Definition:

• Comparative social policy examines how the welfare state or welfare system is funded, organized and delivered;

• And also what are the consequences, of such policies for individuals and communities.

Collecting comparable data

http://www.oecd.org/

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development

Databases provide information for Member States on topics such as health care and families.

The benefits of such data is the possibility of policy transfer; sharing best practice.

Alcock and Craig (2009) refer to this as policy translation. The ability of one government to effectively translate and apply the policies of another country is achieved with varying success.

What sorts of factors impact upon ‘policy translation’?

• Rushed (ie Sure Start)

• Historical

• Cultural

• Economic

• Political

• Social

• Not all countries have a clearly defined welfare state such as in the UK and Scandinavia.

• Making some comparisons

problematic

Welfare Regimes

• The word ‘regime’ implies some way of organizing or running something.

• Esping-Anderson (1990; 1996) identified three main welfare regimes:

Esping-Anderson focused on welfare systems

• In the developed world.

• Using national data on public expenditure on employment; sickness; pensions.

• He also examined the social and political aspects of welfare development.

• Concentrated on paid work, ignoring unpaid work – such as care work done by families.

In his analysis Esping-Anderson focused on:

StratificationRefers to the structuring of access to welfare by social class

DecommodificationRefers to the way that welfare is provided, regardless to fluctuations in the economy.

Decommodification is

“The extent to which individuals

and families can maintain a normal and socially acceptable

standard of living regardless of their market performance”.

(Esping-Anderson, 1987, cited in Shaw, 2013:146)

• Financial Welfare relies on social insurance: People have to put something in to get something back.

• High employment levels are necessary to subsidise benefits.

• Individuals and families should look after themselves first, only turning to the state as a last resort.

• Commitment to ‘traditional family forms’.

• Based on market-based social insurance: relatively low state benefits for the residual poor, which are means tested.

• There is a stigma associated with benefits.• Universal benefits are not favoured; as they

disincentive work.• Social inequality is not seen as problematic

• Based on core principle of universalism; social solidarity; equality across classes.

• Highly developed welfare state.• High levels of taxation• Many responsibilities of ‘the traditional

family’ are fulfilled by the state, i.e. childcare.• Greater levels of gender equality.

Critique

• Narrow range of data• Some ‘welfare’ is not easily quantifiable:

public/private care?• Some tax measures can have an impact on

welfare, these were not counted. (Titmus, 1974).• What about devolution? (i.e. in the UK – creating

a ‘mixed regime’?)• Esping-Anderson ignored Mediterranean

countries former soviet countries.• And others!(see Shaw, 2013)

Gender and Welfare Regimes

• Esping-Anderson acknowledged that comparative welfare analysis required analysis of public/private realms including interconnections between:

• However, ignores

‘domestic’, gendered,

‘private’, unpaid work…

Gender and Welfare Regimes

• Unpaid labour in the home also facilitates men’s labour market participation.

• Hence, gender should be a critical element of thinking about welfare systems and social policies. (Shaw, 2013:152).

• In, ‘The incomplete revolution’, Esping-Anderson (2009) focused upon gender (in)equality.

Changing European Families

• Dramatic disconnection between marriage and child bearing.

• Cohabitation has become a generally accepted living arrangement across Europe.

• Links with female economic empowerment and the contraceptive revolution (Kiernan, 2004 cited in Lappegard, 2014:57).

• Sobotka and Toulemon (2008) suggest three main stages across countries:

Sobotka and Toulemon (2008)

1. Diffusion: Young adults enter into a consensual union, which becomes a majority practice.

2. Permanency: cohabitation lasts longer and is less frequently converted into marriage.

3. Arrangement: pregnancy gradually ceases to be a strong determinant.

Births outside marriage 1970-2010

[Source: Lappegard, 2014]

• Across Europe, life has become more uncertain in the labour and housing markets.

• Because of this, young people have responded by postponing family-related events including child rearing and leaving the family home.

• Level of education is inversely linked to childbirth in cohabitation: Low levels of female education increases ‘risk’ of childbirth in cohabitation.

• Marriage increases stability…

Holland 2013 proposes four categories of marriage

• Family forming marriage: Marriage then children

• Legitimizing marriage: ‘Shotgun marriage’

• Parenting is seen as most important; marriage may follow some time afterwards as a ‘reinforcer’.

• Capstone: Marriage occurs when the couple has achieved a desired family size.

Staying Together… Women who…

[Source: Lappegard, 2014]

The Gender Revolution: Most modern societies are moving toward higher gender equality

Many describe this as a two-step process:1. Developing gender equality in education and employment

and better integration of women in the political process.2. This is followed by higher gender equality in the private

sphere of the family (Goldscheider, Olah, and Puur, 2010), implying that men take a more active role in the family, that is, participation in housework and childcare.

Where the process of gender equality within the family sphere is not occurring at the same pace as gender equality at the societal level, families are put under pressure, thereby limiting fertility (Goldscheider, Olah, and Puur, 2010).

Conclusions• Esping-Anderson’s regimes still offer a useful but limited method of

conceptualising and comparing different welfare states.• There has been a contemporary focus of gender (in) equality. Part

of this analysis turns upon ‘public’/‘private’ paid/unpaid conceptions of ‘welfare’.

• Cohabitation is on the increase across Europe.• Although cohabitation is becoming more popular, and generally

‘accepted’ across European States it is associated with ‘uncertainty’, other uncertainties include the labour market and housing markets.

• The Gender Revolution is taking place at differing pace across Europe.

• A single unitary ‘children’s policy’ across the European Union may or may not promote children’s welfare more effectively than policies aimed at gender equality and workforce participation?

1. Sandra Shaw, 2013, Comparative Welfare.2. Trude Lappegard, 2014, Changing European

Families.3. Robert Henry Cox, 2013, Welfare States in North

America.4. Sandy Ruxton, 2001, Towards a ‘Children’s

Policy’ for the European Union?5. Wil Arts & John Gelissen, 2002, Three worlds of

welfare capitalism or more? A state-of-the-art report