Social Democracy And Welfare Capitalism

What has brought about the widespread public provision of welfare and income security within free-market liberalism? Some social scientists have regarded welfare as a preindustrial atavism; others, as a functional requirement of industrial society. Most recently, scholars have stressed the reformist actions of center-left parties during the decades following World War II, the workings of "new" post-industrial politics lately, and a multifaceted role of politics and state institutions overall. Alexander Hicks thoroughly revises these views, stressing the enduring significance of class organizations, however politically embedded, from the era of Bismark until the present. Social Democracy and Welfare Capitalism describes and explains income security programs in affluent and democratic capitalist nations, from the proto-democratic innovators of the 1880s to the globally buffeted democracies of the 1990s. Hicks's account stresses the reformist role of employee political and economic organization and derivative institutions, in particular, social democratic parties, labor unions, and neo-corporatist arrangements. These forces, arrayed as the elements of a transnational and century-long social democratic movement, give direction and continuity to the emergence, development, and contestation of income security policies.

Argues that in the current context of global economic and technological developments social democracy has become obsolete. Suggests that a 'communitarian liberalism' is a natural successor to both neoliberalism and social democracy.

Few discussions in modern social science have occupied as much attention as the changing nature of welfare states in western societies. Gosta Esping-Andersen, one of the most distinguished contributors to current debates on this issue, here provides a new analysis of the character and role of welfare states in the functioning of contemporary advanced western societies. Esping-Andersen distinguishes several major types of welfare state, connecting these with variations in the historical development of different western countries. Current economic processes, the author argues, such as those moving towards a post-industrial order, are not shaped by autonomous market forces but by the nature of states and state differences. Fully informed by comparative materials, this book will have great appeal to everyone working on issues of economic development and post-industrialism. Its audience will include students and academics in sociology, economics and politics.

First published in 1991. The Welfare State in Capitalist Society, uses a methodological approach that draws extensively on comparative material. It presents an analysis of the fortunes of the modern welfare state in conditions of economic and ideological adversity is able to generate propositions of significance; sweeping masterfully over developments on three continents, it distilling a multiplicity of discrete domestic events into a coherent, comprehensible account.

This book traces how individuals fare over time in each of the three principal types of welfare state.

First published in 1978, The Working Class in Welfare Capitalism looks at the position of the working class in the Swedish pattern of welfare capitalism and compares it with other capitalist industrial countries. Beginning with an analysis of class, class conflict, power and social change in classical and modern social theory, Professor Korpi discusses the development of the Swedish labour movement and its strategies of class conflict. He focuses on the situation of the worker at the workplace and in the community, on the functioning of the labour union, on industrial conflict, and on the political views and standpoints of the workers. He also examines political developments in Sweden and discusses the prospects for a development towards economic democracy. A challenging and comprehensive study of Swedish social democracy in action, carried out by a Swede within a comparative frame of reference, the book presents an analysis which is of central relevance to all capitalist societies, especially when mass communist parties in Europe appear to be moving towards reformistic socialism. This book will be of interest to students of sociology, social class, economy and history.

This volume provides an analytical framework that links welfare states to party systems, combining recent contributions to the comparative political economy of the welfare state and insights from party and electoral politics