Literatuur Key Challenges to the Welfare State
Sarah Rose
Week 1: Introduction 1
Cousins: Welfare State Theories (2005) 1
De Swaan: The beginnings of social security (1988) 2
Week 2: Post-industrialisation 4
Webster: Post-industrial society - Daniel Bell (1995) 4
Bonoli: Post-industrialization and Welfare State (2007) 6
Week 3: Individualisation 8
De Beer: Individualization Netherlands (2007) 8
Achterberg & Raven: Individualisation and solidarity (2012) 10
Week 4: Aging 11
World Health Organization: chapter 3 - Health in older age (2015) 12
World Health Organization: chapter 5- Long-term-care systems (2015) 13
Week 5: Migration 14
Reeskens & Van der Meer: The inevitable deservingness gap (2019) 14
Seibel & Renema: Migrants’ and natives’ attitudes (2021) 17
Week 6: Gender 20
Portegijs & Van den Brakel: Emancipation Monitor (2016) 20
Ciccia & Sainsbury: Gendering welfare state analysis (2018) 21
, Week 1: Introduction
Cousins: Welfare State Theories (2005)
In his chapter, Cousins discusses six different theoretical approaches to welfare state
development, i.e. theories on why welfare states developed in Western Europe by the end of
the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries:
1. The logic of industrialisation thesis
2. The functionalist Marxist approach
3. Modernisation theory
4. The power resources approach
5. The social organization of production thesis
6. The institutional approach
a. Summarise, in only few sentences, each of these theories.
1. The welfare state emerges as part of the logic of industrialization
○ They saw the welfare state as emerging to meet the needs of society at a
certain stage of industrialisation, modernisation or advanced capitalism
○ Industrialism and Industrial Man. The world is entering a new age – the
age of total industrialization.
2. The welfare state developed in response to the needs of advanced capitalism
○ Welfare spending was a contradictory process which created tendencies
towards economic, social and political crisis.
○ O’Connor argued that ‘the capitalist state must try to fulfill two basic and often
mutually contradictory functions – accumulation and legitimation.
3. The welfare state is a product of modernization of societies
○ This saw the welfare state as a general phenomenon of modernisation, as a
product of the increasing differentiation and the growing size of societies, on
the one hand, and of processes of social and political mobilization, on the
other.
4. The welfare state is shaped by struggles over politics and social class, mainly:
○ Power resources
○ Social democracy
○ The role of the middle classes
○ Bringing employers back in
5. Welfare states are shaped by the social organization of production
○ Welfare programmes have developed in response to the progression of
industrial capitalism, and the nature and form of welfare states is determined
by the social organization of production.
6. The welfare state is determined by the structure and interests of the state or polity
○ State-centred
○ A broader institutional approach
The key strands in current welfare state thinking can be summarized under the following
headlines:
1. Further development of existing theories
2. Gender and the welfare state
1
, 3. Typologies of welfare
4. The return of structural theories
a. Globalization
b. Deindustrialization
c. New politics of welfare
5. Politics with markets
b. Are the theories mutually exclusive (i.e. can only one theory be true while all the
other are false) or can they be combined, and if so: how?
The theories outlined above are not necessarily mutually exclusive and comparative studies
have argued that factors emphasized by a number of different approaches have an impact
on welfare state development (Huber and Stephens, 2001). It should also be emphasized
that the approaches outlined above are certainly not exhaustive and are simply indicative of
some of the main trends in welfare state theorizing in recent decades. In a number of cases,
there is considerable variation in the approach taken by different authors within different
approaches.
c. Each of the six approaches tells us something about the origins of the welfare
state, but do you think that (some of) the approaches can still help us to understand
what is happening to the welfare state today?
Yes → The further development of existing theories includes both approaches which seek to
add new elements to existing theories and those which seek to bring together and make
sense of a number of the different approaches outlined in the first section of this chapter.
De Swaan: The beginnings of social security (1988)
In his chapter, De Swaan analyzes the establishment of social security schemes in five
countries by the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries:
Germany, Great Britain, France, the USA and the Netherlands:
a. In his chapter, Cousins discusses six different theoretical approaches to welfare
state development (see above). Which of these six approaches does De Swaan apply
in his chapter?
These can all be applied, but I personally think the main approach is:
→ The welfare state is determined by the structure and interests of the state or polity
Bismarck’s beginning: Germany
Bismarck's all-German government had the first nationwide compulsory insurance scheme
against income loss. His scheme became the model for other countries and in its broad
outlines had survived two world wars, national socialism and foreign occupation as the
foundation of the West German welfare state. Bismarck’s short-term goal was to stem the
rapidly swelling tide of the workers movement by providing a social completement to the
repressive socialistengesetzt, the law against the socialist movement. More carefully
disguised was the intention to sidetrack the Reichstag, the parliament of the German state.
But none of these objectives materialized. But national insurance did succeed in creating
stronger bonds between the German workers and the new state.
2
Sarah Rose
Week 1: Introduction 1
Cousins: Welfare State Theories (2005) 1
De Swaan: The beginnings of social security (1988) 2
Week 2: Post-industrialisation 4
Webster: Post-industrial society - Daniel Bell (1995) 4
Bonoli: Post-industrialization and Welfare State (2007) 6
Week 3: Individualisation 8
De Beer: Individualization Netherlands (2007) 8
Achterberg & Raven: Individualisation and solidarity (2012) 10
Week 4: Aging 11
World Health Organization: chapter 3 - Health in older age (2015) 12
World Health Organization: chapter 5- Long-term-care systems (2015) 13
Week 5: Migration 14
Reeskens & Van der Meer: The inevitable deservingness gap (2019) 14
Seibel & Renema: Migrants’ and natives’ attitudes (2021) 17
Week 6: Gender 20
Portegijs & Van den Brakel: Emancipation Monitor (2016) 20
Ciccia & Sainsbury: Gendering welfare state analysis (2018) 21
, Week 1: Introduction
Cousins: Welfare State Theories (2005)
In his chapter, Cousins discusses six different theoretical approaches to welfare state
development, i.e. theories on why welfare states developed in Western Europe by the end of
the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries:
1. The logic of industrialisation thesis
2. The functionalist Marxist approach
3. Modernisation theory
4. The power resources approach
5. The social organization of production thesis
6. The institutional approach
a. Summarise, in only few sentences, each of these theories.
1. The welfare state emerges as part of the logic of industrialization
○ They saw the welfare state as emerging to meet the needs of society at a
certain stage of industrialisation, modernisation or advanced capitalism
○ Industrialism and Industrial Man. The world is entering a new age – the
age of total industrialization.
2. The welfare state developed in response to the needs of advanced capitalism
○ Welfare spending was a contradictory process which created tendencies
towards economic, social and political crisis.
○ O’Connor argued that ‘the capitalist state must try to fulfill two basic and often
mutually contradictory functions – accumulation and legitimation.
3. The welfare state is a product of modernization of societies
○ This saw the welfare state as a general phenomenon of modernisation, as a
product of the increasing differentiation and the growing size of societies, on
the one hand, and of processes of social and political mobilization, on the
other.
4. The welfare state is shaped by struggles over politics and social class, mainly:
○ Power resources
○ Social democracy
○ The role of the middle classes
○ Bringing employers back in
5. Welfare states are shaped by the social organization of production
○ Welfare programmes have developed in response to the progression of
industrial capitalism, and the nature and form of welfare states is determined
by the social organization of production.
6. The welfare state is determined by the structure and interests of the state or polity
○ State-centred
○ A broader institutional approach
The key strands in current welfare state thinking can be summarized under the following
headlines:
1. Further development of existing theories
2. Gender and the welfare state
1
, 3. Typologies of welfare
4. The return of structural theories
a. Globalization
b. Deindustrialization
c. New politics of welfare
5. Politics with markets
b. Are the theories mutually exclusive (i.e. can only one theory be true while all the
other are false) or can they be combined, and if so: how?
The theories outlined above are not necessarily mutually exclusive and comparative studies
have argued that factors emphasized by a number of different approaches have an impact
on welfare state development (Huber and Stephens, 2001). It should also be emphasized
that the approaches outlined above are certainly not exhaustive and are simply indicative of
some of the main trends in welfare state theorizing in recent decades. In a number of cases,
there is considerable variation in the approach taken by different authors within different
approaches.
c. Each of the six approaches tells us something about the origins of the welfare
state, but do you think that (some of) the approaches can still help us to understand
what is happening to the welfare state today?
Yes → The further development of existing theories includes both approaches which seek to
add new elements to existing theories and those which seek to bring together and make
sense of a number of the different approaches outlined in the first section of this chapter.
De Swaan: The beginnings of social security (1988)
In his chapter, De Swaan analyzes the establishment of social security schemes in five
countries by the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries:
Germany, Great Britain, France, the USA and the Netherlands:
a. In his chapter, Cousins discusses six different theoretical approaches to welfare
state development (see above). Which of these six approaches does De Swaan apply
in his chapter?
These can all be applied, but I personally think the main approach is:
→ The welfare state is determined by the structure and interests of the state or polity
Bismarck’s beginning: Germany
Bismarck's all-German government had the first nationwide compulsory insurance scheme
against income loss. His scheme became the model for other countries and in its broad
outlines had survived two world wars, national socialism and foreign occupation as the
foundation of the West German welfare state. Bismarck’s short-term goal was to stem the
rapidly swelling tide of the workers movement by providing a social completement to the
repressive socialistengesetzt, the law against the socialist movement. More carefully
disguised was the intention to sidetrack the Reichstag, the parliament of the German state.
But none of these objectives materialized. But national insurance did succeed in creating
stronger bonds between the German workers and the new state.
2
