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Lecture notes of 6 pages for the course The Governance and Politics of Social Problems at VU (college notes)
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GPSP week 7 lecture 13 - maandag 11 december - André KrouwelWelfare state
Important for the exam is the dimensions and the difference between the four welfare
states
What makes welfare states tick, who gets the money, who is the beneficiary the agent of the
distribution
Decommodification → the core element of it: to what extent are you taken out of the market
And who is insured
You need to know the general trends, the general theories, the general differences
Social problems
There are tensions between desirable states of people vis a vis actual social conditions in
which they live. There will always be social differences and inequalities.
Inequality and poverty
Societies react to alleviate social problems, remove them or even prevent their emergence:
for reasons of stability (political, health, etc.), not necessarily for empathy reasons. It is for a
collective approach to social problems.
- Even from ancient times authorities started to intervene in social problems.
- Solon’s reforms in the 7th century B.C → battle inequality
- Middle-ages → preventative measures to limit spread of contagious disease
- All time → orphanages to take care of children
- Industrial revolution → changes in the ways of production, settlement, political
organisation, living conditions and values/mindsets of people
- Lots of health problems, poverty
- When you have a massive movement of people to a new social situation or structure
you lose the traditional network of support: food, family, etc. → urbanisation in
industrial revolution
- Present time: Refugee groups stick together in a similar place who have the
same informal network as you to give support.
Origins of the welfare state
- Economic context:
- Industrialisation
- Rise of modern/advanced capitalism
- Rapid urbanisation
- Why and how:
- Breakdown of traditional forms of welfare provision: family/village
networks, feudal ties, churches
- Resulting in massive pauperism; widespread poverty amongst the
working classes
- Economic growth has generated the resources necessary for the state
to meet rising social needs
- Political context:
- Devastation after world war I asked for a common social cause
, - Promote social insurance schemes
- Set up norms for international best practice
- Contribute to internationalisation of social security
- Rise of labour movement
- Spread of civil rights and mass democracy
- The workers had the worst conditions and had no social security
- This created a lot of instability and that had to be counteracted
- Great depression
- Disrupted economy and wiped a lot of wealth
- Countries became aware that they had to do something about this enormous
drop of wages.
- If a large proportion of a country lose their wages, shop owners also
get into trouble
- Between WW1 en WW2 countries started doing austerity measures and
started cutting down on social welfare
- This made the bad social conditions worse
→ radicalised left and right
- HOWEVER the economic stagnation also paved the way of social policy
transformation and a new stage of welfare state development
Welfare state theory: Esping-Andersen
Different welfare states emerged in different parts of the world. North, south and central
European welfare states differ.
- Different patterns of political conflict.
- Countries with big religious conflicts are likely to create large important
religious parties.
- Different social and political institutions
- Existing institutions they work through history and are used to work on the
welfare state
- Different political parties/unions
- Where there were large landlords in Europe there is a very strong leftwing
they have very radical unions.
- Where small farming existed and farmers owned their land they have a very
right wing political culture. South is very conservative because of this.
- Different economic structures and growth
- Different aims of social policies
Ideal types
From these historical trajectories you can distinguish 3 welfare states
BELANGRIJK:
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