BSc (Hon) Social Work
Comparing Social Welfare Systems
Models of Welfare

BSc (Hon) Social Work
Comparing Social Welfare Systems
A system in which the government undertakes the chief responsibility for providing for the social and economic security of its population ,usually through unemployment insurance, old age pensions and other social-security measures; a social system characterised by such policies.
(Collins English Dictionary, 2000)

Market
BSc (Hon) Social Work
Comparing Social Welfare Systems
State
Civil Society
Evers (1990)
Abrahamson(1999)

East
(Risk)
Market
(Opportunity)
North
BSc (Hon) Social Work
Comparing Social Welfare Systems
(Passivity)
State
(Security)
West
South
(Fragmentation)
Civil Society
(Solidarity)

BSc (Hon) Social Work
Comparing Social Welfare Systems
When are typologies useful?
(Cousins, 2005: 108)
1.
“… a valid and reliable instrument for classifying welfare states” (Art and Gelissen
(2002: 140 ,quoted in Cousins, 2005: 108)
2.
“… a means to an end – explanation – and not an end in itself” (Art and Gelissen (2002: 140, quoted in Cousins, 2005: 108)
3. Welfare state theorising is still at an early stage.

BSc (Hon) Social Work
Comparing Social Welfare Systems
One of the first typologies: Richard Titmuss (1974)
“… the purpose of model-building is not to admire the architecture of the building, but to help us to see some order in all the disorder and confusion of facts, systems and choices concerning certain areas of our economic and social life” (30)
1. Residual Welfare Model
2. Industrial Achievement Performance Model
3. Institutional Re-distribution Model

BSc (Hon) Social Work
Comparing Social Welfare Systems
Esping-Andersen (1990)
Distinguished the three regimes by the degree of decommodification and the kind of stratification they produce in society.
Decommodification = when a person can maintain a livelihood without reliance on the market
Stratification = the degree to which the welfare state differentiates between different groups

Esping-Andersen (1990)
BSc (Hon) Social Work
Comparing Social Welfare Systems
1. Liberal Welfare state
2. Conservative –Corporatist State
3. Social Democratic State

BSc (Hon) Social Work
Comparing Social Welfare Systems
Criticisms
• Allocation of particular countries to particular categories
• Lack of Southern European Countries – sufficiently distinctive to have its own category (Ferrera, 1996)
• Built around the ‘male breadwinner’ model

Welfare Regime
Atlantic
BSc (Hon) Social Work
Comparing Social Welfare Systems
Political Ideology Preferred Institution
Liberal Market
Continental Conservative Voluntary
Associations
State Scandinavian Socialist/Social
Democratic
Southern Communitarian Family and
Networks

BSc (Hon) Social Work
Comparing Social Welfare Systems
References
• Abrahamson, P. (1999) The Welfare Modelling Business. Social
Policy and Administration Vol. 33, No 4: 394-415.
• Abrahamson, P., Boje, T.P. and Greve, B. (2005) Welfare and
Families in Europe . Aldershot: Ashgate.
• Arts, W.and Gelissen, J.(2002) Three Worlds of welfare capitalism or more? A state of the art report. Journal of European Social Policy,
Vol. 2, No 2: 137- 58
• Cousins, M. (2005) European Welfare States . London: Sage.
• Esping-Andersen, G. (1990) The Three Worlds of Welfare
Capitalism . Cambridge: Polity.
• Evers, A. (1990) Shifts in the welfare mix: Introducing a new approach for the study of transformation in welfare and social policy.
In A. Evers and H. Wintersberger, Shifts in the welfare mix .
Frankfurt: Campus Verlag.
• Ferrera, M. (1996) The “southern model” of welfare in social Europe.
Journal of European Social Policy , Vol 6, No 1: 17-37.
• Titmuss, R.M. (1974) Social Policy . London: Allen and Unwin.