Types of Welfare Capitalism

Abstract

WESTERN SOCIAL POLICY DEVELOPMENT IS NO LONGER A subject of interest only to welfare specialists and their students. Economic ill-fortune has had at least this one, positive effect. More — and more variegated — questions are being asked about relationships between public/social policy practice2 and economic performance, both within and between Western countries. However, the very fact that social scientists are now tackling this subject in broader fashion and from a variety of disciplinary and ideological erspectives, has served to highlight inconsistencies in the use of such supposedly standard terms as ‘social policy’, ‘social spending’ and ’welfare state’.

Social expenditure and the Political Right: a methodological note

“…In other words, it matters quite a lot to one's assessment of the impact of parties which component or aggregation of social expenditure is used. In general, theoretical reflection (see Jones, 1985) and existing analysis (see Castles, 1982, p. 75) suggest that there is likely to be a stronger link between items of public consumption expenditure (goods and services purchased by the State) and party ideology than will probably be the case with income transfers. The former are likely to be favoured by reformist parties because they enhance the reach of the State and to be regarded with anathema by the Right for just that reason.…”