World of welfare

Question 1

Decommodification

Answer 1

The level to which citizens are freed from the compulsion to work.

the extent to which an individual’s welfare is reliant upon the market, particularly in terms of pensions, unemployment benefit and sickness insurance

Question 2

Corporatism

Answer 2

is a political system of interest representation and policymaking whereby corporate groups, such as agricultural, labour, military, business, scientific, or guild associations, come together on and negotiate contracts or policy on the basis of their common interests.- in some welfare states, organized labor and employers’ associations may have a formal role in administering social insurance programs or negotiating welfare reforms with the government.

Question 3

etatism

Answer 3

state intervention to address social issues and maintain social order. Control of state over citizens and the economy- a belief in the supremacy and intervention of the state in economic and social affair. Bismarck’s welfare policies were not driven by altruism but rather by pragmatic concerns to co-opt the working class and undermine the appeal of socialist and liberal movements. By providing social protections, Bismarck aimed to stabilize society, promote national unity, and preserve the conservative order.

Question 4

Social insurance

Answer 4

a form of welfare provision that aims to protect individuals and families against economic risks and uncertainties, such as illness, disability, unemployment, old age, and maternity. Unlike means-tested assistance programs that are based on financial need, social insurance programs are typically contributory schemes where individuals and employers make regular payments into a fund, and in return, they are entitled to specific benefits when they face qualifying events or circumstances.

Question 5

Defamilisation

Answer 5

refers to the process by which individuals and families become less reliant on the family as a primary source of economic and social support, and more dependent on formal institutions and mechanisms provided by the state or other organizations. – often a prerequisite for women entering the workforce and becoming commodified

Question 6

Regime

Answer 6

unifying logic to it. More than the sum of parts, unifying logic that unifies values and political economy. Unifying, historically embedded construct

Question 7

why is typifying useful

Answer 7

Why is typifying useful- simplifies it to create a simple understanding, explanatory value – independent variable- does regime type matter for analysis? Can we use it to explain? And finally, does it paint a picture of reality in some way? – most would argue for the former two but say it falls short when painting a picture of reality.
- Keiser – empirical consistency to how regimes are classified and so it does paint an accurate picture of reality

Question 8

Esping-Anderson- welfare regimes as historically relevant

Answer 8

, welfare regimes are the product of past political battles

o One cannot understand changes in the welfare state without theorizing the way its existing structure provides key actors - and the state itself - differing capacities and power.
o rejects the idea that welfare states are an automatic by-product of either capitalist needs or economically determined democratic demands, breaking with Marixist and “logic of industrialism” theses. However, welfare states are also not an undifferentiated product of strong labour movements; rather, the welfare state follows from the way in which labour and social democratic movements join (or fail to join) with other social actors (i.e. it rests on the historic alignment of societal groups)

Question 9

Esping-Anderson- state market institutions and the welfare state

Answer 9

once established, state-market institutions themselves conditioned their own differential trajectory via two key political mechanisms: they shaped the structure of electoral support for the state, and they shaped the structural power of the Left (organized labor and Social Democratic parties).

Question 10

Esping -Anderson - consequences of different regimes

Answer 10

o He argues that the broad encompassing structure of Social Democratic welfare regimes should breed public support for the state and defuse class conflict, thus perpetuating their generous structures, while Liberal welfare states generate lower levels of support and more extensive conflict across groups.

Question 11

Liberal regimes

Answer 11

decommodification low, stratification high

Interference creates elitism and paternalism, therefore avoids all interference.
modest, means-tested assistance, and targeted at low-income, usually working-class recipients.

o the poor are the only people who rely on them. The middle classes rely on social insurance. The upper classes rely on the market.
Their strict entitlement rules are often associated with stigma- narrow definition of who is eligible

Adheres to a more narrow conception of what risks are social eg lack of universal healthcare in USA
encourages market solutions to social problems— either passively, by guaranteeing only a minimum, or actively, by directly subsidising private welfare schemes. – believe the free market is the best path to reducing inequality

forces those in need to look for work- doesn’t want to disrupt the market. Welfare as a last resort.

Liberals cannot purely oppose decommodification as non-workers and those with the potential to work must be cared for.

Question 12

Liberal welfare regime states

Answer 12

Australia, Canada, Japan, Switzerland, USA

Question 13

Conservative regimes

Answer 13

decommodification moderate, stratification high

typically shaped by traditional family values and tend to encourage family-based assistance dynamics.

Social insurance in this model typically excludes non-working wives, and family benefits encourage motherhood.

the belief that central authority should not do what could be done on a local level.

State assistance will typically only step in when the family’s capacity to aid its members is exhausted.
Corporatism prevents the expansion and consolidation of the welfare state. This leads to services such as healthcare having as many as 1,200 different funds in Germany.

Like in Liberal regimes, welfare is a last resort, but for the purpose of failing families not bad risks or market failures

As in liberal states, conservative states do little to interfere with the employment market. Gives strong protection for male breadwinners in employment. In conservative states the answer to this is family support or reduction of labour supply by moving women out of the workforce

Question 14

Conservative regime states

Answer 14

Austria, Belgium, France, Germany Italy

Question 15

Social Democratic regimes

Answer 15

High decommodification and low stratification

universalistic systems that promote an equality of high standards, rather than an equality of minimal needs. - Rights are attached to citizenship not need or contribution

decommodifying welfare services, to reduce the division introduced by market-based access to welfare services, as well as preemptively socializing the costs of caring for children, the aged, and the helpless, instead of then waiting until the family’s capacity to support them is depleted.

results in a commitment to a heavy social service burden, which introduces an imperative to minimize social problems, thereby aligning the system’s goals with the welfare and emancipation (typically via full employment policies) of those it supports.

use welfare to strengthen the working class, rather than appeasing them.

Gets involved in labour market- creates public jobs for those without them

Countries that belong to this type of welfare state regime are generally dedicated to full employment. Only by making sure that as many people as possible have a job is it possible to maintain such a high-level solidaristic welfare system

Question 16

States that are social democratic regimes

Answer 16

Denmark, Finland, Netherland, Norway, Sweden

Question 17

who argued that there is value to Esping Anderson even though there are hybrids

Answer 17

Arts and Gelissen

Question 18

pure welfare regimes are not empirical truth

Answer 18

• Contrary to the ideal world of welfare states, the real world is likely to exhibit hybrid forms. There are no one-dimensional nations in the sense of a pure case. Today, every country presents a system mix.

Question 19

Esping -Anderson on value despite hybrids

Answer 19

• Esping-Andersen (1997: 171) argues that despite this it is fruitful to construct ideal- types … see the forest rather than the myriad of unique trees. However, he warns of the danger that the resulting forest may bear little resemblance to reality.
• By comparing an impure welfare state with an ideal- typical one – both considered as a whole – the deviations of the former from the latter are thrown into relief. It is the simultaneous knowledge of both the ideal-type and the real- type that enables holistic ideal-types to be used ‘as conceptual instruments for comparison with and measurement of reality’

Question 20

welfare regimes as enforcing

Answer 20

• Esping-Andersen views welfare state regime types (liberal, conservative, social democratic) not only as outcomes (dependent variables) shaped by various factors but also as factors themselves (independent variables) that influence other outcomes. In this context, welfare state regimes can both be influenced by and influence cross-national variations in social behavior and attitudes.
• Esping-Andersen uses the typology to explain how existing welfare state arrangements can create positive feedback loops. This means that once a particular welfare regime is established and its policies are in place, they can reinforce certain behaviors, attitudes, and policy directions, making it difficult to change or deviate from that path.

Question 21

trajectories of welfare states

Answer 21

• Esping Anderson says If you look at the history of so-called welfare states you find three ideal- typical trajectories, a liberal, a conservative and a social-democratic one. This framework can be seen as a way to transcend or complement the historical determinism emphasized by Esping-Andersen by focusing on the underlying principles, values, and social dynamics that drive welfare state development and differentiation across countries

Question 22

Arts and Gelissen against Esping -Anersens historical approach

Answer 22

you don’t need to go back in history you just need to classify them according to
1. The degree of decommodification, i.e. the degree to which a (social) service is rendered as a matter of right, and the degree to which a person can maintain a livelihood without reliance on the market.
2. The kind of social stratification and solidarities, i.e. which social stratification system is promoted by social policy and does the welfare state build narrow or broad solidarities?

Question 23

feminist critique of Esping Anderson

Answer 23

de-commodification doesn’t make sense for women as their labour is often unpaid and in the home.

• no serious treatment of the degree to which women are excluded from or included in the labour market:

Question 24

reflection of gender in Esping Anderson- between regimes

Answer 24

• Gornick and Jacobs (1998) found that Esping-Andersen’s regime-types do capture important distinctions among contemporary welfare states. Their results showed that the size of the public sector, the extent of the public-sector earnings premium and the impact of the public sector on gender differentials in wages all varied more across regimes than within them. In this way, they showed the fruitfulness of emphasizing the gender perspective in Esping-Andersen’s classification of welfare states.

Question 25

reflection of gender in Esping Anderson- decommodification is useful

Answer 25

• Trifiletti (1999) incorporated a gender perspective into Esping- Andersen’s classification by showing that a systematic relationship exists between the level of decommodification and whether the state treats women as wives and mothers or as workers

decomm- level to whihc women are liberated from the market- so benefits are not contingent on market - higher levels of decomm= greater autonomy regardless of their roles as wives or mothers

Question 26

Esping-Anderson defamiliarisation is linked to gender

Answer 26

In the US where cheap labour is available families are able to substitute public or family childcare with the market, leading more women in the workforce and higher fertility rates, this only works for the middle classes and leads to large problems for the poor who cannot afford these services. In other nations, families are priced out of child-care with is costing upwards of 15% of double earner household income. This leads to high levels of kin-care, 83% in the UK.

A hallmark of new, emerging family forms is that they suffer from a scarcity of time.’ The time cost of raising a child is high, up to a 30% increase in unpaid labour. The vast majority of this is done by women. The data shows that to increase female employment the answer is to provide daycare services for children, rather than ask fathers to provide more care.

Question 27

familiarisation and babies

Answer 27

• Defamiliarization = more babies- There is a disconnect between female employment and fertility levels, logic would presume that higher female employment would lead to lower fertility levels, the opposite is true for developed nations. We can see that the compatibility between careers and having children is far higher in Scandi nations than it is in Southern European ones. One explanation for this is the fact that these nations have a culture of self-employment which makes this easier. These low fertility levels are increased further in familialistic countries by youth unemployment and young people living with their parents until later in life, delaying the starting of families.

the fertility effect of a ‘service‐biased’ welfare state is quite strong and positive, while youth unemployment rates pull the other way. Arguably, increasing the service intensity of welfare states should help reduce unemployment.’

Question 28

Critique of Esping Anderson’s focus on social provision

Answer 28

Ciccia and Sainsbury

criticized for neglecting the role of the family, unequal gender division of labor, and the social rights of financially dependent citizens (its effects on women’s ability to claim many decommmodifying benefits)

• By focusing on social provisions most relevant for the (male) citizen- worker, Esping-Andersen neglected the social rights of citizens who were financially dependent on other family members, the vast majority being women.

Question 29

divide between Esping anderson and feminists on familiarisation

Answer 29

• Feminists used defamilialisation as synonymous with individualisation or the ability to make claims on the state independently of one’s position within the family, thus emphasising the importance of considering care and family dependency on a par with other principles of entitlement. However, when Esping-Andersen used defamilialisation – without properly crediting feminists – he focused on the importance of the availability of care outside the home, in particular, childcare. This was considered an essential prerequisite of women’s commodification (being in paid employment), and thus their ability to claim social rights based on their status as workers (commodification), in this way re-establishing the superiority of work over other entitlements.

Question 30

defamiliarisation and increases to other inequalities

Answer 30

• The expanding literature on care and immigration in the wake of globalisation demonstrates that the social organisation of care is also inextricably linked with other relations of inequality, in particular, ethnicity and class… attention eventually shifted to the dynamics between welfare state policies and immigrant women care and domestic workers across countries. Comparative studies on care and labour market policies have revealed the significance of policy variations in the development of informal care markets, where immigrant workers are a growing supply of labour (Williams and Gavanas, 2008; Simonazzi, 2009). Informalisation, in turn, produces new inequalities in the receiving societies by limiting the social rights of immigrant care workers and their access to social benefits.
• The transfer of informal care to immigrant domestic workers in the home allows wives, mothers and daughters to join the workforce, but it also reaffirms the home as the site of care and the gendered nature of care since caring tasks and household chores remain largely in the hands of women.

Question 31

revisionist approach- Nancy Fraser

Answer 31

• Nancy Fraser’s (1994) work on the universal caregiver ideal has often been taken as a point of reference This ideal envisions a society in which gender roles are transformed inside and outside the labour market so that care is no longer something that only women do. This idea had a strong impact on the field because it identified a third possibility to sameness versus difference: transforming men to become more like women, that is, primary caregivers

Question 32

Orloff’s revisionism

Answer 32

• Orloff does not want to lay out an alternative utopia, she argues for an egalitarian vision that accommodates different kinds of peoples, including those who would not choose a 50/50 sharing of work and care even if they could.

Question 33

Orloff- issue of social provision

Answer 33

• In most systems of social provision, men’s claims are based on paid work, while far fewer women make such claims
  o Contribution from wages to social insurance funds bring entitlement to benefits, and even in the case of needs-based or universal entitlements, men’s claims are usually made because of loss of paid employment
  o Most women’s claims are based on familial or marital roles (i.e. on the basis of unpaid domestic and caring work)
  o In all systems of social provision, claims based on motherhood or marriage to a covered wage owner are associated with lower benefit levels than are direct, work-based claims

Question 34

US welfare state - exemplifies two tier system of men and women

Answer 34

• many more women are indirectly incorporated in the welfare state on the basis of their husbands’ contributions than claim benefits as needy carers - wives or widows (with or without children) who receive social security are treated as “rights-bearers” rather than as clients where their marital tie to a covered breadwinner entitles them to the same treatment accorded to men who receive social security
• These women are better off than women who depend on welfare, but are also worse off relative to men within the same program because dependents’’ benefits are only 50% of the main beneficiary’s entitlement

Question 35

issue with decommodification and women

Answer 35

• Social benefits that decommodify labour affect women and men in different ways because their patterns of participation in paid and unpaid labour differ:
  o Taking parental leave may reduce a working woman’s earning capacity because continuous service with an employer often pays off in increased wages

Question 36

Esping Anderson’s focus on the family

Answer 36

o Conservative-corporatist regimes respect the principle of subsidiarity - the “state will only interfere when the family’s capacity to serve its members is exhausted” but will not provide services that enable mothers to enter the paid labour force; thus reinforcing traditional family relations
o In liberal regimes, “concerns of gender matter less than the sanctity of the market”
o Social democratic regimes attempt to “preemptively socialize the costs of familyhood”, e.g. by assuming partial responsibility for care of the aged

Question 37

Esping-Anderon’s lack of focus on provision of care

Answer 37

Orloff: his classification scheme does not reflect differences in how care is provided
o Among social-democratic states, services are not the same: Women in Sweden are likely to work outside the home, whereas Norway’s day-care provision is much less developed than Sweden’s and relatively more Norwegian mothers stay at home

Question 38

Esping Anderson’s model does not predict equality of sexes in employment

Answer 38

o Provision of services is important to the Swedish welfare state, and this provides a multiplier-effect for female employment: Social services both allow women to work, and create a large labour-market within which they can find employment
* Sweden has the highest level of sex segregation in occupations, part-time employment and women doing the bulk of unpaid domestic work; occupational upgrading was accompanied by continued segregation

o Women’s employment in the USA has increased sharply, driven by market forces, in spite of the dearth of public services
* USA has the strongest sex desegregation
* Working wives in Sweden do about 72% of housework compared to 74% in the USA (Wright et al., 1992)

Question 39

Esping -Anderson’s issue with assuming services lead to more females in work

Answer 39

sees women as choosing between work and the household, with work possible for most women only if state services are widely available
o Women do not choose between paid work and unpaid housewifery as exclusive activities (Hobson, 1991a) - they can choose to be stay-at-home wives and mothers only or combine paid work with their domestic work
Nowhere in the industrialized West can married women and mothers choose not to engage in caring and domestic labour unless they are wealthy enough to purchase the services of others - women perform most domestic work whether or not they work for pay

Question 40

Orloff - two important dimensions needed to properly assess gender relations

Answer 40

1. Access to paid work - Captures the extent to which women, particularly married women and mothers, are assured employment - a significant source of economic and political power
2. The capacity to form and maintain an autonomous household: the extent of women’s freedom from compulsion to enter or stay in marriages in order to obtain economic support

Question 41

Transfers versus services

Answer 41

Jensen

Transfers are less good for gender equality.
Transfers for decommodification, services for defamiliarization

Question 42

transfers

Answer 42

o “transfer” refers to payments made by the government to individuals or groups without receiving any goods or services in return. These transfer payments are typically aimed at redistributing income, providing financial assistance, or addressing specific social or economic policy objectives.

Question 43

welfare regime types and services v transfers

Answer 43

in the context of social care services, reveals a significant distinction, with social democratic welfare states taking the lead. Other countries are primarily notable for their emphasis on transfer payments

Question 44

Jensen’s reliance on female employment for theory

Answer 44

the only way for women to gain independence from the family sphere is by participating in the labor market. This can only occur if there is a job market available, and if the responsibilities of social care are shifted away from the family and into either the market or the state.

• In Scandinavia, the solution to the paradox was the expansion of the public social care sector, which both provided women with a gateway to the job market as well as the opportunity to transfer social care from the family to the state. This expansion was historically motivated by an ideological preference for gender equality, which naturally led to a break with the role of women in the traditional family, coupled with a preference for state involvement.

Question 45

theorist behind transfer v services and social v healthcare distinction

Answer 45

Jensen

Question 46

services v transfers in gender inequality

Answer 46

• expansion of social care service production outside the family sphere seems to be the necessary condition for defamilization since it constitutes both the incentive (via the creation of new jobs) and opportunity (via the relief of the domestic social care duties). In this respect, transfers are less crucial – at least in principle – because few transfers can affect the motivational structure of individual women as directly as the expansion of social care services.

Question 47

transfers and decommodification

Answer 47

• On the other hand, decommodification seems to be most directly related to the transfer component of the welfare state. This concept entails making individual consumption independent of market forces.

Question 48

need to distinguish between health and social services

Answer 48

• Health care services have experienced low ideological conflict, leading to a deviation from the traditional welfare regime classification. On the other hand, social care services have been highly ideologically contentious, particularly regarding the degree of defamilization and state involvement. This means that social care services are the main focus of the second dimension of welfare states, while health care does not fit neatly into the traditional welfare state framework due to its historical lack of ideological significance.

Question 49

why is there difference between health and social care

Answer 49

• Health care has been characterized by very fundamental technological progress throughout the 20th century, which has rendered professionals virtually indispensable. In this way, this welfare service has been forced out of the family realm and into the sphere of either state or market; the quality of health care service pro- duction in the family has simply become intolerably low compared to both state and market solutions.
• Instead, social care is ‘substitutable between the domestic and the public spheres’ – so social care services are probably more prone to be a distinguishing factor of welfare regimes than is public health care.

Question 50

same spending on healthcare

Answer 50

• uniform tendency across countries to spend practically the same portion of the GDP on public health care…. In terms of private social expenditure on health care, the USA stands out with 5 percent, while the rest of the countries spend less than 1.5 percent. That is, apart from the USA, by far the largest part of health care is always publicly financed.

Question 51

Critique of Esping Anderson- change and typologies

Answer 51

• Welfare regimes have a propensity to change/ be more nuanced

o The UK suffers because it has changed, and typologies tend to be fixed in time. Pre-1970s it would have been considered Scandi, but a move away from full employment and lower income replacement has meant it has become liberal. This has led to gradual privatisation seen in things like the selling off of council housing or sickness benefits being transferred to employers.
o The Dutch show socially democratic universalism along with a push of de-commodification. But when we examine the family, we see that they are far more conservative and service lean.

Question 52

need to differentiate between decommodification and services

Answer 52

he real essence of the social democratic (or the conservative) welfare states lies not so much in their decommodifying income‐maintenance guarantees as in their approach to services and sponsoring women’s careers.’

Question 53

hybrid cases of welfare regimes

Answer 53

o Hybrid cases are a bigger problem. The Netherlands and Switzerland are clear examples of this. If we take, for example, a closer look at the Dutch case, we see that Esping- Andersen (1990) originally assigned the Netherlands to the social-democratic type, whereas Korpi and Palme see it as liberally oriented; the basic security type. However, most authors place the Netherlands in the second category of corporatist/continental/ conservative welfare states… the Netherlands is rated relatively high on social- democratic characteristics, but not exception- ally low on liberal and conservative characteristics. Recently, Esping-Andersen has called the Netherlands the ‘Dutch enigma’ because of its Janus-faced welfare regime

Question 54

Antipodes as a possible 4th typology

Answer 54

part of liberal regime

o was seen in Australia and New Zealand in the 60s and 70s. It is a liberal-like scheme which due to its much higher coverage and less stringent means testing can be said to have much higher universalism than would be seen as standard. Middle income families are given income assistance

o Esping-Andersen approach disregards the potential for income-related benefits to make an effective contribution to redistribution. Australian income maintenance is almost entirely means-tested. It uses an approach that neither concentrates on a liberal- type redistribution to the very poor, nor resembles the more universal social-democratic and hierarchical solidaristic conservative ideal-types highlighted in Esping-Andersen’s study

Question 55

East Asia as a possible 4th typology

Answer 55

o they have full employment, regulated labour markets, and egalitarian wealth distribution, overlaid by conservative democracies and authoritarian employment practices.

State benefits assume that the core (male) labour force will have private benefits via the employment relationship, but also ample family support’.
o Those who work for large corporations experience the benefits of corporatism to a high degree, extending past healthcare etc. to things like funeral services and sports teams. But those who do not work for such companies struggle.

Question 56

3. Southern Europe/ Mediterranean: The strongest case for a fourth typology of welfare state

Answer 56

o One key element of this world is the use of political clientelism. This is the exchange of services for political support
o Another is the even more distinctive support for familialism. Not only does it have extremely residual social assistance but social assistance has not been upgraded, because it is assumed and legally prescribed that families are the locus but also it is assumed that families do not usually fail
o Southern countries - the social protection systems of Southern countries are highly fragmented and, although there is no articulated net of minimum social protection, some benefits levels are very generous (such as old age pensions). Moreover, in these countries health care is institutionalized as a right of citizenship. However, in general, there is relatively little state intervention in the welfare sphere.

Question 57

Esping Anderson on the Mediterranean case

Answer 57

Esping-Andersen’s position by arguing that the Mediterranean countries ‘do not form a distinct group but rather a subcategory, variant of the Continental model. They are merely underdeveloped species of the Continental model, welfare states in their infancy, with the main common characteristics being the immaturity of the social protection systems and some similar social and family structures’

Question 58

Leibfried’s typology - 4 types

Answer 58

1. Anglo–Saxon (Residual): Right to income transfers; welfare state as compensator of last resort and tight enforcer or work in the market place
2. Bismarck (Institutional): Right to social security; welfare state as compensator of first resort and employer of last resort
3. Scandinavian (Modern): Right to work for everyone; universalism; welfare state as employer of first resort and compensator of last resort
4. Latin Rim (Rudimentary): Right to work and welfare proclaimed; welfare state as a semi- institutionalized promise

Question 59

Leibfried’s typology - along which axis

Answer 59

poverty, social insurance and poverty policy (indicators/ dimensions)

Question 60

Ferrera- types

Answer 60

1. Anglo–Saxon: Fairly high welfare state cover; social assistance with a means test; mixed system of financing; highly integrated organizational framework entirely managed by a public administration
2. Bismarck: strong link between work position (and/or family state) and social entitlements; benefits proportional to income; financing through contributions; reasonably substantial social assistance benefits; insurance schemes mainly governed by unions and employer organizations
3. Scandinavian: social protection as a citizenship right; universal coverage; relatively generous fixed benefits for various social risks; financing mainly through fiscal revenues; strong organizational integration
4. Southern: fragmented system of income guarantees linked to work position; generous benefits without articulated net of minimum social protection; health care as a right of citizenship; particularism in payments of cash benefits and financing; financing through contributions and fiscal revenues

Question 61

Ferrera - how to typify

Answer 61

rules of access, benefit formula, financing regulations, organisational managerial arrangements (indicators/ dimensions)

Question 62

Esping Anderson’s axis of typology

Answer 62

decommodification, stratification

Question 63

stratification

Answer 63

“stratification” refers to the way in which social benefits and welfare provisions are structured within a society, particularly in relation to the level of social inequality and the extent of social stratification.

a high level of stratification refers to a welfare state system where social benefits and welfare provisions are heavily contingent upon factors such as income, employment status, and other criteria that result in significant disparities in access to social protection and services.

Question 64

Institutional and organizational features of the national welfare states shape social service policies to a large extent - decision making

Answer 64

Fragmented decision-making structures can make it challenging to reach consensus and implement reforms in the field of social services. The presence of multiple decision-makers can create barriers to change.

Question 65

Institutional and organizational features of the national welfare states shape social service policies to a large extent- religion

Answer 65

In systems where church-based voluntary non-profit organizations dominate service provision, there may be limited motivation for expansion. Consumer interests may carry less weight in decision-making, and coordination issues may arise, hindering service planning and delivery.

Question 66

institutional and organizational features of the national welfare states shape social service policies to a large extent- delivery

Answer 66

A fragmented service delivery and financing structure can result in significant coordination problems. Overcoming these challenges may necessitate the creation of special coordination bodies to ensure efficient service delivery.

Question 67

institutional and organizational features of the national welfare states shape social service policies to a large extent- interests

Answer 67

: If consumer interests are not represented in the financing agency or by service providers, cost containment may take precedence over need satisfaction. To better meet needs, greater consumer participation is often required.

Question 68

institutional and organizational features of the national welfare states shape social service policies to a large extent-financing and regulation

Answer 68

When social services are financed from a single source, and there are no specific norms regulating service quality, these services may become vulnerable to fiscal retrenchment measures. The absence of quality standards can make it easier to target such services for budget cuts.

When the regulatory functions are institutionally separated from financing responsibilities, it can facilitate the extension of services. Regulatory agencies can focus on ensuring need satisfaction without being directly responsible for funding these services.

When local government services are financed jointly from several levels of government, including the central state, it can facilitate the expansion of services. Multiple sources of funding increase the financial resources available for service provision.

When different services for older individuals, such as home help services, home care, and residential care, are paid from separate financing agencies, it can impede the coordination of services.

Question 69

Denmark’s services as determined by institutional and organizational features

Answer 69

a centrally regulated system with local public providers, and it is supported by a combination of local taxes and central government subsidies. Denmark’s system of providing services for the elderly is characterized by a centralized approach with strong local autonomy in taxation

Question 70

Denmark- consumer interests determines welfare

Answer 70

: In Denmark, public regulation and provision of elderly care services are closely linked to consumer interests. The electoral mechanisms ensure that public authorities are responsive to the needs and preferences of the elderly population, especially as demographic changes make elderly voters increasingly important within the electorate.

Question 71

Denmark- localism determines welfare

Answer 71

Danish local authorities have a considerable degree of autonomy in levying local taxes. This autonomy allows them to balance the growing costs of services and respond to the specific needs of their local populations. It also provides a source of funding for local services.

Question 72

Denmark- financing determines welfare

Answer 72

The system of joint financing involves both local taxes and central government subsidies. This arrangement helps ensure that there is adequate funding for elderly care services. Local authorities receive financial support from the central government, allowing them to provide services that meet the needs of their communities.

Question 73

Denmark’s religious homogeneity in determining welfare

Answer 73

In Denmark, ecclesiastical bureaucracies were merged with secular authorities, eliminating the possibility of religiously based voluntary associations functioning as functional equivalents to state action

Due to this religious homogeneity, there was no subsidiarity principle in place that would have given priority to voluntary providers over state services. As a result, there was a limited role for religious or voluntary organizations in delivering social services.

strategies to expand service supply in Denmark were primarily channeled into the public arena. Public authorities, rather than voluntary associations, became the major providers of services for elderly people.

Question 74

Germany - effect of religion on welfare

Answer 74

religious diversity

. Different religious organizations and charities may be involved in providing social services in various regions of the country.

Germany has a strong tradition of voluntary service providers, which can include non-profit organizations and religious entities. These providers play a significant role in delivering social services.

the supply of social services is dominated by voluntary welfare as- sociations which are frequently linked to the churches. These voluntary associations are heavily subsidized by the state, but usually resist attempts to regulate them. In contrast to private providers who want to make profits, or to public providers whose representatives seek re-election, the voluntary associations have no genuine motive to expand the services

Question 75

alternative for typifying welfare regimes or determining them - institutional and organisational factors

Answer 75

• Institutional and organizational features of the national welfare states shape social service policies to a large extent. Four factors pertaining to institutional design are of special importance: the regulatory structure, the financial structure, the structure of supply and the degree of consumer power.

Question 76

Germany’s federalism - effecting welfare

Answer 76

o Lack of Legal Standards: Standards for service provision are typically not mandated by law but are loosely regulated through recommendations. These recommendations are typically negotiated through collective bargaining between service providers and those responsible for financing the services.

: In areas where there are no binding guidelines or legal standards for service quality, fiscal considerations and cost containment pressures tend to dominate decision-making

Question 77

axis of Esping Anderson’s typology

Answer 77

welfare states based upon three principles: decommodification (the extent to which an individual’s welfare is reliant upon the market, particularly in terms of pensions, unemployment benefit and sickness insurance), social stratification (the role of welfare states in maintaining or breaking down social stratification) and the private–public mix (the relative roles of the state, the family, the voluntary sector and the market in welfare provision).

Question 78

esping anderson types and welfare provision

Answer 78

In the Liberal regime countries, state provision of welfare is minimal, benefits are modest and often attract strict entitlement criteria, and recipients are usually means‐tested and stigmatised.

The Conservative welfare state regime is distinguished by its “status differentiating” welfare programmes in which benefits are often earnings‐related, administered through the employer and geared towards maintaining existing social patterns. The role of the family is also emphasised and the redistributive impact is minimal.

The Social Democratic regime is the smallest regime cluster. Welfare provision is characterised by universal and comparatively generous benefits, a commitment to full employment and income protection, and a strongly interventionist state used to promote equality through a redistributive social security system

Question 79

Esping Anderson 7 indicators

Answer 79

three indices from seven indicators each of which defines a distinct welfare regime

Five of these indicators measure institutional characteristics of social insurance (corporatism, etatism, private pension and health expenditure)

in addition the indicator of benefit equality measures the ratio of post-tax maximum to basic benefits of social insurance and the indicator of poor relief measures the extent to which welfare outside of social insurance relies on means testing

most of these countries score highly on only one of the these three welfare regime dimensions

Question 80

Esping anderson - transfers v services

Answer 80

liberal regimes- means tested cash transfers
services tend to be less universal and less comprehensive

Conservative regimes - targeted transfers focused on traditional family structures eg child benefit and family services. services limited in scope - family or community support networks

social democratic - universal cash transfers and public services

Question 81

“A Framework for the Comparative Study of Social Services”

Answer 81

eg German v Denmark distinction - Alber

Question 82

Esping Andersen - history of social democratic welfare regime in Denmark

Answer 82

Esping-Andersen (1985) suggested that the strength of social democratic power in Denmark, Norway and Sweden was related to Social Democratic parties’ capacity to build alliances with different parties and classes. This power was rooted in an innovative reform strategy grounded in the principle of universal decommodification.

Following Barrington Moore (1966), Esping-Andersen argued that the ‘unique’ political realignment between farmers and the working class before WWII and the disunity of the bourgeoisie (Castles, 1978) were key elements to explain the long Social Democratic hegemony in Scandinavia.

: ‘the history of political class coalition is the most decisive cause of welfare state-variation’

Question 83

The three most significant, interacting historical factors according to Esping Andersen

Answer 83

Kersbergen,
the nature of class mobilization (especially of the working class), class-political action structures, and the historical legacy of regime institutionalization

Question 84

Liberal trajectory of UK welfare regime

Answer 84

The UK, however, does not follow a linear chronology in terms of the history of its welfare system. Prior to the 1970s, the UK had policies pertaining to full employment and lower income replacement, typical of the Scandi, or social-democratic model. Thatcher privatised council houses, transferred sickness benefits to employers and cut unemployment benefits and social assistance, incentivising work and reducing aid to a bare minimum where the market had failed. Such initiated the shift of the UK towards a liberal welfare regime.

In 1980, Esping-Anderson admitted that the UK could not be typified as strongly liberal, nor could it be categorised as strongly socialist

does not detract from the state of UK social policy in the modern day, it merely shows a divergence between the UK and a liberal welfare regime in its pure form.

Question 85

nature of class mobilisation

Answer 85

• This criterion refers to the degree and nature of mobilization among different social classes, particularly the working class, in advocating for social and economic rights and influencing welfare state development. The extent to which working-class movements, trade unions, and other labor organizations have been able to mobilize and exert pressure on governments and elites to enact progressive social policies, such as social insurance, minimum wage laws, and collective bargaining rights, is crucial in shaping the character and trajectory of welfare state regimes.

Question 86

class political action struggles

Answer 86

• This criterion focuses on the organizational structures and mechanisms through which social classes, especially the working class, engage in political action and influence policy-making processes. It encompasses the role of political parties, trade unions, social movements, and other forms of collective action in articulating the interests and demands of different social groups and shaping the agenda of welfare state reforms. The presence of strong and cohesive class-political action structures can enhance the bargaining power and political leverage of working-class actors in advocating for progressive social policies and redistributive measures.

Question 87

historical legacy of regime institutionalisation

Answer 87

• This criterion refers to the historical legacies and institutional arrangements that have shaped the development and consolidation of welfare state regimes over time. It encompasses factors such as the legacy of past social policies, institutional frameworks, and political settlements that have influenced the structure and functioning of welfare states in different countries. Historical experiences, including periods of social conflict, economic crises, regime transitions, and state-building efforts, can leave lasting imprints on the institutional landscape and policy trajectories of welfare states, shaping their capacity to address social needs and promote social cohesion

Question 88

what stratification in different welfare regimes

Answer 88

liberal - reinforces distinctions between working class, middle class, privileged class

conservative - occupational, gender, household type

sd- universalist - no stratification

Question 89

Esping Andersen’s focus on cash transfer

Answer 89

Decommodification refers to the extent to which individuals are freed from reliance on the market for their basic needs, such as income replacement in times of unemployment or retirement. Cash transfers, such as unemployment benefits, pensions, and social assistance, are central to measuring decommodification in Esping-Andersen’s framework.

Question 90

liberal regime aim

Answer 90

reduce poverty, encourage self help, promote markets

Question 91

liberal regime eligibility

Answer 91

the poor

Question 92

liberal regime benefits and financing

Answer 92

taxation
means-tested

Question 93

liberal regime - ethos

Answer 93

individaulism and market primacy

Question 94

role of familialism in esping Andersen

Answer 94

This is a distinct feature introduced into Esping-Anderson’s idea about the three types of welfare regimes to account for feminist critiques.

Question 95

describe liberal welfare regime in an essay

Answer 95

the liberal type of welfare is characterized by modest, means-tested assistance, and targeted at low-income, usually working-class recipient. Such entitlement rules encourage ‘market solutions to social problems’, by guaranteeing only a minimum for the ‘demonstrably needy’ or subsidising private welfare schemes. Women are encouraged to participate in the labour force, and those out of work are forced to look for it. Such a drive to not disrupt the market, providing state support only as a last resort (residualism) means that the liberal welfare regime is characterized by a low level of decommodification, individualism and population divide between a minority of low-income state dependants and a majority of people able to afford private social insurance plans.

Question 96

describe esping Andersen’s typology

Answer 96

He outlines three types of welfare regimes: Conservative, Social democratic and liberal. He defines each against two criteria: the level to which citizens are freed from compulsion to work (decommodification), and the kind of social stratification system promoted by social policy and the question over whether it builds narrow or broad solidarities.

Question 97

conservative type aim

Answer 97

social cohesion, maintain status and hierarchies

Question 98

Conservative eligibility

Answer 98

being a worker - based on income

Question 99

Conservative financing and benefits

Answer 99

social insurance contributions

earnings contribution based

Question 100

conservative ethos

Answer 100

catholic traditional family values

Question 101

sd aim

Answer 101

social citizenship, equality, full employment

Question 102

sd eligibility

Answer 102

being a citizen

Question 103

sd taxation and benefits

Answer 103

flat/ universal

taxation

Question 104

Goodin argument for sd regime

Answer 104

generates unintended consequences -good at meeting own goal of inequality reduction but also better at poverty reduction (liberal goal) and promoting social integration (conservative goal)

Question 105

measuring decomoddification

Answer 105

rules of access to benefits (liberal = work requirements)

level of income replacement offered (liberal = low)

duration of entitlement

Question 106

measuring stratification

Answer 106

how social policy affects social structures

o Means testing – low income. Strict entitlement roles associated with stigma.