Types Of Welfare States Research Articles

Liberalism’s Difficult Relationship with the Welfare State

This paper makes two related points. First, as liberals have started to realize that the welfare state is unable to deliver on egalitarian theories of justice, they have increasingly tried to dissociate their theories from the welfare state. Second, dissociating from the welfare state type of thinking is difficult for some liberal egalitarian theories such as John Rawls's theory of justice as his theory shares some of the same underlying thinking as found in the welfare state. For example, Rawls's understanding of universal citizenship and the difference principle resembles some of the aspects of the welfare state on how social equality and citizenship are tied to productivity and society as a venture of mutual cooperation. Consequently, liberals are caught in a difficult relationship where they can only partially move beyond the welfare state. Because of this affinity liberals should move beyond a Rawlsian framework, as Rawls's theory is difficult to completely dissociate from the welfare state.

Subjective household poverty as a moderator for the association between employment precariousness and mental health across five european welfare state types

ObjectivesTo create better understanding of the mechanisms underlying the association between employment precariousness (EP) and mental health by considering household poverty as a moderator while stratifying for gender across welfare state types (WSTs): Scandinavian, South European, Central- and East European, Bismarckian and Anglo-Saxon. MethodsData from the sixth wave of the European Working Conditions Survey (N = 18,725) was used. The Employment Precariousness Scale was used to assess EP on a continuous scale. Mental health was measured using the WHO-5 Well-Being Index. A binary variable for subjective household poverty was created. We estimated gender-stratified, multi-level models with a random intercept at country-level for the association between EP and mental health, with an interaction term between EP and subjective household poverty, for each WST separately. Models were adjusted for age, education, having a partner and having children under age 18 in the household. ResultsIn all WSTs, among men as well as women, we found a negative relation between EP and mental health. Among women, this relation was not moderated by household poverty. Among men in the Anglo-Saxon WST, the negative relation between EP and mental health was stronger among employees that reported household poverty compared to those who did not report household poverty. ConclusionsEvidence of a moderating effect of household poverty on the association between EP and mental health was only found amongst men in the Anglo-Saxon WSTs and the combined full sample. Other factors that might affect the association between EP and mental health should be investigated.

Attitudes Towards Filial Responsibility in 11 European Countries

This study examines how attitudes towards filial responsibility (AFR) have changed in 11 European countries between 2001 and 2017, based on data from the International Social Survey Programme. These countries include various types of welfare states and family traditions. The study also analyses the change in AFR according to the respondents’ gender and age. The findings indicate that in 2017, individuals reported lower filial responsibility than in 2001, with the exception of Great Britain, where the AFR increased. The most substantial decreases in AFR were observed in Hungary, France, Denmark, and Finland. This negative shift is visible in both genders and all age groups, particularly late middle-aged women. However, despite the varying intensity of AFR change, it was challenging to identify clear patterns in the variations between countries. These results highlight potential negative effects on political proposals for long-term care for older adults supported by younger generations.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF GLOBALIZATION AND ITS IMPACT ON SOCIAL POLICY.

Since the 1990s, the word globalization has established itself in the colloquial dictionary and has gradually become dominant in political, economic and academic discourses. Globalization has taken the world to a new level and in the modern era it has acquired an increasingly large-scale character. The transition from industrial societies to post-industrial tracks gave a push for world development and accelerated the process of globalization and gave a ne w orientation to the world economy. The presented work describes a number of issues related to the positive and negative meaning of globalization and its effects on economic and social policy. There are reviewed the importance of international organizations in the development of social policy and, in general, actual issues and approaches of global social policy. Globalization has been blamed for such processes as unequal distribution of income among countries, reducing the role of the state in regulating the economy, pressure on states to pursue to adopt market-friendly policies that prompte trade investment, as a result, social tension is increasing, the role of the state in the social sphere is weakening, the influence of Western values is strengthening, and national traditions are being neglected. The economic and financial crisis of one powerful country has a negative impact on other countries of the world. Despite the negative aspects, the benefit of globalization to the social welfare of mankind is great. Globalization is considered to be the basis of many successes for states, reducing poverty, increasing economic prosperity, developing better services and increasing awareness of human rights. Even those who are skeptical of the benefits brought by globalization must be convinced that there is no alternative, so avoiding it means isolating the country. In fact, the world is gaining new standards. Keywords: relevance of globalization, advantages and disadvantages of globalization, future of globalization, convergence, decommodification, stratification, elements of globalization, types of welfare state.

Scandinavian Imperialism

Abstract This article is about Scandinavia—mainly Sweden’s—integration into and role within global capitalism. I focus on Sweden because it is the most important in economic terms; and “the Swedish model” is the ideal type of capitalist welfare state and social democracy there is most advanced. It covers the period from colonialism to present-day global commodity chains. It also describes the impact of imperialism on the working class in this process. Finally, it takes up Scandinavia’s current role in the imperialist system. The Scandinavian country’s economic and political systems cannot be understood without this long and global perspective. The development of global capitalism has significantly influenced the national contradictions that have come to define the “Scandinavian model.”

Socialism and the Modernization Hypothesis

In Europe, people from post-Soviet countries tend to hold more negative attitudes toward immigration than people from Western societies. This pattern is also evident in the former East and West Germany. In line with the modernization hypothesis, previous research shows that worldviews have become more liberal across generations in Western societies over the last century. This study examines whether such processes of liberalization have taken place at a different pace in Western societies and in post-Soviet societies. To this end, I assess whether changes in attitudes toward immigration across birth cohorts differ between residents of post-Soviet countries and inhabitants of other types of welfare states. Using data from the European Social Survey, the German Socio-Economic Panel Study, and the German General Social Survey, this study shows that the pattern of later-born cohorts holding more liberal attitudes toward immigration is less pronounced in post-Soviet states than in other types of welfare states. These findings have implications for research on attitude change over time and the long-term persistence of communist practices, behaviors, values, and norms.

Tale of a Missed Opportunity: Japan’s Delay in Implementing a Value-Added Tax

AbstractWhile a value-added tax (VAT), which supports a welfare state, was officially introduced in Japan in 1989, earlier attempts to implement this tax system failed. This study looks in-depth at why Japan was slower than other countries to implement a VAT. The tax authorities’ debates during the 1960s and 1970s are reviewed to understand why other attempts to introduce a VAT failed. Implementing the VAT would require a shift from the ideology centering on a direct tax to acceptance of indirect taxes and justification for a general consumption tax’s superiority over specific consumption taxes. Four influential factors are identified. First, in 1960, the ideology centering on a direct tax made a VAT inherently inferior. Second, in the 1968, “Break Fiscal Rigidification Campaign” created a revenue-neutral path for indirect tax increases but favored specific consumption taxes. Third, the Fundamental Issues Subcommittee conceptualized “high benefit/high cost” in the early 1970s and established the VAT’s superiority over specific consumption taxes based on a study of overseas travel to European Commission countries. However, the VAT was abandoned due to external shocks. Fourth, the attempts to link the VAT with fiscal reconstruction in the late 1970s faced strong opposition from consumers, small businesses, and the ruling party. Failure to introduce the VAT in the 1970s eliminated the possibility of using it to raise taxes in the early 1980s. The findings reveal that Japan’s failure to introduce the VAT closed a door to a “high benefit/high cost” type of Western-style welfare state.

Free Movement versus European Welfare States? Variations of the Fiscal Effects of EU Migrants across Welfare State Regimes

Strong claims have been made about the incompatibility between large-scale migration and advanced welfare states. The free movement of workers within the European Union (EU) offers an interesting case for the study of the fiscal effects of unrestricted labor migration in different types of welfare states This article therefore investigates the alleged tension between advanced welfare states and liberal migration policies by analyzing how the fiscal effects of EU migrants vary across European welfare state regimes. In contrast to arguments commonly made in public debates, we argue and explain why theoretical reasoning should lead us to expect limited differences in fiscal effects of EU migrants in different welfare states. The empirical analysis, covering twenty-nine countries during 2004–15, shows that the net fiscal impact of EU migrants in the different welfare state regimes of West European countries is positive, and we find no major differences in the fiscal impacts of EU migrants across Western regimes. These results from the EU case cast doubts on the claim that advanced welfare states are incompatible with large-scale immigration because of adverse fiscal effects, and on the idea that broad institutional characteristics of welfare states have substantial consequences for the fiscal impact of migration.

The Differential Impact of Immigration on the Welfare State in Times of Population Ageing A Literature Review

Against the background of the declining birth rate and the increasing number of elderly people, the labour market shortage caused by the ageing population puts considerable financial pressure on the welfare state. Previous literature has proposed associated solutions, and opening up immigration policies has received increasing attention as one of the possible approaches. However, there is not enough research to prove how effective immigration actually is in ameliorating the financial pressures of an ageing population on the welfare state. By innovatively introducing the variable of type of welfare state, this paper explores the different preferences of different countries in choosing immigrants as workforces in the face of population ageing. It concludes that immigration has a more pronounced effect on improving the demographics of liberal and conservative welfare states and fills a research gap in the relationship between immigration and the welfare state.

The Structural Sources of Socioeconomic Inequalities in Health: A Cross-National Perspective

This article investigates how macro-level structures condition the sources of socioeconomic inequalities in health. Drawing on multiple social science disciplines, the authors develop theoretically grounded propositions about how different types of welfare states, varieties of capitalism, and social structures give rise to cross-national variations in the sources of health inequalities. They consider how these macro-level structures affect the distribution of five key resources important to health, estimate the relative contribution that each resource makes to health inequalities, and compare those contributions in 21 developed democracies. Moving beyond a current literature focused on welfare states, the authors show how different types of political economies and social structures also condition the health gradient. This research carries implications for policy and suggests agendas for further investigation into the relationship between macro-level structures and inequalities in health.

Problems and suggested improvement plans for occupational health service in Korea.

The purpose of this paper was to review the problems relating to Korea's occupational health services and suggest ways to improve them. Korea can be classified as a welfare state type of conservative corporatism partially interwoven with liberalism. While experiencing compressed economic growth, the economic sectors of developed (excess areas) and developing (deficient areas) countries are interwoven. Therefore, it is necessary to perfect conservative corporatism along with a complementary reinforcement of liberal contents and to apply a multilayered approach focusing on complementing the deficient areas. It is essential to form a national representative indicator related to occupational health, and a strategy for selection and concentration is needed. The proposed central indicator is the occupational health coverage rate (OHCR), which is the number of workers who have applied for mandatory occupational health services under the Occupational Safety and Health Act in the numerator with the total working population in the denominator. This paper proposes ways to raise the OHCR, which is currently at the level of 25%-40%, to 70%-80%, which is the level of Japan, Germany, and France. To achieve this target, it is necessary to focus on small businesses and vulnerable workers. This is an area of market failure and requires the active input of community-oriented public resources. For access to larger workplaces, the marketability of services should be strengthened and personal intervention using digital health resources should be actively attempted. Taking a national perspective, work environment improvement committees with tripartite (labor, management, and government) participation for improvement of the working environment need to be established at the center and in the regions. Through this, prevention funds linked to industrial accident compensation and prevention could be used efficiently. A national chemical substance management system must be established to monitor the health of workers and the general public.

한국과 일본의 노인장기요양보험제도에 관한 비교연구: 자치단체의 관점에서

Japan is the best case study of a low-fertility and aged society in Korea, and the fundamental purpose of this study is to find clues in Japan to overcome Korea's low-fertility and aged society. Therefore, the researcher evaluates and analyzes the various social policy that Japan has taken for the aging society, and intends to find our social welfare policy for the elderly from there. In the analysis, the researcher basically stood in the position of new institutionalism, identified the policy's historicity, path dependency, and value orientation. Gilbert and Terrel used more practical for using spectrum not dichotomy. Their policy analysis breaks away from the dichotomous approach of the existing universalist value and the selective approach, and places selectivism and universalism as two extremes so that they can analyze more realistic aspects, and set their position on one spectrum. Research also use this analysis tool because It is a very realistic policy analysis method to analyze whether between two counties, Korea and Japan are differenciated with each other or not. Researcher intends to reveal the characteristics of the welfare states of Korea and Japan. The analysis includes selection of values for policy making, and the policies used in the analysis include not only long-term care insurance (LTC) but also social services for the elderly for a low-fertility and aging society. Through the analysis so far, the researcher confirmed the fact that Korea and Japan, which belong to the same type of welfare state, especially Long-term care insurance and social services for the elderly between the two countries. They are clearly divided into more selective perspectives in Korea and more universalistic perspectives in Japan. Finally, I would like to conclude by suggesting and writing about the establishment of a regional integrated care system that Japan is promoting as a measure for a low-fertility and aging society.

The impact of welfare state systems on innovation performance and competitiveness: European country clusters

This article assesses the impact of welfare state systems on the performance of economies in creating the appropriate conditions for innovation and increased competitiveness. Since the 1970s, welfare systems have been regarded as disruptive influences on economic growth. This situation was exacerbated by the intensification of globalization and the emergence of new economies, which led to the need for initiatives to promote innovation and competitiveness, not least in the EU with so many different types of welfare state. To investigate the impact of welfare state systems on innovation performance and competitiveness, we used the European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS), which is based on a variety of indicators, as well as various essential indicators proposed by EU2020 innovation, such as the number of patents and the level of education and employment. The results obtained from the performance of five welfare state clusters of European countries have shown that the most comprehensive welfare states, primarily those in the Nordic countries, have been the most successful in achieving innovation goals and have long been ranked as innovation leaders in Europe. Moreover, public resource allocation for innovation leads to a more comprehensive agenda, including employment promotion, gender equality goals, and sustainability concerns. Welfare costs seem not to reduce competitiveness. And it is competitiveness itself that encourages the development of advanced social security systems.

Just transitions for a new eco-social contract: analysing the relations between welfare regimes and transition pathways

By combining environmental and social objectives in order to address climate change and other environmental challenges, ‘just transitions’ have the potential to accelerate low-carbon transitions in an inclusive and equitable manner. More broadly, by strengthening an egalitarian and ecological public sphere that protects workers’ rights and the rights of nature, just transitions can contribute to a new eco-social contract for both people and planet, guaranteeing full access to social rights and a viable future for all. But like other strategies, just transitions vary in their ambition and thus their eco-social visions. This article builds on the analytical framework developed by the Just Transition Research Collaborative to comparatively assess different just transition pathways in Germany, Poland, Spain, Sweden and the United States in the context of different types of welfare state and economic structure. The comparison may help stakeholders to evaluate different just transition policies according to contextual factors and transformative potential.

What can explain the differences between European countries’ public policies for sports clubs?

ABSTRACT The purpose of the article is to explain the differences in public policy for sports clubs among European countries. It uses empirical materials from the ‘Social Inclusion and Volunteering in Sports Clubs in Europe’ project. The comparison is based on the theory of opportunity structure. The political and institutional context of sports clubs provides opportunities as well as constraints within which sports clubs can act. The theories of welfare state typology are used to explain the differences between sports club policies. The analysis includes England, Denmark, Switzerland, Poland and Spain, which ‘represent’ five types of welfare state. The analysis shows that there are both significant similarities in the public policy for sports clubs among the five countries, but also differences arising from the type of welfare state that characterises each country in particular.

In Between New Public Management and Network Governance in Austria, Finland and Scotland: Potential Conflicts in Autonomy Understandings of Governments and Universities

The political science doctoral thesis project is focussing on comparing university policies with the background of different welfare state types: Austria as a conservative-corporatist, Finland as a social democratic and Scotland as a liberal welfare state. As universities are pre-constitutional entities, it seems to be legitimate to search for fit from welfare state policy-making with the practices of university steering. Here, I will present paradigm evidence of top-down-oriented New Public Management (NPM) and bottom-up-formed Network Governance (NG) at a macro-level, i.e. governance by the state. The paradigms connect with the theme of institutional autonomy, which differentiates into an academic, a financial, an organisational and a staffing aspect. As a result, I propose the following hypothesis for the cases of Austria, Finland and Scotland: NPM is present, but not dominant in higher education (HE) policies. More likely, NPM and NG appear simultaneously within the university policies of Austria, Finland and Scotland. How do these paradigms transfer within the institutions? In this article, a concept for this transfer of action in horizontal autonomy to actors in vertical autonomy through communication and through management committees’ interplay elaborates and, additionally, hypotheses formulate. The extent of the space for alternative paradigms to join the paradigm transfer game, for example, for Epistemic Governance (EG), might be larger, the higher the regulative density of university policies is. The borders of every paradigm in university policy, however, constitute with (a) strong welfare state traditions for governance and (b) strong university traditions for steering. Conservative-corporatist welfare state tradition as in Austria shows an inclination for university policy governance to be control-oriented, whereas social democratic welfare state tradition as in Finland relies on trust in university policy formulation (and implementation). It has to remain open how the liberal welfare state of Scotland would classify.

Informal employment and poor self-perceived health in Latin America and the Caribbean: a gender-based comparison between countries and welfare states in a pooled analysis of 176,786 workers

BackgroundMore than half of the working population in Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries is engaged in informal employment. The few previous studies indicate that this employment condition could have negative consequences for workers’ health. The aim of the present study was to estimate the association between self-perceived health and informality in LAC countries according to gender and welfare state type.MethodsThe cross-sectional study based on different working conditions and health national surveys was carried out in 13 LAC countries between 2012 and 2018. A sample of 176,786 workers was selected from these surveys. The association between health and informality was estimated using Poisson regression. Finally, a random effects meta-analysis was carried out by country. All results were stratified by sex and type of welfare state (statalist or familialist).ResultsInformal workers reported significantly worse health than formal workers, for both women (1.28 [95% CI 1.14-1.43]) and men (1.30 [1.12-1.50]). This difference was broader and more significant in countries with statalist welfare state regimes, among both women (1.40 [1.22-1.60]) and men (1.51 [1.30-1.74]), than in familialist regime countries (1.19 [1.03-1.38] and 1.24 [1.03-1.49], respectively).ConclusionsThis study provides strong evidence of the association between informal employment and worker health. Welfare states appear to have a modifying effect on this association. The transition from the informal to the formal labour market in LAC is essential to improving the health of the population.

Eco-social State in the European Union: the Relationship Between the Social and Climate Policy of the Member States

This article analyzes the relationship between the social and climate policies of the European Union member states and examines the concept of the eco–social state. In the climate crisis era, the need for a close link between social and climate policies is particularly acute. The European Green Deal and other EU strategies reflect a political agenda with a specific interest in social and ecological goals. We aim to answer whether more significant state efforts in the social field are related to a similarly more substantial commitment in climate policy or whether a greater focus on one means less attention on another. 
 On a theoretical level, we discuss the challenges of climate change for social policy and present the concept of climate justice. The similarities and differences between the ecological and the welfare state are also examined. We argue that the concept of climate justice highlights the phenomenon of a double and even triple injustice on a global level, which requires joint efforts in spheres of social and climate policy. Eco-social state combines social and environmental institutions intending to ensure welfare and sustainability and thus complements the traditional concept of the welfare state. The Koch-Fritz (2014) classification, which distinguishes between the established, deadlocked, emerging, and failing eco-social states, is presented in the paper and used for the empirical analysis. 
 The empirical part of the paper employs non-parametrical correlation and hierarchical cluster analysis. The former allows for exploring the links between the ecological and social indicators. The latter enables countries to be grouped according to social and climate indicators and compared to the traditional classification of welfare states and Koch-Fritz models of eco-social states. The analysis is based on social and climate indicators of the Europe 2020 strategy. The study found that countries that provide relatively more significant funding for traditional social problems also perform better in climate change adaptation and mitigation policies by reducing greenhouse gas emissions in an effort–sharing sectors and final energy consumption. We show that clusters of the EU member states in terms of social and climate indicators (eco–social state models) are very similar to their membership in the traditional welfare states’ classification.
 Moreover, social democratic welfare states are better prepared to address climate change than countries representing other types of welfare states. Thus the analysis confirms the social democratic welfare states as established eco–social states, while the conservative-corporate and liberal welfare states can indeed be called deadlocked eco–social states with average results. We show, however, that Lithuania, together with other Eastern European and Southern European countries, fluctuates on both the best and the worst social and climate change mitigation outcomes. Hence those should be attributed to a group with the mixed results and can be named as failed-emerging eco-social states.

Caseworker Prejudice: Exploring Secondary Non-Take-Up from Below Among Latino Immigrants in Madrid, London, and New York City

Abstract This article investigates the understudied phenomenon of secondary non-take-up (NTU) among Latino immigrants in Madrid, London, and New York City from their own perspective. It examines the reasons behind secondary NTU across the three sites and examines the relevance of type of welfare state in which they live. The findings of this paper suggest that secondary NTU is prevalent in these three sites. It identifies prejudice from social workers as the leading cause of secondary NTU among Latino immigrants.

Socially Oriented Non-Profit Organizations in the Welfare State

In recent years, the rapid development of the institutions of self-organization of citizens emerging and existing in various forms actualizes the issues related to their emergence and role in the implementation of social policy. This type of organization whose task was to provide social assistance and support to social risk groups has become the subject of scientific discussions and research in recent years. Scientists focus on various aspects and directions of development of the welfare state, forms of implementation, models of social policy, factors that determine its evolution, which includes the formation, flourishing and entry into an era of crisis. The purpose of the study is to consider the evolution of the welfare state as the basis for the emergence of institutions of self-organization of citizens. The methodological basis of the study is formed by the concepts of post-industrial society, which made it possible to consider the emergence and evolution of institutions of self-organization of citizens as a reflection of the processes taking place in society, to determine their place and role in the state of general welfare. A historical approach was also used, which made it possible to analyze the stages of the emergence of socially-oriented non-profit organizations (SO NPOs), the forms of their involvement in the social policy of the state; a method for identifying cause-and-effect relationships, which made it possible to identify factors that influence the interaction of SO NPOs and the state. This article describes the activities of various forms of the welfare state in the field of social protection of the population. We highlighted the positions on the problem of the emergence of institutions of self-organization of citizens in scientific thought and analyzed the reasons for the emergence of SO NPOs. The conclusion was drawn that it was the evolution of the welfare state that became the basis for the emergence of institutions of self-organization of citizens. Keywords: social structure, types of welfare state, institution of citizens’ self-organization, confrontation, rivalry, social policy, socially oriented non-profit organizations – SO NPOs