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.

Few discussions in modern social science have occupied as much attention as the changing nature of welfare states in Western societies. The author here provides a new analysis of the character and role of welfare states in the functioning of contemporary advanced Western societies. The author distinguishes three major types of welfare state, connecting these with variations in the historical development of different Western countries. He argues that current economic processes, such as those moving toward a postindustrial order, are shaped not by autonomous market forces but by the nature of states and state differences.

Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject Sociology - Politics, Majorities, Minorities, grade: 2, University of Tubingen, course: Comparative Research, language: English, abstract: In this paper Esping-Andersen’s “The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism” will be illustrated followed by an discussion which is concerned with an empirical critique that refers to the number of welfare-state regimes Esping-Andersen suggests. Since the end of the 20th century, welfare states emerged in every industrialized society to protect its citizens against certain risks and disadvantages. The national differences of these social protection systems are admittedly considerable. This diversity has been ever since an issue for historical and social science and poses challenging questions: What are the differences of the different nation systems? Where do they come from – do they exist due to political, cultural or economic reasons? In 1990 Gøsta Esping-Andersen published “The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism” which became a milestone concerning the field of comparative welfare state research. Since the The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism was published, it is extremely difficult to find even one article on welfare states in which Esping-Andersen’s approach is not at least mentioned. Reams of reviews, articles, critiques and additions were composed. An issue that is discussed ever since and which is still a topic of controversial debates is the number of regime types which should be distinguished. As the title already shows, Esping-Andersen suggests three distinctive welfare-types, but his empirical argumentation in particular caused a debate concerning the actual number of types.

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

This is the first book to compare the distinctive welfare states of Latin America, East Asia, and Eastern Europe. Stephan Haggard and Robert Kaufman trace the historical origins of social policy in these regions to crucial political changes in the mid-twentieth century, and show how the legacies of these early choices are influencing welfare reform following democratization and globalization. After World War II, communist regimes in Eastern Europe adopted wide-ranging socialist entitlements while conservative dictatorships in East Asia sharply limited social security but invested in education. In Latin America, where welfare systems were instituted earlier, unequal social-security systems favored formal sector workers and the middle class. Haggard and Kaufman compare the different welfare paths of the countries in these regions following democratization and the move toward more open economies. Although these transformations generated pressure to reform existing welfare systems, economic performance and welfare legacies exerted a more profound influence. The authors show how exclusionary welfare systems and economic crisis in Latin America created incentives to adopt liberal social-policy reforms, while social entitlements from the communist era limited the scope of liberal reforms in the new democracies of Eastern Europe. In East Asia, high growth and permissive fiscal conditions provided opportunities to broaden social entitlements in the new democracies. This book highlights the importance of placing the contemporary effects of democratization and globalization into a broader historical context.

A comparative analysis of the political attitudes, values, aspirations, and identities of citizens in advanced industrial societies, this book focusses on the different ways in which social policies and national politics affect personal opinions on justice, political responsibility, and the overall trustworthiness of politicians.