Esping-Andersen, The Three World of Welfare Capitalism

Question 1

What apporaches of the welfare state are introduced by Andersen?

Answer 1

1) Therborn: first look at the historical transformation of state activities. In a minimum welfare state, the majority of its daily activities must be devoted to servicing the welfare needs of households. This impacts research as if we simply measure routine activity no state can be regarded as a welfare state till the 1970s

2) Titmuss: makes a distinction between residual and institutional welfare states.
Residual- state assume responsibility only when the family or market fails: it seeks to limit its commitments to marginal and deserving social groups
Institutional- Adresses the entire population, is universalistic, embodies and institutionalised commitment to welfare all areas of distribution vital for societal welfare
This forces researchers to move from expenditures to the content of the welfare state eg eligibility, quality

3) Myles: Theoretically select the criteria for judging different types of welfare states. This can be done by measuring welfare states against an abstract model and scoring their programmes or entire welfare states accordingly. This is ahistorical, doesn’t Captor ideas or designs that historical actors sought to realise. If we aim to to test causal theories that involve actors we should begin with the demands that were actually promoted and that we deem critical in development of welfare states.

Question 2

welfare state historiography

Answer 2

anderson- attempts to historicise something which is contemporary to him and he is trying to explain why across the western industrialised world there exist different policies and social conditions its not about the money you spend its about something else. look at historically and contextualising how this emergered

balwin- instead of measure the welfare states in comparison cant tell us the peculiarities of the specific states ie catholic spain will have a different welfare state to less religious Scandinavia

debate moves from Anderson a longer time frame before the welfare state originated as a concept labour law and public health more inclusive themes we need to consider then it tells a different story.

use different terminology to remove predjuice redfine sovereignty

Question 3

what is de-commodification and how does it relate social citizenship and social rights?

Answer 3

taking an activity out of the market eg healthcare, education, labour rights- right to union

social citizenship- shared solidarity everyone participates in this system only works if everyone participates ideally colunataryly as every wants this system

Question 4

what are the three models of development of decommodifiied rights?

Question 5

what are the three types of the welfare state regimes according to esping anderson

Answer 5

1. liberal model uk aus ca helping people in low income
2. conservative corporotist Italy france more church based
3. scandanavian model high standard
   a welfare state that prmotes equality of the highest standard for all not an equality of minimal needs as seen in the other two regimes. most de-commodifying

Question 6

how does each of the welfare state regimes affect family and gender relations?

Answer 6

• corporist were tied to the church so have strong commitmentments to the preservation of tradition families. social insurance excludes non working wives and family benefits encourage motherhood. day care is underdeveloped. state interferes when family cannot.

-social democratic state premtively socialise the cost of familyhood don’t wait until the family have drained their resources fusion of liberalism and socialism. Grants transfers directly to children, takes responsibility for caring for children, the aged and the helpless. Allows women to chose work rather than the household

Question 7

how can we account for the historical variety in the forms that welfare states take (welfare state regimes)

Answer 7

working class political formations- different political forcers that are more influential different economic ideologies, liassez faire, working class mobalisation , unions movement generally developed differently between countries such as UK and france

Question 8

What is the definition of a welfare state?

Answer 8

Textbook definiton: state responsibility in for securing some basic modicum of welfare for its citizens