Culture and Welfare State: Values and Social Policy in Comparative Perspective

by Wim van Oorschot, Michael Opielka, Birgit Pfau-Effinger

Overview

Culture and Welfare State provides comparative studies on the interplay between cultural factors and welfare policies. Starting with an analysis of the historical and cultural foundations of Western European welfare states, reflected in the competing ideologies of liberalism, conservatism and socialism, the book goes on to compare the Western European welfare model to those in North America, Asia and Central and Eastern Europe. Comprehensive and engaging, this volume examines not only the relationships between cultural change and welfare restructuring, taking empirical evidence from policy reforms in contemporary Europe, but also the popular legitimacy of welfare, focusing particularly on the underlying values, beliefs and attitudes of people in European countries.

This book will be of great interest to sociologists and political scientists, as well as social policy experts interested in a cultural perspective on the welfare state.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781845423896
Publisher:	Edward Elgar Publishing
Publication date:	06/30/2008
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Edited by Wim van Oorschot, Professor of Social Policy, University of Leuven, Belgium, Michael Opielka, Institute for Social Ecology and Birgit Pfau-Effinger, Professor of Sociology, University of Hamburg, Germany

Table of Contents

Contents:

1. The Culture of the Welfare State: Historical and Theoretical Arguments
Wim van Oorschot, Michael Opielka and Birgit Pfau-Effinger

PART I: CULTURAL FOUNDATIONS OF THE WELFARE STATE: IDEAS OF THE GOOD SOCIETY
2. Liberalism, Citizenship and the Welfare State
Julia S. O’Connor and Gillian Robinson

3. Social Democratic Values in the European Welfare States
Steinar Stjernø

4. Conservatism and the Welfare State: Intervening to Preserve
Kees van Kersbergen and Monique Kremer

5. Christian Foundations of the Welfare State: Strong Cultural Values in Comparative Perspective
Michael Opielka

PART II: WORLDS OF WELFARE CULTURE
6. European and American Welfare Values: Case Studies in Cash Benefits Reform
Robert Walker

7. Is There a Specific East-Central European Welfare Culture?
Zsuzsa Ferge

8. Welfare Policy Reforms in Japan and Korea: Cultural and Institutional Factors
Ito Peng

PART III: CULTURAL CHANGE AND WELFARE REFORM
9. Cultural Change and Path Departure: The Example of Family Policies in Conservative Welfare States
Birgit Pfau-Effinger

10. Cultures of Activation: The Shifting Relationship between Income Maintenance and Employment Promotion in the Nordic Context
Bjørn Hvinden

11. Unsettled Attachments: National Identity, Citizenship and Welfare
John Clarke and Janet Fink

PART IV: POPULAR WELFARE VALUES AND BELIEFS
12. European Scope-of-Government Beliefs: The Impact of Individual, Regional and National Characteristics
John Gelissen

13. Popular Deservingness Perceptions and Conditionality of Solidarity in Europe
Wim van Oorschot

14. The Values of Work and Care Among Women in Modern Societies
Detlev Lück and Dirk Hofäcker

Index

Editorial Reviews

'The essays in this collection advance cultural analysis of the welfare state by describing the experiences of a large array of developed nations. . . Highly recommended.'

D. Stoesz

'. . . the book focuses on a very interesting and important. . . dimension of welfare analysis. . . the book provides a very rich and interesting range of analyses of the complex links between culture and welfare state. It deserves to be read both by advanced undergraduates and academics working in this area, and perhaps should also be read by policy-makers and politicians as a useful corrective to an overly economistic approach to welfare in the straitened years ahead.'

Rob Sykes