The Welfare State

Understanding the Welfare State

• Definition:
  • Broadly: A government that facilitates programs promoting social welfare.
  • Specifically: A state committed to influencing markets and social forces to achieve greater equality (Ruggie 1984).

Origins of the Welfare State

• Demand for state intervention increased post major global events:
  • Post WWI
  • Great Depression
  • Post WWII
• Citizens insisted that the state improve the population's quality of life.

Welfare State Provisions

• Financial Support:
  • Labour wages
  • Employment insurance
  • Old-age pensions
• Health and Social Insurance:
  • Insurance against illness
  • Health insurance
• Aid Programs:
  • Support for the poor and individuals with disabilities

Welfare State Outputs

• Cash Benefits:
  • Old-age pensions
  • Unemployment benefits
  • Social assistance
• Goods and Services:
  • Food stamps
  • Subsidized housing
  • Prescription drugs
  • Child care
  • Elderly care
  • Health care
  • Education
  • Labour market training
• Regulatory Frameworks:
  • Minimum wage
  • Workplace health and safety
  • Statutory holidays
  • Child labour laws

Mechanisms for Providing Welfare

• Welfare can be provided through various sectors:
  • Public sector
  • Private sector
  • Nonprofit/community sector
  • Informal sector

Key Theorist: Gosta Esping-Andersen

• Background:
  • Danish sociologist and leading theorist of welfare state.
• Notable Contribution:
  • Categorizing and comparing welfare states as "regime types"

Influencing Factors on Welfare State Types

1. Pattern of working-class political formation
2. Political coalition building in transitioning from rural economy to middle-class society
3. Historical legacy of regime institutionalization

Classification of Welfare States

• Degrees of Decommodification:
  • Reliance on social rights and livelihood without dependence on the state
• Degrees of Social Stratification:

Types of Welfare States

1. Liberal Welfare State:

   • Market-led
   • High degrees of stratification
   • Low decommodification
   • Private/market delivery; welfare not seen as a right

2. Conservative Welfare State (Bismarckian):

   • Families responsible for securing welfare
   • Moderate decommodification
   • Moderate stratification

3. Social-Democratic Welfare State:

   • High decommodification
   • Low stratification
   • Welfare viewed as a right; state responsible for delivery

Epsing-Andersen's Typology Summary

Canada's Welfare State

Allocation of Tax Dollars (2016-2017)

• Breakdown:
  • Public Debt Charges: 7.7¢
  • Elderly Benefits: 15.4¢
  • Employment Insurance: 6.6¢
  • Children’s Benefits: 7¢
  • Other Transfers: 13¢
  • Healthcare Transfers: 12¢
  • National Defence: 8¢

Gender and the Welfare State

• Impact on Women:
  • Women generally earn lower wages, leading to lower pensions
  • Lower likelihood of receiving employer benefits
  • In countries like the US, benefits tied to employment result in stigma for non-benefit recipients
  • Women's unpaid roles in family care (child and elderly care)

Ann Orloff: Gender Relations and Welfare States

• Gender relations shape the welfare state and vice versa:
  • Compulsory heterosexuality and the division of labor influence welfare systems
  • Calls for comparative analyses of how gender affects and is affected by welfare state dynamics

Dominant Approaches to Gender and Welfare States

1. Reproduction of Gender Inequality:

   • Welfare states uphold traditional gender roles, reinforcing economic disparities
   • Traditional marriage dynamics keep women in domestic roles

2. Amelioration of Gender Inequality:

   • Post-WWII improvements in poverty for women
   • Welfare states help support single mothers.

Comparative Analysis of Gender in Welfare States

• Can investigate:
  • Women's roles as policymakers in welfare development
  • The influence of motherhood on welfare formation
  • Comparison of how welfare regimes affect gender relations
  • The relationship between states and markets on women's labor force participation.