The Welfare State and Liberal Democracy: A Political Economy Approach
<p class="first" id="d334193e86">This article attempts to shed some light on the developments of welfare states in highly developed nations since World War Two (WW2) within the context of a narrative which seeks to combine institutional distinctions,...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Pluto Journals
2019-06-01
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| Series: | World Review of Political Economy |
| Online Access: | https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.13169/worlrevipoliecon.10.2.0220 |
| Summary: | <p class="first" id="d334193e86">This article attempts to shed some light on the developments of welfare states in
highly developed nations since World War Two (WW2) within the context of a narrative
which seeks to combine institutional distinctions, termed “varieties of capitalism,”
with the historical regimes of regulation theory in a political economy perspective
which puts interested political actors at center stage. It will be argued that in
a liberal democracy, the elite has the framing and agenda-setting power to “manufacture
a political will” according to its interests. The welfare state is not the result
of a long social struggle on the part of the needy; rather, it results in its general
features from the minimal state of meritocratic exigencies. Under the very peculiar
circumstances of the post-WW2 era, this even translated into a rise in social welfare
spending to more than a third of national income. The particular design of welfare
state organization was the subject-matter of political conflict, and a clear distinction
between liberal and coordinated market economies can be attributed to cultural differences
and institutional settings. Yet the core of the welfare state conception serves the
interest of the meritocracy as much as those who benefit from social programs and
redistribution. And the neoliberal attack on the welfare state since the 1980s is
not a necessary re-calibration due to changing economic conditions or a growing lack
of solidarity among the people but an expression of a modified cost–benefit analysis
from the elite's perspective.
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| ISSN: | 2042-891X 2042-8928 |