Class4: The Welfare State: Decline &Transfiguration Class4: The Welfare State: Decline &Transfiguration The totality of all social welfare programs in any given national setting. Varies greatly in size, type, and importance depending on the country. Most elaborate in the most advanced (that is, richest) countries---W. Europe, North America, and a few other places (e.g., Australia/New Zealand). mature immature.European welfare states tend to be of the “mature” or “cradle to grave” type. The US welfare state in contrast usually classified as “immature.” (See session#1 for details) balance of contending groups:Level of ws development depends on the “balance of contending groups:” that is, which groups have the political initiative.

THE WELFARE STATE: ADVANCE (1) The welfare state is the product of many generations of relentless popular struggle against injustice and oppression. It’s “golden age” ( ) was thought by many to mark a fundamental turning point in human history: henceforth the benefits of industrial civilization would be distributed more equitably thanks to increased productivity, popular political pressure, and the need to maintain a high standard of consumption if capitalism itself were going to survive. No one wanted to go back to the “bad old days,” when poverty was common and material insecurity the general lot of many if not most people. In short, optimism about the future, and specifically the future of the welfare state, was widespread.

WELFARE STATE: ADVANCE (2) Marshallian Social Rights (economic security)The optimism of this period was exemplified by the so-called Marshallian theory of the welfare state that posited the following 3 stage historical evolutionary process: Social Rights (economic security) Political Rights (franchise) Legal Rights (due process)Legal Rights (due process)

Welfare State: Decline (1) OR The Professors Confounded Welfare State: Decline (1) OR The Professors Confounded Political support and state funding have everywhere been declining around Some now retrospectively claim that the welfare state was simply an industrial age phenomenon anachronistic in the post-industrial era of specialist labor and individual initiative GlobalizationGlobalization is, however, the most immediate causal factor in welfare state decline

Welfare State Decline (2): Globalization as the Master Theme of our era Has promoted the powershift power shift from labor to capital; from social welfare programs to corporate profit priorities. downsizingdownsizing of the welfare state and the non-profit sector privatization inequalityprivatization and increased political and economic inequality IT’S ALL MINE! Please let go of me!

Welfare State Decline (3): Causes, Evidence And Consequences Disappearance (?) in popular expectation that activist government could solve our national problems. (Social transformation/demographic fading of the Depression/WWII generation.) Few new social welfare programs; reduction or elimination of established ones Privatization of former state services: e.g., prisons, welfare, and maintenance. Growing economic inequality, racial tension, and political alienation.

ALTERNATIVE GLOBAL FUTURES HOMOGENIZATION Continuation of current trends resulting in creation of a globally integrated “consumer culture,” which replaces virtually all local cultures. Formal retention of state sovereignty and political democracy as a façade for collective corporate power. RESISTANCE Growing resistance to current trends based on the following possible factors: –religious belief –collapse of the world economy –increased worker immiseration –environmental collapse