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Theory and Practice of theWelfare State in Europe
Session 07Ryszard Szarfenberg Ph.D. Hab.
Institute of Social Policy
Course web page
www.ips.uw.edu.pl/rszarf/welfare-state/
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For and Against the Welfare State
Based on Paul Wildings Essay and
Other Sources
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Wildings Eight Sets of Arguments
1. the achievement of the welfare state hasbeen considerable
2. the welfare state enjoys widespreadpopularity
3. welfare state policies are an efficient way ofmeeting social needs
4. such policies are the most effective way of
supplementing, complementing andcorrecting the shortcomings of the economicmarket
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Wildings Eight Sets of Arguments
5. welfare state policies are the only satisfactoryway of meeting needs which other traditionalsources of welfare can no longer supply
6. the welfare state is an important mechanism
for securing political stability
7. it provides a basis on which to build agenuine welfare society
8. the welfare state is based on values whichare the necessary basis for fair and civilisedsocial life
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Achievements
To stress the achievement of the welfare state
is not to ignore gaps, shortcomings and
failures. The aim is not to induce
complacency, but rather to paint a more
balanced picture of the situation than isprovided by most assessments, which focus on
what has not been achieved rather than on
actual achievement. What is plain from anykind of objective assessment of the welfare
state is that it has achieved a great deal
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Popularity
People support the welfare state both becausethey believe in the values on which it rests
and which it expresses. The market system
may be logical, coherent and compelling to
ideologues. But the idea that the market will
at times offend our ideas of distributive justice
but that we must nevertheless bear with it for
the sake of a greater good - is simply notacceptable to most people
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Support for redistribution by countries, grouped
into welfare regimes
U. Dallinger, Increasing income inequalities and public
support for redistribution, 2009
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Social Policy Support
J. Edlund, S. Svallfors, Cohort, class and attitudes to
redistribution: Britain and the US, 1996-2006, 2009
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Social Policy Support
J. Edlund, S. Svallfors, Cohort, class and attitudes to
redistribution: Britain and the US, 1996-2006, 2009
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Efficiency
What is being argued here is not that thewelfare state is always efficient.. Theargument being outlined is that publicprovision is not inherently inefficient, that
loose assumptions, for example, aboutautomatic 'efficiency savings' releasing moneyfor growth are an absolute nonsense untilinefficiencies are clearly defined. What isevident is that public services can be, andoften are, highly efficient enterprises.
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Answer to Market Shortcomings
There is just no evidence of a systematicrelationship between the level of publicexpenditure in a particular country andeconomic performance. The argument of
welfare state supporters is that state welfareservices can supplement , complement andcorrect the shortcomings of the market , anddo so without the economic and social coststo growth and social order, which are such ananxiety to welfare state critics.
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Meeting Needs for Care
The state has moved more decisively into thefield of social care as, and because, traditionalinstitutions have shown themselves unable toprovide an acceptable level of care.
Supporters of the welfare state would notargue that this means the state must provideall the services required. But it is hard to see
what other body apart from the state canprovide, regulate, or finance the necessaryservices.
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Political Stability
The balance of evidence and argument seemsto suggest that capitalist democracy is afundamentally unstable compromise, that itsinstability becomes more obvious in recession,
but that it is supported and stabilised ratherthan destabilised by welfare state policies.Threatening problems - for exampleunemployment - are eased, the authority andstanding of government are legitimised, amiddle way is opened up.
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Potential to Solve Social Problems
What is very striking is how all the main socialservices have evolved since 1948 - indirections which were never anticipated atthat time. This ability to evolve and develop in
response to change in society, newunderstanding of problems and new insightsinto how problems can be resolved, is one ofthe great strengths of social policies - so longas they are given the freedom and the fundingrequired for creative responses.
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Civilised and Stable Life it is based on those values most likely to provide a
firm and satisfactory base for civilised and stablelife in society - co-operation and the sharing ofburdens, reduction of inequalities, justice andfairness, altruism, humanitarianism and a concern
for social need, fellowship and rights ofcitizenship The welfare state also expresses man'screativity, his refusal to take the outcomes ofsupposed economic laws for granted when they
affront his ideas of distributive justice It appealsto man's imaginative and social nature and to hisbelief in the possibility of progress.
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Four Special Arguments against the
Welfare State
welfare state policies are no more than apalliative, are primarily concerned with socialcontrol, and should be regarded as an
instrument for legitimating and sustaining,rather than transforming, capitalism
the welfare state sustained patriarchy
the welfare state is damaging for freedom the welfare state has damaging social effects
(its divisive and disruptive results on society)
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Welfare State and Freedom
The basis of freedom in society is a low level ofgovernment intervention in economic and social life
welfare state services usually offer no choice andprovide further threats to freedom by, in effect,imposing a maximum standard on what is availableto consumers
the power of professionals and bureaucrats the
welfare state services 'put some people in a positionto decide what is good for other people
the inevitable conflict between equality and freedom
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R. E. Goodin, Reasons
for Welfare, 1988, p.
331
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Theory of Demoralisation of Society
Weakening ties
Consumptionism
Disintegrationof
marriagesand families
fraud, idleness,
irresponsibility
entrepreneurship,
thrift, self-restraint
Welfare state
rewards
punishes
Individualism
Reduced innovation in
economy
Demoralized
underclass in urbanghettos
Proposals of the new
social policies which
rewards proper behaviour
and punishes wrong one
It is American conservatives way of critique of US
social assistance style in 1980.
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