Few discussions in modern social science have occupied as much attention as the changing nature of welfare states in Western societies. Gosta Esping-Andersen, one of the foremost contributors to current debates on this issue, here provides a new analysis of the character and role of welfare states in the functioning of contemporary advanced Western societies. Esping-Andersen distinguishes three major types of welfare state, connecting these with variations in the historical development of different Western countries. He argues that current economic processes, such as those moving toward a postindustrial order, are shaped not by autonomous market forces but by the nature of states and state differences. Fully informed by comparative materials, this book will have great appeal to all those working on issues of economic development and postindustrialism. Its audience will include students of sociology, economics, and politics."

The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism

OBJECTIVES: Recent studies have demonstrated that income inequality is related to mortality rates. It was hypothesized, in this study, that income inequality is related to reduction in social cohesion and that disinvestment in social capital is in turn associated with increased mortality. METHODS: In this cross-sectional ecologic study based on data from 39 states, social capital was measured by weighted responses to two items from the General Social Survey: per capita density of membership in voluntary groups in each state and level of social trust, as gauged by the proportion of residents in each state who believed that people could be trusted. Age-standardized total and cause-specific mortality rates in 1990 were obtained for each state. RESULTS: Income inequality was strongly correlated with both per capita group membership (r = -.46) and lack of social trust (r = .76). In turn, both social trust and group membership were associated with total mortality, as well as rates of death from coronary heart d...

https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/pdfplus/10.2105/AJPH.87.9.1491

Social capital, income inequality, and mortality.

This essay seeks to lay the foundation for an understanding of welfare state retrenchment. Previous discussions have generally relied, at least implicitly, on a reflexive application of theories designed to explain welfare state expansion. Such an approach is seriously flawed. Not only is the goal of retrenchment (avoiding blame for cutting existing programs) far different from the goal of expansion (claiming credit for new social benefits), but the welfare state itself vastly alters the terrain on which the politics of social policy is fought out. Only an appreciation of how mature social programs create a new politics can allow us to make sense of the welfare state's remarkable resilience over the past two decades of austerity. Theoretical argument is combined with quantitative and qualitative data from four cases (Britain, the United States, Germany, and Sweden) to demonstrate the shortcomings of conventional wisdom and to highlight the factors that limit or facilitate retrenchment success.

http://pluto.mscc.huji.ac.il/~mshalev/sem/Pierson_NewPolitics(1996).pdf

The New Politics of the Welfare State

Symposium Review: 25th Anniversary of Moral Boundaries by Joan Tronto

the structure of welfare state institutions. (2) A trade-off exists between the degree of low-income targeting and the size of redistributive budgets. (3) Outcomes of market-based distribution are often more unequal than those of earnings-related social insurance programs. We argue that social insurance institutions are of central importance for redistributive outcomes. Using new data, our comparative analyses of the effects of different institutional types of welfare states on poverty and inequality indicate that institutional differences lead to unexpected outcomes and generate the paradox of redistribution: The more we target benefits at the poor and the more concerned we are with creating equality via equal public transfers to all, the less likely we are to reduce poverty and inequality. Social scientists and social reformers have long debated how the welfare state and social policies should be designed so as to best reduce poverty and inequality. This debate involves two different issues. One question concerns whether social policies should be targeted or universal, that is, should they be organized for the poor only or should the welfare state include all citizens? In the context of nontargeted programs, another question concerns the level of benefits: Should benefits be equal for all, or should they be related to previous earnings and in

https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/160846/1/lis-wps-174.pdf

The Paradox of Redistribution and Strategies of Equality: Welfare State Institutions, Inequality and Poverty in the Western Countries

Through its work in Germany and in the United Kingdom, the Anglo-German Foundation seeks to foster dialogue and cooperation between the two countries. It supports research projects, seminars and conferences promoting the exchange of experience and ideas in the social, political and economic areas. Die Deutsch-Britische Stiftung möchte mittels ihrer Tätigkeit in Deutschland und Grossbritannien den Dialog und die Zusammenarbeit der beiden Staaten fördern. Sie unterstützt gemeinsame Forschungsprojekte, Seminare und Konferenzen und setzt sich dabei besonders für den Erfahrungs-und Ideenaustausch im sozialen, politischen und wirtschaftlichen Bereich ein.

Complementary and alternative medicine in the UK and Germany - research and evidence on supply and demand

This article reviews the social care evidence concerning direct payments/personal budgets, before arguing for an extension of these concepts to the National Health Service (NHS). Despite a commitment to inter-agency health and social care, direct payments/personal budgets have only been available for the 'social care' part of people's lives. Moreover, many of the challenges faced by the NHS are precisely those which social care has turned to more individualised funding to help resolve. Against this background, the article speculates as to how such a system might work and seeks to address some popular misconceptions and potential objections.

A healthy choice? Direct payments and healthcare in the English NHS

Commissioning of social care for older people has seen major changes since the early 1990s. Considerable responsibility now rests with local authority staff, whose views of care home providers’ motivations, their perceived strengths and weaknesses as service providers, will have a bearing on commissioning decisions. We examine commissioners’ views of provider motivations in eight English local authorities and compare their perceived motivations with providers’ expressed motives. Data were collected through semi-structured face-to-face interviews with commissioners and care home providers. Providers are generally perceived by commissioners as highly altruistic, but also relatively financially motivated individuals. Further analysis revealed significantly different views towards profit-maximizing, which commissioners perceive as very important, while providers consider it to be of little motivational value. Private sector providers are described by commissioners as significantly more motivated by personal income. Associations are found between commissioners’ perceptions of motivations and the nature of their relationships with providers. Perceptions of providers’ motivations appear important within the commissioning framework.

Motivation and commissioning: perceived and expressed motivations of care home providers

Behavioural Public Policy: From irresponsible knaves to responsible knights for just 5p: behavioural public policy and the environment

Recently considerable attention has been paid in the literature and elsewhere to forms of aid to the poor involving income supplementation. Far less effort has been devoted to the analysis of another form of aid that is extensively used both in this country and elsewhere; that of the public provision of certain goods and services to low income groups at reduced or zero prices. This type of aid can be viewed as a form of price discrimination, with some groups, by virtue of their lower incomes, paying lower prices for certain commodities than other groups. Schemes of this kind are widespread. In Britain the central government and local authorities discriminate in favour of low income groups by lowering the price to them of, inter alia, higher education, via the means tested grants for students programme; housing, via the rent rebate schemes introduced in the 1972 Housing Finance Act; and health care, via the exemptions from prescription, dental and optical charges. There are also a large number of schemes operated by local authorities on a discretionary basis which lower the price to the poor of a wide variety of items: examples include school maintenance and clothing allowances, the provision of meals for the elderly, and free telephones and other equipment for the handicapped. In all, some 43 programmes can be identified as basically schemes for price discriminationi; and even this total excludes some of the more minor schemes operated within the Health Service. (The total was arrived at by subtracting from the list of means-tested benefits provided by Meacher, 1972, Appendix 5, those schemes involving direct income supplementation or tax relief: supplementary benefits, family income supplement and rate rebates.) Nor are they confined to this country: the US food stamp programme, for instance, is designed to lower the price of food to the poor at a cost of $1,522 million to the Federal Government in 1971 (Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1972, Table 133). Out of a number of possible questions that could be asked about these programmes, I shall confine myself to those concerning the objectives that such programmes might have and the pricing policies that should be pursued in order to achieve those objectives. In the first section I consider the case of a government departmentfwhich has

Julian Le Grand

Papers

Complementary and alternative medicine in the UK and Germany - research and evidence on supply and demand

A healthy choice? Direct payments and healthcare in the English NHS

Motivation and commissioning: perceived and expressed motivations of care home providers

Behavioural Public Policy: From irresponsible knaves to responsible knights for just 5p: behavioural public policy and the environment

Public price discrimination and aid to low income groups