Schustereder Welfare State Change in Leading OECD Countries

The Influence of Post-Industrial and Global Economic Developments
1. Auflage 2010
ISBN: 978-3-8349-8622-1
Verlag: Betriebswirtschaftlicher Verlag Gabler
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: 1 - PDF Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 226 Seiten, Web PDF

Reihe: Business and Economics

1. 1 Research Scope Ever since the introduction of social insurance legislation beginning in the last th decades of the 19 century, social scientists have been interested in analyzing the causal forces behind the development of the modern welfare state. Precisely, for most of the period the academic debate has hereby mainly centered on the following qu- tions: Why was the welfare state founded in the first place? And which factors have 1 contributed to its rapid expansion in the aftermath of World War Two (WWII)? With the advanced capitalist welfare states beginning to face increasing ch- lenges from the mid-1970s onwards, academic research has recently shifted from providing explanations on the rise of the welfare state to understanding processes of welfare state adaptation. In general, advanced capitalist welfare states confront today two types of challenges: on the one hand, pressures from post-industrial devel- ments, and on the other hand, pressures from global economic forces (see Buti, Franco, and Pench, 1998, pp. 17-26). Following Pierson (2001a), the most severe “post-industrial pressures” (p. 80) involve ongoing processes of deindustrialization, population ageing, changing household structures, and welfare state maturation (pp. 82-83). Apart from these domestic challenges, advanced capitalist welfare states have recently also been affected by developments occurring in the global sphere. While processes of international economic integration had already resumed in the imme- ate aftermath of WWII, they have significantly intensified during the last four decades.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Schustereder, Ingmar

Inhaltsverzeichnis

The Welfare State and Welfare Capitalism.- Theoretical Foundations of the Welfare State.- Worlds of Welfare Capitalism: Interlinking Welfare State and Production Regimes.- Historical Development and Contemporary Challenges of the Advanced Capitalist Welfare State.- Historical Phases of Welfare State Development.- Post-Industrial Challenges of the Contemporary Capitalist Welfare State.- Economic Globalization and the Contemporary Capitalist Welfare State.- Empirical Analyses of the Driving Forces Behind the Contemporary Capitalist Welfare State.- Methodological Issues in Comparative Welfare Capitalism Research.- A Quantitative Study on the Determinants of Welfare Spending.- A Qualitative Study on the Recent Development Process of Advanced Capitalist Welfare States.- Summarized Findings and Conclusion.

Leseproben

5 Post-Industrial Challenges of the Contemporary Capitalist Welfare State (S. 45-46)

As briefly outlined in the introduction to Part II, nation states are not only confronted with challenges arising from increasing international economic integration, but also have to face severe strains in the domestic realm. Reviewing prior classifications of the driving forces of welfare state change (for example, Brady et al., 2005, pp. 922-925, Brady et al., 2007, pp. 318-320, Ellison, 2006, pp. 48-59, Genschel, 2004, Hicks, 1999, pp. 157-168, Chapter 7, Koster, 2008, pp. 2-3), the author identifies a school of thought, which takes a critical stance toward welfare state-globalization nexus oriented views (see Chapter 6.3).

Precisely, this theoretical perspective downplays the role of global economic forces, suggesting instead that domestic factors are by far more important drivers of contemporary welfare state development (for example, Castles, 2001, Iversen, 2001, Iversen & Cusack, 2000, Pierson, 2001a, Pierson, 1996, Pierson, 1994/ 1997). As a consequence, they have been looking at so-called “post-industrial pressures” (Pierson, 2001a, p. 80) evolving within advanced capitalist welfare states in order to identify possible determinants of public social spending.

Among the various factors, Pierson (2001a) considers processes of deindustrialization, population ageing, changing household structures, and welfare state maturation to be the most severe post-industrial challenges for contemporary welfare states (pp. 82-83, see Buti et al., 1998, pp. 17-22, Esping-Andersen, 2005). Following Pierson’s (2001a) analysis, the author will shed light on each of these domestic welfare state pressures. Finally, the chapter will also focus on the potential implications these post-industrial developments are likely to have for the political decision-making process.

5.1 The Phenomenon of Deindustrialization

During the last four decades OECD countries have seen a dramatic fall in the share of agricultural and industrial employment relative to total employment – a phenomenon commonly termed as process of deindustrialization (Rowthorn & Ramaswamy, 1997, p. 4). As depicted in Figure 2, the employment share of both sectors amounted to 60 percent of total civilian employment for Continental-European and Nordic countries and 50 percent for Anglo-Saxon countries in 1960, by 2000, this share has decreased to 30 percent in almost all high-income countries (see Iversen & Cusack, 2000, pp. 314-315).

Über Autor(innen)

Dr. Ingmar J. Schustereder earned his doctoral degree from the European Business School under Prof. Dr. Joachim Ahrens’ supervision. He lives in Vienna and works for an international management consultancy.