Dear Arvydas,

This article The evolution of the welfare state might be interesting to read. It analyzes the genesis of the welfare state and reflects on its steering problems. It describes how the welfare state was supposed to address the core issue of inclusivity, inclusivity in a development process observed as fast, disruptive and often unfair. The changing territorial nature of economies and the changing circulation of narratives of identity affect the functionality of welfare states, the coordinative power of institutions and the map of actors. At the same time, the reflexivity developed in the same process of functional differentiation allows for the emergence of discourses calling for more flexible forms of governance, which could be referred to a welfare's society.

http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-12274-8_4

Fascinating book Raoul, thanks for the link.  This is an interesting topic, I look forward to the answers.  Arvydas, have you read 'The Welfare State as Piggy Bank?  I've recently finished doing some comparisons of various versions of welfare states but unfortunately did not look at the concept of welfare societies.  From the literature I covered, I didn't find any hint of the discourse changing, but of course that doesn't mean anything!  The countries I covered were English speaking OECD countries- Australia, New Zealand, US, Canada, United Kingdom and Ireland.  Though of course, social expenditure covers more than just cash payments, it is a more 'whole of society' approach so the evolution to the thinking of a welfare state to a welfare society would be a natural progression.  In terms of governance, I would actually argue that the GFC has made government departments all over the world consolidate and this may in turn lead to a greater level of 'command and control' approaches.  Though of course, the other influence has been the revolution in terms of welfare provision through digital means, which has at the same time seen a huge growth in flexibility of delivery.  I'd certainly be interested to see what kind of difference digitisation of welfare provision has made to that discourse. 

Not sure if you're interested, but I'll include below some links to papers discussing welfare states just in case.

Regards,

Brigette

Podger, A., Stanton, D., & Whiteford, P. (2014). Designing Social Security Systems: Learning from Australia and other Countries. Public Administration and Development, 34(4), 231-250.

http://theconversation.com/robin-hood-and-piggy-bank-what-the-welfare-state-does-for-us-25790

http://sociology.as.nyu.edu/docs/IO/3858/Why_Do_Welfare_States_Persist.pdf

http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/social-issues-migration-health/how-expensive-is-the-welfare-state_220615515052?crawler=true