Change without Challenge? Welfare states, social construction of challenge and dynamics of path dependency

Datos Bibliográficos

ID23150751
AutoresJorgen Gool Andersen (autor de correspondencia)
Año2002
Páginas121-138
Fecha de publicación2002-02-27
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoCHAPTER
RevistaWhat future for social security? (SOURCE_BOOK)
EditorialPolicy Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.51952/9781447367017.ch008
OpenAlexW2741083758
ISBN9781447367017
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas8
Referencias citadas15

Current explanations of welfare state change and stability may be summarised in three very broad categories (which are not mutually exclusive): (1) interest explanations which have in particular stressed class mobilization (Esping-Andersen and Korpi 1984, 1986) and class alliances (Esping-Andersen 1990); (2) economic explanations which stress the economic crisis or challenges to the welfare state (e.g. Lindbeck 1994; Pierson 1998); and (3) institutional explanations which stress path dependency and the legacy of past decisions.’ Very broadly, one could say that interest explanations have mainly been put forward to explain the historical expansion of the welfare state; economic explanations mainly serve to explain retrenchment and restructuring; and institutional theory is used to explain the inertia of the welfare state. Around the Millennium, welfare state theory has tended to give particular emphasis to economic challenges. This is not very surprising: the welfare states of Europe faced much economic hardship during the 1990s, and according to many economic analyses, future challenges will be even greater, due to ageing populations and problems of competitiveness of European welfare states in a globalised economy. Whereas a key question about the future of the welfare state a couple of decades ago was how it could improve equality, the key question now rather is whether it is robust enough to meet the economic challenges of the future. Along with economic challenges, current research has focussed much on resistance to change (institutional as well as attitudinal), and on how such resistance can be overcome by a number of techniques of retrenchment (Pierson 1994).

Development economics · Economic system · Economics · Market economy · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Restructuring · Retrenchment · State (computer science) · Welfare · Welfare dependency · Welfare state · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Law · Political and Economic history of UK and US · Social Policy and Reform Studies