Comp Midterm

According to Gøsta Esping-Andersen, the degree to which citizens can maintain a socially acceptable livelihood independent of market participation is known as ______.

Decommodification

In Esping-Andersen's typology, the ______ welfare state regime is characterized by minimal de-commodification, strict means-testing, and modest universal transfers.

Liberal

Walter Korpi's ______ argues that the development and variation of welfare states are driven primarily by the political mobilization and organizational power of the working class.

Power resources approach

Peter Swenson challenges labor-centric explanations by proposing an ______ approach, arguing that certain segments of capital actively supported or consented to welfare expansion.

Employer-centered

Katherine Cramer uses in-depth listening methods to show that ______ shapes perceptions that rural communities are systematically disrespected and deprived of resources by urban elites.

Rural consciousness

Peter Hall defines a ______ as a overarching framework of ideas and standards that specifies not only policy goals and instruments, but the very nature of the problems being addressed.

Policy paradigm

In Peter Hall's framework of social learning, a radical shift that alters the overarching hierarchy of goals guiding policy—such as Britain's transition from Keynesianism to monetarism—is known as ______ change.

Third-order

A central social doctrine in Christian democratic ideology holding that social responsibilities should be handled by the smallest, least centralized competent authority is ______.

Subsidiarity

Paul Pierson argues that politics is subject to ______, where initial choices induce positive feedback and increasing returns, locking in institutional trajectories over time.

Path dependence

According to Arend Lijphart, an electoral outcome where a party wins a plurality of votes but is awarded an outright parliamentary majority of seats is called a ______.

Manufactured majority

Beyond decommodification, Esping-Andersen emphasizes that welfare states actively construct and order social relations and status structures, a dimension he terms ______.

Stratification

In Esping-Andersen's typology, the ______ welfare state regime emphasizes universalism, high decommodification, and the pre-emption of both market dependency and family reliance.

Social democratic

In Peter Swenson's taxonomy of coalition politics, groups that actively originate, champion, and lead the fight for welfare state expansions are labeled ______.

Protagonists

Swenson argues that employers in certain sectors support social insurance to cultivate and protect workers who possess ______ skills.

Asset-specific

In Peter Hall's model of social learning, policy adjustment that merely recalibrates the levels or settings of existing policy instruments is termed ______ change.

First-order

According to Peter Hall, introducing entirely new policy instruments while preserving the overarching goals of policy constitutes ______ change.

Second-order

Sheri Berman argues that the core ideological foundation of social democratic revisionism was the ______, which maintained that democratic state power should consciously guide and shape economic forces.

Primacy of politics

In Arend Lijphart's analysis of electoral rules, ______ refers to the number of legislative seats allocated to a single constituency or district.

District magnitude

The extent to which the share of seats won in an election differs from the share of votes cast for each party is known as ______.

Disproportionality

In Paul Pierson's framework of path dependence, a contingent historical moment characterized by heightened plasticity before a specific institutional path is locked in is called a ______.

Critical juncture

Decommodification

• The degree to which citizens can freely maintain a socially acceptable livelihood independent of direct market participation.

• Reduces individual vulnerability to labor market forces through state-guaranteed social rights and benefits.

• Highest in social democratic regimes and lowest in liberal regimes.

Stratification (Welfare Regimes)

• The process by which welfare policies actively order social relations, class divisions, and status hierarchies.

• Determines whether state policy cultivates universal solidarity or reinforces market-based class and status divisions.

• Emphasized by Gøsta Esping-Andersen alongside decommodification.

Power Resources Approach

• A theoretical model arguing that welfare state development and variations are driven by the political mobilization and organizational strength of the working class.

• Highlights the historical role of labor unions and left-wing political parties in extracting concessions.

• Advanced by Walter Korpi as a critique of employer-centric and structuralist accounts.

Employer-Centered Approach

• An analytical framework asserting that segments of capital actively supported or consented to welfare state expansion.

• Highlights cross-class alliances between organized labor and specific business sectors rather than pure class conflict.

• Advanced by Peter Swenson to challenge labor-exclusive models.

Asset-Specific Skills

• Specialized proficiencies tailored to distinct firms or industries that carry little transfer value across other sectors.

• Encourage both employers and workers to support robust social protections to safeguard substantial training investments.

Rural Consciousness

• An identity-centered perspective wherein rural citizens view their communities as systematically disrespected, ignored, and starved of resources by urban elites.

• Operates as a cognitive lens translating geographic identity into political resentment.

• Identified by Katherine Cramer through in-depth ethnographic listening methods.

Policy Paradigm

• A cognitive framework of shared ideas and standards that structures the policymaking process.

• Specifies not only policy goals and instruments, but also the conceptual nature of the problems being addressed.

• Formulated by Peter Hall in the study of social learning.

Third-Order Change

• A sweeping transformation that overhauls the fundamental hierarchy of goals guiding public policy.

• Involves simultaneous shifts in goals, policy instruments, and instrument settings (e.g., Britain's transition from Keynesianism to monetarism).

• Typically driven by the accumulation of anomalies, public debate, and shifting political authority.

Subsidiarity

• A foundational Christian democratic doctrine asserting that social obligations should be addressed by the smallest, least centralized competent social unit.

• Prioritizes families, religious organizations, and local intermediate bodies over central state administration.

Manufactured Majority

• An electoral result in which a political party captures an absolute majority of legislative seats without winning an absolute majority of popular votes.

• A frequent outcome in single-member plurality electoral systems due to high levels of disproportionality.

Path Dependence

• A process whereby early institutional choices trigger increasing returns and positive feedback loops that lock in a particular trajectory over time.

• Dramatically elevates the economic and political costs of exiting or revising established institutions.

• Analyzed by Paul Pierson to explain long-term institutional stability in politics.

Critical Juncture

• A contingent historical period characterized by heightened fluidity and agency, during which structural constraints relax.

• Choices made during this window select among competing paths, triggering subsequent institutional lock-in and positive feedback.

Worlds of welfare

-Decommodification; stratification; why total spending is a poor measure of a welfare state

-The three welfare regimes (liberal, conservative, social democratic) and example countries

-Means-testing vs. universalism; the class-mobilization thesis; coalitions and the middle class

-Esping-Anderson

Who built the welfare state?

-Korpi: Power resources approach; protagonists, consenters, antagonists; critique of varieties of capitalism

-Swenson: Employer-centered approach; cross-class alliances; segmentalism vs. cartelism; asset-specific skills

-(Sweden, the US New Deal), and where they disagree