the case of programs for support of Assistive Technology development.

Comparing asset-based welfare capitalism: wealth inequality, housing finance and household risk

The financialization of households complicates how we compare housing systems and welfare states. This article explores the shifting relationships between wealth inequality, welfare states and household risk, focussing on the roles of housing and mortgage markets. We show national regimes of capitalism continue to shape experiences of risk, but increasingly through asset-based welfare mechanisms, centred on housing ownership, that are inadequately captured in existing comparative literature. Using OECD data, our argument is developed in two steps. First, we demonstrate that national patterns of wealth inequality do not follow classical welfare state categories, but mean wealth levels do, suggesting a distinct structural relationship. Second, we connect wealth inequality to the risks of housing ownership and household debt, focussing on house price falls in the United States, Italy and Denmark following the 2007–2008 financial crisis. We find mortgage default rates reflect welfare state categories rather than measures of financial risk, revealing an emerging ‘hybrid’ role of social insurance in supporting household liquidity.

The Hidden Homeownership Welfare State: An International Long-Term Perspective on the Tax Treatment of Homeowners

Welfare is traditionally understood through social security decommodifying labor markets or social investment policies. In the domain of housing, however, welfare for homeowners is largely hidden in the tax codes’ fiscal exemptions. Based on a content analysis of legislation, this paper introduces a novel yearly database of 37 countries between 1910 and 2020 to uncover the “hidden welfare state” of taxes on imputed rent, deductibility of mortgage payments, housing capital gains tax and VAT on newly built dwellings. Summary indices of homeownership attractiveness and neutrality of the tax code show that fiscal homeownership policies have been in decline until the 1980s and risen ever since. They are in place where finance is liberally and labor restrictively regulated. Contrary to the classical welfare state, they are not associated with an economic logic of industrialism or left-wing governments, but a rent-regulation alternative of Common-Law jurisdictions and smaller countries. As welfare for property owners, the logic of fiscal homeownership welfare diverges from the classical welfare for the laboring classes.

Radical alternative conceptualizations of the classical welfare state? Contrasting the United Kingdom and the Netherlands with Norway

AbstractIn many countries, new, broad, and normative “conceptions of society” gained prominence that represent fundamentally different discursive alternatives to the classical welfare state. We present two political projects that contain radical alternative conceptualizations of the classical welfare state, the “Big Society” in Britain and the “Participation Society” in the Netherlands, and contrast these with Norwegian developments, where no such a radical alternative conceptualization of the welfare state can be found. We show that the British and Dutch political projects were attempts to replace the welfare state, whereas there is no comparable big idea about a radical overhaul of the welfare state in Norway. Our analysis contributes to a better understanding of a fundamental shift in welfare state reform, namely a radical reconsidering of the ideational and normative foundation that defines and underpins what the welfare state is or should be.

Obligation and the Changing Nature of Publicly Funded Healthcare.

This article explores the relationship between obligation and publicly funded healthcare. Taking the National Health Service (NHS) as the focal point of discussion, the article presents a historical analysis of the shifting nature and function of obligation as it relates to this institution. Specifically, and drawing inspiration from recent literature that takes seriously the notion of the tie or bond at the core of obligation, the article explores how the forms of social relation and bonds underpinning a system like the NHS have shifted across time. This is undertaken via an analysis of Aneurin Bevan's vision of the NHS at its foundation, the importance today of the patient (and the individual generally) within publicly funded healthcare, and the role of contract as a contemporary governance mechanism within the NHS. A core feature of the article is its emphasis on the impact that a variety of economic factors-including privatisation, marketisation, and the role of debt and finance capital-are having on previously settled understandings of obligation and the forms of social relation underpinning them associated with the NHS. It is therefore argued that an adequate analysis of obligation in healthcare law and related fields must extend beyond the doctor-patient relationship and that of state-citizen of the classical welfare state in order to incorporate new forms of relation, such as that between creditor and debtor, and new actors, including private healthcare providers and financial institutions.

Pathways to Adulthood: Sequences in the School-to-Work Transition in Finland, Norway and Sweden

Research on youth transitions often follows the lines of classic welfare state typologies. Thus, given the institutional similarities, the transition from youth to adulthood in the Nordic countries has often been considered a specific type of trajectory. However, little research exists on how country differences within the Nordic cluster shape young people’s pathways from education to work. Thus, little is known about intra-Nordic variations caused by national labour market regulations and social safety nets (e.g. parental insurance, public day care and unemployment security). In this article, we use sequence analysis to examine the transition process from school to work in Finland, Norway and Sweden and to find how these processes are linked to family formation patterns. The results indicate that Finland, Norway and Sweden to a great extent share the same general types of school-to-work trajectories. The role of family establishment in workforce entry trajectories, on the other hand, differs in some respects. There is a very strong link between early parenthood among Finnish women and trajectories leading to labour market exclusion. This is interpreted in light of the Finnish labour market and family policy.

From welfare state to participation society? Austerity measures and local sport policy in the Netherlands

ABSTRACTThis study investigates whether the shift from welfare state to participation society in the context of austerity in the Netherlands has had consequences for local sport policy. The central research questions are (1) do municipal sport budgets show evidence of a move away from classical welfare state values towards a participation society? and (2) do changes in local sport policy suggest a move away from classical welfare state values towards a participation society?First, we analysed spending on sport across all Dutch municipalities. Second, we quantitatively and qualitatively analysed 104 municipal coalition agreements for the 2014–2018 governing period. The approach used was interpretive, focusing on dominant or hegemonic discourses or storylines within local sport policy.It shows that Local sport policy in the Netherlands still hinges strongly on welfare state values and has not yet been hit by serious austerity measures. We found no evidence of a neoliberal slant or an emphasis on free-market and private entrepreneurship. Rather, the accent is on an expanded role for voluntary sport clubs (VSCs) in operating sport facilities and as policy implementer. We conclude that the shift in narrative from classical welfare state to participation society has, as yet, had limited effect on local sport policy.

Flexicurity in tijden van crisis in Nederland en Europa: een vergelijkende analyse van sociale modellen

Summary Flexicurity in times of crisis in the Netherlands and Europe: A comparative analysis of social modelsThe purpose of the article is to highlight the consequences of the recent economic crises for the way European welfare states and notably the Dutch one dealt with the challenge to maintain the balance between flexibility and security goals with regard to the labour market. This will be pursued against the background of the theory of social models in which social models are conceived as ideal-typical configurations of labour market and social security institutions which reflect different ideas about the functioning of the labour market. We distinguish three models among which the flexicurity model, that is assumed to bridge the two opposite poles of the broad spectrum of social models, i.e. the liberal Anglophone variant and the Classical welfare state variant. The European Labour Force Survey of 2008 is used to analyse the effects of various labour market institutions on the employment performance of countries and regions before the crisis whereas the European Social Survey is used to research the differential impact of the crisis along the broad spectrum of European welfare states on the employment insecurity of various groups such as the youngsters, elderly and the low-skilled.

Lithuanian Social Policy Analysis in the Context of European Union Member States

Responsible social policy in EU is developing and taking its place among other important commitments for member states. Paper analysis classic welfare state models stated for old EU member states and tries to identify Lithuania among them. Comparison and hierarchical cluster analysis results showed that Lithuania and other new member states still cannot be identified among old member states because of the high level of disparity in social policy and should be analyzed separately.

Le due stagioni del consenso nel welfare britannico: storiografia e periodizzazioni

The scientific literature focused on the british welfare state agrees with the periodization of two great periods of consensus in the post-war Britain about the social policies. The first period had coincided with the so called golden age in Western Europe, approximately from 1945 to 1973. This welfare state had been inspired by the principles of the Beveridge Plan and by the keynesian economic policy. The consensus concerned both the welfare state and the economic policies, and it had been characterised by an universalistic social security system, the free national health service and a set of policies to encourage the full employment. This model fell into a crisis during the decade from 1970 to 1980, when the economical pillars whereupon the classic welfare state were built collapsed one by one. At the same time, the rise of neoliberals theories has challenged in the dominant political discourses the previous keynesian orthodoxy in the matter of economic policy in Britain. The same continuity of certain aspects of social policy from Thatcher’s to New Labour’s governments allowed us to identify a new consensus toward welfare policies. The reforms implemented by governments ensued from 1979 have been characterised by the structural reform of the social security system and by a sort of return to the residual, individual and private sector-oriented ways of social intervention, which in some sense had characterised also the social policies in Great Britain before 1945.

Discovering Disability: The General Classes of Disabled People and the Classic Welfare State, 1948–1964

The recognition of the needs of disabled people was a major feature of the expansion of statutory welfare in twentieth‐century Britain. Beginning with the recognition of the special needs of disabl...

European foundations of the welfare state

List of Figures Foreword Anthony Atkinson Translator's Preface Acknowledgements Introduction: A Sociological Perspective PART I: INTELLECTUAL FOUNDATIONS Chapter 1. Pioneers of Social Reformism: Sismondi, List, Mill Chapter 2. German Origins of a Theory of Social Reform: Hegel, Stein and the Idea of 'Social Policy' Chapter 3. Christian Infl uences on Social Reform Chapter 4. Welfare Internationalism before the Welfare State: The Emergence of Social Human Rights PART II: THEORY OF SOCIAL POLICY Chapter 5. Social Security: The Leading Idea and its Problems Chapter 6. Social Policy Intervention: Elements of a Sociological Theory 146 Chapter 7. First-order and Second-order Social Policies PART III: THEORY OF AND FOR THE WELFARE STATE Chapter 8. The State and the Production of Welfare Chapter 9. National Welfare State Traditions and the European Social Model Chapter 10. Towards a Theory of the Welfare State PART IV: THE FUTURE OF THE WELFARE STATE Chapter 11. The Welfare State's Achievements and Continuing Problems Chapter 12. Human Assets and Demographic Challenges to the Welfare State Chapter 13. Solidarity and Redistribution under the Pressure of International Competition Chapter 14. What Comes after the Classic Welfare State? Bibliography Index of Names Index of Subjects

On self-service democracy

This article focuses on a specific political ethos of current developed societies, on what we call ‘self-service democracy’. The ethos essentially springs from the technologies, policies, structures and ideas promoting the ‘individualization trend’ in the provision of services as opposed to the allegedly passivizing system of the classical welfare state of the 1970s and the early 1980s. We review the conceptual history of self-service, its current core features, and the forms it has assumed in the political regimes of post-war Western societies. The focus has moved from the services provided by the state to the activities and responsibility of individual citizens and organizations. Consumerist citizenship and personal responsibility, with the assistance of new information technologies, can open up novel channels for interaction and participation, but at the risk of rendering common political concerns into individual matters. The article investigates the political implications of this new emphasis on individualized, self-service-centred governance processes for democracy, and democratic participation and representation in particular.

Ambiguous citizenship: ‘Postmodern’ versus ‘modern’ welfare at the margins

This article discusses the classic welfare state problem of balancing universal values with an attention to particular individuals and needs. Welfare for marginalized citizens is addressed as a particular urgent case in point. The article first considers Baumann as emblematic for a postmodern position on welfare. In contrast, Luhmann's systems theory is then presented to form a program of observation of concrete welfare services, using the ‘rigour’ of the latter to bound the ‘liquidity’ of the first. Instead of suspecting modern institutions tout cout, the article analyses in detail the discursive ordering practices of welfare services for marginalized citizens, i.e. the homeless. On this basis, it contrasts what we term a ‘modern’ versus a ‘postmodern’ perspective upon organized welfare. Some limits to a postmodern position are indicated, in particular with respect to the ideal of including ‘the whole person’ in modern welfare arrangements.

Towards an Archaeology of the Welfare State in Britain, 1945–2009

In this paper I develop an argument for the specific contribution which archaeology might make to the study of the ‘classic’ welfare state in Britain (c. 1945–1975) and its aftermath (c. 1976 to present). This period saw massive state investment in infrastructure which transformed both the material and social worlds of its citizens, through new state policies, new networks of political and social control, the centralisation and nationalisation of a range of existing aspects of civilian life and the construction of housing on a monumental scale. While this is a topic which has been studied in detail by historians and sociologists, despite the massive investment in construction and the accompanying effects on the physical landscape of Britain, there has been relatively little work on the ‘material worlds’ of the welfare state. In developing this argument I focus particularly on public housing, an area which has been the subject of some previous archaeological comment and which provides a clear case study in the contribution which such an approach might make. State subsidised housing policy developed as a brave utopian socialist experiment during the interwar period in Britain, reaching its zenith in the mid-1970s, at which time the state supplied almost a third of the nation’s housing. Public housing projects became an area of experimentation in the realisation of modernist ideals of high density private accommodation and in the use of new building technologies and materials. However, following the demise of the classic welfare state, for various reasons high density public housing has come to be viewed as part of a dystopian social cycle, the buildings and associated landscapes themselves becoming a symbol of poverty, substance abuse and violence. From an early history associated with slum clearance and the development of idealised homes for the nation’s poor, many high rise/high density public housing developments from the classic welfare state are now more often viewed themselves as slums, their design and ‘materiality’ perceived as contributing to, or even creating, a series of social problems. I suggest, following earlier work by Miller (Man (New Series) 23(2):353–372, 1988), Buchli (The Archaeology of Socialism, Berg, New York, 1999) and Buchli and Lucas (Archaeologies of the contemporary past. Routledge, London, 2001) that an archaeological approach to the material world of public housing has the potential to reveal not only the ways in which changing state ideologies are expressed through their design, but also the ways in which individuals have (and continue to) engage with their spaces and material culture to manage the conditions of everyday life, and how such places exist within counter-discursive urban and suburban worlds. I also suggest that part of the role of an archaeology of the welfare state is to consider the circumstances under which the welfare state fails through a focus on the archaeology of poverty and homelessness.

Welfare State and Welfare Change

Welfare state The classic welfare state The restructured welfare state The modern welfare state Economic explanations Political explanations Organizational explanations Social explanations Welfare change Further Reading References Index.

Health, civilization and the state: a history of public health from ancient to modern times

This book examines the social, economic and political issues of public health provision in historical perspective. It outlines the development of public health in Britain, Continental Europe and the United States from the ancient world through to the modern state. It includes discussion of: * pestilence, public order and morality in pre-modern times * the Enlightenment and its effects * centralization in Victorian Britain * localization of health care in the United States * population issues and family welfare * the rise of the classic welfare state * attitudes towards public health into the twenty-first century.