TWO TYPES OF EXPLANATIONS OF THE WS

Question 1

The great transformation, Karl Polanyi

Answer 1

ws: society’s self protection against the destructive threat of the self regulating market system

Question 2

Functionalist theory

Answer 2

WS reponse to emerging SOCIAL NEEDS due to industrialism, urbanization, demographic change, made possible by eco growth

Question 3

Structuralist theory

Answer 3

Sate structurally compelled to produce exactly those reforms that ensure “cohesion” of capitalist mode of production

Question 4

Marshall, Citizenship and social class

Answer 4

Long HISTORICAL PROCESS of expanding rights to the LOWER ORDERS of society:

• civil rights: 18th century
• political rights: 19th
• social rights : 20th

Question 5

Marxist “instrumentalist/corporate theory

Answer 5

1. state is the instrument of the capitalist class/corporate elite => WS reform guranteed to serve their LT interests
2. corp lib thesis: + powerful, + far sighted, + liberal fraction of the corporate elite dominates the policy making process
   => gvt make just those concessions necessary to keep workers & unions under control and thereby safeguard the interests of the capitalist class

Question 6

Pluralism

Answer 6

interest groups, voting blocks and lobbies => policy compromise with most powerful groups getting the +. it’s the rule by interest groups.
in countries where labour is VERY strong -> relatively generous pro-labour, higher coverage.
in coutrnies were business is strong you will get less generous WS -> the US

Question 7

Power ressource theory (pluralism with a “class twist”)

Answer 7

• the + imp mobilized pol interest groups in modern democratic countries are those representing capital and labour
• where labour (unions, left wing pol parties) is strongest it is able to push through the most generous and redistributive welfare pgms (ex: scandinavia)
• where labour is weak, business interests will be able to limit the implementation of W pgms to relatively minimal residual ones only (i.e: US)
• diff from the other theory, bcz it is specifically based on labour whereas the other theory is interest in other groups.

Question 8

State-Centered theories

Answer 8

state institutions affect likelihood of welfare reform: the + decentralized the harder to implement W pgms (canada for ex)
- state personnel have an interest in expanding the role of the state

Question 9

Culture/Values Theories

Answer 9

• Anglo-Saxons vs the Others: indivdualism vs. collectivism (scandinavian countries)
  => culture of equal opportunity but not equal outcome