Module I - The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism

Question 1

What is T.H. Marshall’s Model?

Answer 1

Civil Rights → Political Rights → Social Rights

Question 2

What is meant by De-commodification?

Answer 2

The extend to which an individual is penalized economically for not participating in (or opting out of) the labour market.

Question 3

What is meant by Stratification?

Answer 3

To what extent does the welfare state alter and/or reinforce existing social structures (increase or decrease of differences between classes/wealthy and poor)?

Question 4

What is the philosophy and priority of the liberal regime?

Answer 4

Maximize the impact of the market and the “cash nexus” (money and transactions is what defines relationships)
Help the most needy, let the rest fend for themselves
→ Modest social entitlements based on need (Income-replacement in private insurance market)

Question 5

How is the stratification in the liberal regime? How is it measured?

Answer 5

Stratification High: bifurcated, basic protection by the state for everyone but only the wealthier can afford additional (privat, market-based) protection to keep their positions; partially even further enforced through tax subsidies for so-called ‘private’ welfare plans

Measure: – Share of means-tested programs – Share of privately funded social insurance

Question 6

What is the philosophy and priority of the conservative regime?

Answer 6

1. Maintain social cohesion and discipline
2. Protect existing status differences.
3. Safeguard Catholic subsidiarity (“Keep it in the family”)
   → Varying entitlements based on contribution in the labor market (for house-holds, not individuals)

Question 7

How is stratification in the conservative regime? How is it measured?

Answer 7

Stratification High: keeping existing differences up through insurance that depends on your employment, multi-faceted (corporatist)
Measure: – Corporatism (occupationally distinct programs) – Etatism (especially civil service privileges, „Beamten“)

Question 8

What is the philosophy and priority of the soc.dem. regime?

Answer 8

Minimize the impact of the market (and the family) on individuals’ well-being minimize social stratification
→ Generous entitlements based on citizenship or residence (incl. public income-replacement to attract middle class)
→ Fusion of welfare and work

Question 9

How is stratification in the soc.dem. regime? How is it measured?

Answer 9

Stratification Low: all citizens have similar rights, irrespective of class or market position
Measure: – Universality of coverage – Benefit equality

Question 10

How to measure De-Commodification? (5 measures)

Answer 10

“the degree to which individuals or families can uphold a socially acceptable standard of living independently of market participation”
1. Conditions for entitlement (by Need, contributions, or universal citizenship right?)
2. Benefit duration
3. Replacement rate of previous wage income
4. Population coverage
5. Risk coverage (Old-age, sickness, unemployment, etc.)

Question 11

What are theoretical Labour market expectations of the three regimes?

Answer 11

1. Liberal regime
   – Modest pensions promote later exit
   – Modest benefits for maternity, parental leave, and sickness promote female participation
2. Conservative regime
   – Early retirement availability promote earlier exit
   – Subsidiarity principle discourages female participation
3. Social democratic regime
   – Full-employment commitment, incl. older workers
   – Public social services promote female participation through both demand-side and supply-side effects
   – But temporary absenteeism is higher

Question 12

What caused the different regimes? (4 things)

Answer 12

1. Historical institutionalism (path dependence)
2. Class structure and class mobilization
3. Religion (the Catholic Church in particular)
4. Inter-class coalitions (the importance of the agrarian sector and the growing middle class)

Question 13

How is path dependency created by the welfare regimes?

Answer 13

Stratification: The existing regime creates its own “winners”, who will support maintaining it.

Question 14

What is the role of Class Structure and Class Mobilization?

Answer 14

Working class mobilization itself not a sufficient explanation
→ Early welfare policies introduced by non-socialists, but by e.g. Bismarck to save his position
→ Workers are not destined to become social democrats
The agrarian sector – a potential ally to either the working class or the bourgeoisie
→ Which side they chose depended on the structure of agricultural production

Question 15

What role did religion play for the conservative regimes

Answer 15

1. The Catholic church’s principle of subsidiarity: The family is the nucleus of society
2. Letter from Pope Leo XIII (1891) against free capitalism and socialism, against state interference to families

Question 16

Inter-class coalitions: Why is the middle-class the central actor?

Answer 16

In the Social Democratic regime, they too benefit from the welfare state

In the Liberal regime, they are paying for the welfare state, but receiving very little

In the Conservative regime, corporatist organization of social insurance include all employed citizens, not just the working class

Question 17

What is the feminist critique to GEA?

Answer 17

1. To much focus on the average production worker, which is usually male → no atypical households
2. De-commodification needs commodification first, different policies make it easier for women to work
3. Debatable whether de-commodification is the same as personal autonomy

Question 18

What does GEA mean by de-familialization?

Answer 18

“The degree to which social policy (or perhaps markets) render women autonomous to become ‘commodified’, or to set up independent households, in the first place.”

Question 19

What policies lessen individuals’ reliance on the family? (4 policies)

Answer 19

(1) non-health family service expenditure
(2) family allowances and tax-deductions
(3) the diffusion of public child care and
(4) the supply of care to the aged

Question 20

GEA says there are three welfare regimes. What regimes do scholars name, who argue for only two or even five regimes?

Answer 20

Only two: – Means-tested vs. insurance-based. The liberal regime vs. the rest.

Five:

A ‘Familialist’ Mediterranean Regime: Income protection more dualized and stronger degree of familialism than in northern Continental countries; Clientelism: state transfers or public jobs are exchanged for party support (“extended family”?)

Antipodean countries: Australia’s and New Zealand’s liberal model, but: 
But social assistance is more inclusive: income ceiling for eligibility is drawn at middle incomes, not at poverty line — Pensions and family-benefits cover larger shares of the population

Question 21

Why is healthcare expenditure not depending on the WS type?

Answer 21

1. Professionalization results in low plasticity (cannot be provided by e.g. family)
2. Maybe too important to leave in the hands of non-state actors

Question 22

What effect has the decline of the working class on party policies? (Gingrich and Häusermann)

Answer 22

1. A change in left parties’ policy priorities from (pro-worker) social protection to (pro-middle- class) ‘social investments’ (through a reconfiguration of the welfare support coalition)
2. With stronger working-class support, right-wing parties become more in favor of de-commodification