Lecture 4 (Welfare Regimes and Commercialisation of Citizenship)

Question 1

Two approaches to cope with the problem of compossibility

Answer 1

1. Create a queue to decide who is entitled or gets priority for a certain rights, base the order of the queue on policies/procedures

Results in road to serfdom because the government will have ration.

2. Commodify or marketise the compossible rights, and make them dependent on the cash nexus (market mechanism)

Results in certain rights being taken from certain groups of people because they cannot afford them

Question 2

Risk management

Answer 2

The ways risk can be distributed or organised within a welfare state

Question 3

Three principles of risk management (Esping-Andersen)

Answer 3

1. Reciprocity
2. Cash nexus (market mechanism)
3. Authoritative redistribution

Question 4

Reciprocity (risk management)

Answer 4

Families, church members, etc. (mutualist associations) share risk according to need and ability

Question 4

Mutualist associations

Answer 4

When association between two parties is beneficial for both (e.g. in sharing risk acc. need and ability)

Question 5

Cash nexus (risk management)

Answer 5

Due to risk calculability, risk can be traded on the market

Question 6

Meaning of calculability of risk

Answer 6

By using existing information and numbers, you can calculate how likely certain outcomes are

Question 7

Requirements for trading risk (2)

Answer 7

1. Wealth
2. Knowledge

Question 8

The veil of ignorance in risk trading

Answer 8

You trade risk based on impartial information (e.g. you do not know if you will get sick, into a car crash, etc.)

Question 9

Commodification of risk results in… (2) (from insurers perspective)

Answer 9

1. Good risks
2. Bad risks

Question 10

Good risks

Answer 10

Those who are not likely to make an insurance claim

Question 11

Bad risks

Answer 11

Those who are likely to make an insurance claim, or cost a lot of money on the long term

Question 12

Risk pooling

Answer 12

A strategy for the insurers to protect themselves against high costs from bad risks: they increase insurance costs for all clients (victimising good risks)

Question 13

Authoritative redistribution (risk management)

Answer 13

When centralised administrations (often authorities) are redistributions of risk. For example, this is how it is possible that the strongest shoulders have to carry the most risk.

Question 14

3 Reasons for risk management being considered a collective task, and became subject to public policy

Answer 14

1. The fate of individuals can have collective consequences
2. Society recognises that risk management is deserving of public consideration (sense of justice)
3. Risk increasingly originates from sources beyond individual control due to increasing complexity of society

Question 15

The contradiction of the commodification of labour (Esping-Andersen)

Answer 15

The welfare state decommodifies labour, whereas the market still commodifies it

Question 16

Market clearing

Answer 16

All participants to the labour market need to be effectively commodified and adjust their offered labour to supply and demand. In this way, market participation is directly linked to survival (you have to participate in the market to earn money with which you can at least afford basic necessities for survival).

Participants of the market are not free agents.

Question 17

Effect of the welfare state on the market mechanism

Answer 17

The welfare state causes distortions of the market mechanism, moving it away from an ideal cash nexus. This happens because welfare states offer cash benefits that make it possible to survive independent of the labour market - people can then withhold labour, demand changes via labour unions, and certain services are no longer part of the market (e.g. healthcare, public transport, etc.)

Question 18

The three complementary meanings of the decommodification of labour (after introducing welfare state)

Answer 18

1. Cash benefits allow for withholding labour (e.g. waiting for a better opportunity, or better working environment)
2. Welfare states allow for the rise of trade unions that can demand less ideal working circumstances from market POV, but better for workers
3. Some services become independent of the market (e.g. healthcare, public transport, etc.)

Question 19

The feminine critique of decommodification by Orloff and Daly

Answer 19

The decommodification of labour assumes that all the labour of all individuals was commodified in the first place - but this only reflects the relationship between male workers and the welfare regime. Women’s labour is often only partly commodified (part-time work) or not at all. Therefore, they cannot be (fully) decommodified.

Question 20

How welfare states can help decommodify women (Esping-Andersen)

Answer 20

1. Women have to be commodified first. In order for this to happen, the welfare state must defamilialise them - reduce the dependency of women on unpaid labour, the taking care of the family (e.g. by offering free childcare services, allow for parental leave).
2. Once women’s labour is commodified, their labour can be second-instance decommodified. Women can become decommodified when care is the basis of a right, and not only results from unpaid labour from women.

Question 21

Familialism (social outcomes)

Answer 21

Welfare state system prioritising the family as responsible for care and welfare of its members, rather than relying on the government

(Limit’s women’s participation in the labour market - keeps them from commodifying)

Question 22

Defamilialism (social outcomes)

Answer 22

Welfare state policies reduce individual’s dependence on family members for care and financial support.

(Relieves women from unpaid caregiving responsibilities, promoting greater autonomy and independence from other family members such as a breadwinning husband)

Question 23

Public familialism (policy mechanism)

Answer 23

Welfare state policies that explicitly state that families are the primary providers of care and welfare for their members

(State provides little to no support via social services or cash benefits, and often legally prescribes familial responsibilities)

Question 24

Public defamilialisation (policy mechanism)

Answer 24

Welfare state policies that reduce the dependence of the individual on the family members, for care and financial support. (Social services such as free childcare at maternity leave are available, enables women to participate in the labour market)

Question 25

The cost disease

Answer 25

When services become more expensive than the average price rise ((social)services become disproportionally more expensive in comparison to other goods on the market)

Question 26

Three types of welfare regimes dealing with the cost disease

Answer 26

1. Servant Liberal-Residualist WSR 2. DIY Conservative-Corporatist WSR 3. Public Service Social-Democratic WSR

Question 27

Servant Liberal-Residualist WSR characteristics (2 + example)

Answer 27

1. Some services disappear because they become too expensive 2. Increased inequality and poverty (some can still afford services, others cannot) Example: Poorer people becoming nanny's for children of richer people, poorer people becoming dogwalkers for richer people, etc.

Question 28

DIY Conservative-Corporatist WSR characteristic (1 + example)

Answer 28

1. Slower growth of service sector as people do many things themselves (so, little supply and demand for many services) Example: people working from home so they can watch their kids

Question 29

Public Service Social-Democratic WSR characteristics (2 + example)

Answer 29

1. State provides public services 2. Growth of the public service sector (lots of supply and demand) Example: free childcare offered by the state

Question 30

Recommodification

Answer 30

Public services that had become decommodified at the introduction of the welfare state, becoming commodified again (recommodified) because the welfare state decided to outsource these public services to private companies (making them market commodities dependent on the market mechanism again) Example: public transport

Question 31

Privatisation

Answer 31

When the welfare state outsources public services to private companies. This shifts the responsibility for the quality of public services from the state onto private actors.

Question 32

Residualisation (Crouch)

Answer 32

When a public service is outsourced to the market, private actors will want to engage with offering the most profitable services (often those are the ones commonly used). This results in service 'residuals'; services that are least profitable because they are used much less. The consequences of this are that those residual services often become super expensive and have long waiting lists because they are offered by a limited number of private agents.

Question 33

Third party contracts (Gilbert) definition

Answer 33

Represents how service delivery is separated and executed by distinct entities, often a result of privatisation.

Question 34

The third party contracts (Gilbert)

Answer 34

1st Party (payer): Purchases the goods or services, but does not use them 2nd party (consumer): Uses the goods or services but does not pay for them 3rd party (provider): Provides the goods or services but does not use or pay for them (most advantageous position --> deals with a buyer that does not consume, and a consumer who does not buy)

Question 35

Crouch's argument regarding universal equal citizenship status and public services

Answer 35

People should have equal access to public services based on universal equal citizenship status.

Question 36

Universal equal citizenship status (Crouch)

Answer 36

No difference between citizens in what their rights are based on income or social status.

Question 37

Barriers to accessing public services (Crouch)

Answer 37

The market mechanism is a barrier to public services: without sufficient resources, you cannot purchase them).