Varieties of Welfare Capitalism

Posted: 29 Feb 2008

See all articles by Alexander M. Hicks

Alexander M. Hicks

Emory University - Department of Sociology

Lane Kenworthy

University of Arizona

Date Written: JANUARY 2003

Abstract

Despite the considerable influence of Esping-Andersen's categorization of three worlds of welfare capitalism, researchers have largely neglected investigation of his dimensions of welfare state policy and politics. Building on and extending the foundations provided by Esping-Andersen, we explore the identities and consequences of welfare state regime dimensions. Our principal components analyses identify two such dimensions. The first, which we label progressive liberalism, rearranges Esping-Andersen's separate social democratic and liberal dimensions into two poles of a single dimension. Its positive pole is characterized by extensive, universal and homogeneous benefits, active labour market policy, government employment and gender-egalitarian family policies. The second, which we label traditional conservatism, is similar to but broader than Esping-Andersen's conservative dimension. It features not only occupational and status-based differentiations of social insurance programmes and specialized income security programmes for civil servants, but also generous and long-lasting unemployment benefits, reliance on employer-heavy social insurance tax burdens and extensions of union collective bargaining coverage. Pooled cross-section time-series regressions covering 18 countries over the 1980s and 1990s suggest that progressive liberalism is associated with income redistribution and greater gender equality in the labour market. The principal consequence of traditional conservatism appears to be weakened employment performance.

Keywords: welfare state, capitalism, political economy, political sociology, conservative politics

Suggested Citation

Hicks, Alexander M. and Kenworthy, Lane, Varieties of Welfare Capitalism (JANUARY 2003). Socio-Economic Review, Vol. 1, pp. 27-61, 2003, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=811407

Alexander M. Hicks (Contact Author)

Emory University - Department of Sociology ( email )

201 Dowman Drive
Atlanta, GA 30322
United States

Lane Kenworthy

University of Arizona ( email )

Department of History
Tucson, AZ 85721
United States

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