Abstract
In capitalist market economies, the share in GDP of government spending increased sharply between 1890 and 1990, in the latter year averaging 43 per cent in the OECD countries and nearly 49 per cent in the European Community. An important cause of the growth of government spending has been the expansion of the welfare state financed through taxation, which has taken place especially since the end of the Second World War.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
Welfare pluralism was discussed by Norman Johnson, The Welfare State in Transition: The Theory and Practice of Welfare Pluralism, Brighton, Wheatsheaf Books, 1987.
Rose, ‘Common Goals but Different Roles: The State’s Contribution to the Welfare Mix’, in Richard Rose and Rei Shiratori (eds), The Welfare State East and West, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1986, Chapter 1.
Alessandro Cigno, Economics of the Family, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1991, pp. 41–2.
On welfare as one of the ends of the state see Charles E. Merriam, Systematic Politics, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1946 (second impression), pp. 50–4 and 297.
On the general-welfare functions of the state see R.M. Mclver, The Web of Government, New York, Macmillan, 1947 (second printing), pp. 331–40.
A distinction between the needs model and the [social] insurance model was made by Brian Barry, ‘The Continuing Relevance of Socialism’, in Robert Skidelsky (ed.), Thatcherism, London, Chatto & Windus, 1988, Chapter 8.
Some other typologies of welfare state regimes were summarized by Christopher Pierson, Beyond the Welfare State? The New Political Economy of Welfare, Cambridge, Polity Press, 1991, pp. 184–7.
On differences in the state provision of welfare among industrial countries see e.g. PR. Kaim-Caudle, Comparative Social Policy and Social Security, London, Martin Robertson, 1973, and
Margaret S. Gordon, Social Security Policies in Industrial Countries, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1988.
An overview of social security benefits available in the United Kingdom by the end of the 1980s is to be found in Thomas and Dorothy Wilson (eds), The State and Social Welfare, London, Longman, 1991, Appendix. These benefits fell into three groups, namely, (1) national insurance benefits; (2) non-contributory, non-means-tested benefits; and (3) means-tested benefits.
The question of welfare rights is discussed by Norman Barry, Welfare, Milton Keynes, Open University Press, 1994 (reprinted), pp. 78–85.
John Peet, ‘Health Care’, The Economist, 6 July 1991, Survey
Nicholas Barr, The Economics of the Welfare State, London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1993 (second edition), pp. 305–9
Anatole Kaletsky, ‘The National Health Service can Survive as it is, Thank You’, The Times, 21 September 1995, p. 27
Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom, Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 1982 (reissued), pp. 10–11.
Howard Glennerster, ‘Social Policy since the Second World War’, in Nicholas Barr et al., The State of Welfare, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1990, p. 21, Fig. 2.1.
Howard Glennerster, op. cit., p. 22, Table 2.2, and Edwin Bell, ‘Social Policy and Economic Reality’, The OECD Observer, no. 183 (August/September 1993), pp. 14–15.
John Creedy and Richard Disney, ‘Can We Afford to Grow Older?’ European Economic Review, vol. 33, nos. 2–3 (March 1989), pp. 367–76.
See also Barbara Beck, ‘The Economics of Ageing’, The Economist, 27 January 1996, Survey.
See e.g. Helmut Reisen, ‘On the Weath of Nations and Retirees’, in Richard O’Brien (ed.), Finance and the International Economy: 8, Oxford University Press, 1994, Chapter 5.
OECD, Future Global Capital Shortages: Real Threat or Pure Fiction? Paris, OECD, 1996, p. 3.
A criticism of the British welfare state is to be found in Paul Einzig, Decline and Fall? Britain’s Crisis in the Sixties. London, Macmillan, 1969, Chapter 10.
Theodore Geiger, Welfare and Efficiency, London, Macmillan, 1979, pp. 12–13.
As to Britain between 1983 and 1993 see David Lipsey, ‘Do We Really Want More Public Spending?’, in Roger Jowell et al. (eds), British Social Attitudes: the 11th report, Aldershot, Dartmouth Publishing Company, 1994, Chapter 1.
See also the results of an opinion poll conducted by MORI in June 1988, as presented by Ivor Crewe, ‘Values: The Crusade that Failed’, in Dennis Kavanagh and Anthony Seldon (eds), The Thatcher Effect, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1989, pp. 241–3
On the relationship between welfare statism and international competitiveness see Alfred Pfaller et al., ‘The Issue’, in Alfred Pfaller, Ian Gough, and Goran Therborn (eds), Can the Welfare State Competei, Basingstoke, Macmillan, 1991, Chapter 1.
On a voucher plan for elementary and secondary schooling and for higher education see Milton and Rose Friedman, Free to Choose, London, Seeker & Warburg, 1980, pp. 158–75 and 185–7.
OECD, Progress in Structural Reform: Supplement to OECD Economic Outlook 47, Paris, 1990, p. 14.
Some problematic aspects and contradictions of the welfare state are discussed by Anthony Giddens, Beyond Left and Right: The Future of Radical Politics, Cambridge, Polity Press, 1994, pp. 17–18, 74–7 and 134–50.
Copyright information
© 1998 J. L. Porket
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Porket, J.L. (1998). The Welfare State. In: Modern Economic Systems and their Transformation. St Antony’s Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-26696-8_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-26696-8_9
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-26698-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-26696-8
eBook Packages: Palgrave Economics & Finance CollectionEconomics and Finance (R0)