Open markets and welfare values Welfare values, inequality and social change in the silver age of the welfare state
TL;DR: This paper examined the impact of current changes on welfare values in the various types of European welfare states (including accession states), using international attitude survey data, and found that most citizens remain committed to mild egalitarianism.
Abstract: Market principles are becoming more prominent in citizen experience of public policy across Europe, as a result of economic globalization and the Maastricht commitment to ‘open markets’, and cost-constraint, privatization and labour market activation pursued in response to the various pressures confronting welfare states. These principles (inequality, competitiveness, allocation through ability to pay) contradict those traditionally associated with social policy (equity, solidarity, social justice). This paper examines the impact of current changes on welfare values in the various types of European welfare states (including accession states), using international attitude survey data. It shows that most citizens remain committed to mild egalitarianism. Citizen ideology will thus continue to buttress resilience to pressures for restructuring in the various welfare state regimes. The paper goes on to consider the impact of social change by examining the values of groups with particular interests who are like...
Citations
More filters
TL;DR: In this paper, it is shown how to find a user's guide to operate a product on the web. But this is not a good way to obtain details about operating certain products.
Abstract: dismantling the welfare state reagan thatcher and politics of retrenchment are a good way to achieve details about operating certainproducts. Many products that you buy can be obtained using instruction manuals. These user guides are clearlybuilt to give step-by-step information about how you ought to go ahead in operating certain equipments. Ahandbook is really a user's guide to operating the equipments. Should you loose your best guide or even the productwould not provide an instructions, you can easily obtain one on the net. You can search for the manual of yourchoice online. Here, it is possible to work with google to browse through the available user guide and find the mainone you'll need. On the net, you'll be able to discover the manual that you might want with great ease andsimplicity
1,110 citations
TL;DR: This article studied the course of social welfare policy over the second half of the twentieth century in 16 nations and examined social insurance and service programs, major public expenditure and revenue aggregates, and an array of fine-grained indicators of state redistributive and safety net outcomes, from 1960 through 1994.
Abstract: This is surely the most ambitious and the most accomplished study of affluent post-World War II democratic welfare states. It uses statistical, case study, and comparative historical methods to describe and explain the course of social welfare policy over the second half of the twentieth century in 16 nations. Quantitatively, the study examines social insurance and service programs, major public expenditure and revenue aggregates, and an array of fine-grained indicators of state redistributive and safety net outcomes, from 1960 through 1994. Somewhat more qualitatively, the study extends its reach to encompass job and gender, labor market, and educational policies over the whole 1945–1996 period. Using both quantitative and qualitative methods of explanatory analysis, the work assesses various accounts of welfare state development and crisis, in particular, its authors' institutionally amplified, class-analytical political resource theory.
165 citations
Book•
01 Jan 2004
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors take a step towards providing a better understanding of post-socialist welfare state development from a theoretical as well as an empirical perspective by providing a theoretical analysis of the welfare state from both a theoretical and empirical perspective.
Abstract: This dissertation takes a step towards providing a better understanding of post-socialist welfare state development from a theoretical as well as an empirical perspective. The overall analytical go ...
109 citations
Cites background from "Open markets and welfare values Wel..."
...On the one hand, some attitudinal studies provide evidence that welfare state regimes do not comply with welfare attitudes regarding redistribution and income differences (see Svallfors 1997; Taylor-Gooby 2004)....
[...]
TL;DR: The key variable is the incipient formation of global labor markets at the top and bottom of the economic system as discussed by the authors, where the transnational market for high-level managerial and professional talent across economic sectors, from finance to engineering, is increasingly shaped by public and private regulations.
Abstract: The key variable is the incipient formation of global labor markets at the top and bottom of the economic system. At the top there is the transnational market for high-level managerial and professional talent across economic sectors, from finance to engineering; this market is increasingly shaped by public and private regulations. At the bottom one finds an amalgamation of mostly informal flows, with the “global care chains” among the most visible ones. There are sites of complex intersection between these two markets. The two sites singled out for examining the formation of these labor circuits are the global city and a set of Global South countries subject to the international debt-financing regime that puts governments, firms, and households under enormous constraints to survive. Emigration and people trafficking now generate money flows that help governments, firms, and households survive. The focus is especially on lower labor circuits and their feminizing.
75 citations
TL;DR: This paper argued that post-emotional attitudes are the by-product of government social steering towards amoral familism in social policy through the provision of a "vocabulary of motives" which are negative to state welfare.
Abstract: The article critically examines the assumption implicit in the research on social solidarity and popular attitudes that institutional solidarity equates with mutual care in society Following a review of a selection of recent empirical research on social solidarity and popular attitudes to welfare it is concluded that the evidence points to general support for welfare based on self-interest and the principle of mutual insurance rather than social altruism The analysis proceeds by arguing that social and economic changes which have resulted in social polarisation have weakened ‘functional democracy’ (the reciprocal dependency of one social group or class on another) leading to possible ‘decivilising tendencies’ and a decline in mutual empathy The article argues that post-emotionalism may be the result of these processes: the breakdown in mutual knowledge across the class divide; the intellectualisation of feelings; interaction based on false ‘niceness’; the manipulation of emotions The paper concludes by suggesting that post-emotional attitudes are the by-product of government social steering towards amoral familism in social policy through the provision of a ‘vocabulary of motives’ which are negative to state welfare
68 citations
References
More filters
Book•
01 Jan 1990
TL;DR: In this paper, Esping-Andersen distinguishes three major types of welfare state, connecting these with variations in the historical development of different Western countries, and argues that current economic processes such as those moving toward a post-industrial order are shaped not by autonomous market forces but by the nature of states and state differences.
Abstract: 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."
16,883 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1996TL;DR: In this article, the authors lay the foundation for an understanding of welfare state retrenchment and highlight the factors that limit or facilitate the success of such a strategy, using quantitative and qualitative data from four cases (Britain, United States, Germany, and Sweden).
Abstract: 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.
3,152 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, it is shown how to find a user's guide to operate a product on the web. But this is not a good way to obtain details about operating certain products.
Abstract: dismantling the welfare state reagan thatcher and politics of retrenchment are a good way to achieve details about operating certainproducts. Many products that you buy can be obtained using instruction manuals. These user guides are clearlybuilt to give step-by-step information about how you ought to go ahead in operating certain equipments. Ahandbook is really a user's guide to operating the equipments. Should you loose your best guide or even the productwould not provide an instructions, you can easily obtain one on the net. You can search for the manual of yourchoice online. Here, it is possible to work with google to browse through the available user guide and find the mainone you'll need. On the net, you'll be able to discover the manual that you might want with great ease andsimplicity
1,110 citations
TL;DR: In this article, attitudes to redistribution in eight Western nations are analysed, using data from the International Social Survey Program (ISSP), and it is concluded that while the level of attitudes regarding redistribution and income differences clearly is affected by regime type, group patterns are very similar between all the countries.
Abstract: In this paper attitudes to redistribution in eight Western nations are analysed, using data from the International Social Survey Program (ISSP). The paper begins with a discussion of various regime types as presented by Esping-Andersen and Castles and Mitchell, among others. Countries are then chosen to represent four twin pairs of countries, approximating four worlds of welfare capitalism : the social democratic (Sweden/Norway), the conservative (Germany/Austria), the liberal (US/ Canada), and the radical (Australia/New Zealand). The empirical analysis assesses whether attitudes to redistribution and income differences are structured in the way suggested by the discussion of different cleavage structures in various regime types. It is concluded that while the level of attitudes regarding redistribution and income differences clearly is affected by regime type, group patterns are very similar between all the countries
782 citations
"Open markets and welfare values Wel..." refers background or methods in this paper
...…welfare, especially for the more widely used services which account for the bulk of welfare spending and even in those countries where spending is relatively low (see, for example, Coughlin 1980; Ferrera 1993; Evans 1996; Kaase and Newton 1996; Svallfors 1997; Svallfors and Taylor-Gooby 1999)....
[...]
...Interestingly, there does not seem to be a clear pattern of differences by regime type (Svallfors 1997; Taylor-Gooby 2002)....
[...]
...Following the work of Svallfors (1997), two countries in each regime type are chosen, so that it is possible to make comparisons both within and across regime types and examine whether identified differences should be attributed to regime or to national idiosyncrasy....
[...]
TL;DR: This article presented an analysis of the post-industrial economy from a political economy perspective and identified a set of specific specific distributional trade-offs associated with the new role played by the services sector as the chief source of employment growth in advanced democracies over the last three decades.
Abstract: This article presents an analysis of the postindustrial economy from
a political economy perspective. It identifies a set of specific
distributional trade-offs associated with the new role played by the
services sector as the chief source of employment growth in
advanced democracies over the last three decades. It is argued that
three core policy objectives--budgetary restraint, wage equality, and
expansion of employment--constitute a political "trilemma" that
allows only two of the goals to be successfully pursued at the
same time. Using a combination of statistical and case-oriented
analysis, the authors demonstrate the political and economic
salience of the trilemma, the distributional tensions inherent in each
strategy to cope with it, and the political-institutional constraints
under which these strategies are chosen.
731 citations
"Open markets and welfare values Wel..." refers background in this paper
...…as employment in the manufacturing sector, where productivity gains are easiest to achieve, diminishes, and labour is transferred to the service sector, where productivity improvements tend to be more gradual (see, for example, Baumol 1976; Rowthorne and Ramaswamy 1997; Iversen and Wren 1998)....
[...]