As welfare states traditional typology shows the signs of exhaustion and tiredness in theory but especially in practice, maybe there are other ways of its revival? Maybe a community-oriented social policy model can substitute former welfare typology? Or something else? Or should we have a vacuum of such ideas after a decade or two?
The idea of welfare state is dying where it emerged. It didn't have much clout outside Western Europe and North America. Universal education and health care were supported in many post-colonial states, but they were done half-heartedly. The idea of welfare faced challenges because of the economic crisis in the 1970s which led to the emergence of neo-liberal ideas of dismantling the state in favor of the free market. Since then, the economy in the west have gone through a more regular cycle of boom and bust. This makes the postion of the welfarists more shaky. On the other hand, in Asia, where the economies withstood the storms in recent years, welfarism had never taken root and there is a little chance it would be. Ironically, community-based social development finds its allies more among neo-liberals than among welfarists. The common target of both of them - communit developmentalists and neo-liberals - is the weak and inefficient state. So, there is little hope from there either. The bottomline is, welfarism cannot be kept in operation the way it has been since the post-war period. It needs to be overahauled if it is not replaced by any liberal or socialist ideas.
Latin America is the most unequal region of the world. However, for more than a decade now, it has been also the only region where inequality has been decreasing. This is very much a consequence of the first developments of welfare states. The case of Brazil, in particular, is considerably relevant. Brazil has a very long historical tradition of state activism (for example, the Government Revenue in Brazil, as a proportion of GDP, is a little higher than the average of OECD countries). Since the promulgation of the 1988 democratic Constitution, as well as after the worker's party won its first presidential election in the beginning of the 2000s, new social policies have been thought and implemented, and as a consequence, the Gini coefficient of income concentration dropped from 0.61 to less than 0.50 (we now know it has been much more a decrease in earnings inequality than in total income inequality). Besides programs of conditional cash transfers, Brazil has an important legislation to increase the value of minimum wage, as well as an enormous and relatively comprehensive universal public health system (despites its low quality). The main difference of the welfare system in Brazil and the most remarkable examples of western Europe is that while in the European model policies are mainly universal, in Brazil some programs are completely focalized based on mean-tested criteria.
What do you mean "revival"?
People who get laid off can access employment insurance payments and welfare. People who get sick get medical care.
I am not aware of a single "welfare state" that has been undone to the point that you could speak of any such "revival".
Mostly, I think the facts on the ground are largely unchanged, but those who despise helping their neighbours (especially those on the Christian right) are far more vocal than they used to be.
Dear Nathan, Jose, Rashed,
There are too many authors in the West who point out that welfare states are in stagnation or decrease during the last 25 years. For example, Norwegian researcher Asbjorn Wahl in 2011 published a well-known book "The Rise and Fall of the Welfare State". All researchers, who specialize in social policy or social security point out about falling of universalism and having more commodification in social security, what, according to Esping-Andersen show the lower level of welfare state. It is so obvious fact for specialists, that really it is difficult to write here long explanations and long argumentation. My question is next - what awaits developed welfare states in the future and also Eastern European countries who are in a hard position to catch with the West in social policy because of not so rapid economic development and neo-liberalism, which hinders many social undertakings. It was interesting to read Jorge Neves explanation about Latin America and Rashed Nabi about Asia in this respect - You really understand the seriousness of this problem, thank You.
On second thought, yes, I think the welfare state model has very much been put on the defensive. But I think the defense is not so difficult, even though the areas of creeping dis-universalization (e.g., private hip and knee surgeries) are very real. I think these are baby steps away from socialist democracy and not major undermining of the welfare state, but I appreciate that some people would project that this could be a naive perspective. The people who need the welfare state the most are very much better contributors to the economy for its existence, but are also very rarely in a position to understand that, let alone defend it.
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