Three Worlds of Capabilities?: Comparing Capabilities Among Social Democratic, Liberal, and Christian Democratic Regimes

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Draper
Keyword(s):  
Social Democratic ◽  
Democratic Regimes

scholarly journals The Four Worlds of ‘Welfare Reality’ – Social Risks and Outcomes in Europe

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 287-307 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emanuele Ferragina ◽  
Martin Seeleib-Kaiser ◽  
Thees Spreckelsen
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Sensitivity Analyses ◽  
Welfare Regimes ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
Social Risks ◽  
Mediterranean Countries ◽  
Democratic Regimes

After three decades of welfare state crisis, change and transformation can we still speak of welfare state regimes when looking at their outcomes? The analysis of outcomes provides a picture of ‘the real worlds of welfare’ and is of considerable importance to understanding political legitimacy across countries. We use aggregate longitudinal data for West European countries in order to map welfare outcomes and cluster countries. The cluster results are also assessed for their sensitivity to the choice of different countries, years or indicators. All European welfare states have a significant capacity for reducing poverty and inequality. However, the degree of this reduction varies considerably, especially when examining different social groups, i.e. unemployed people, children, youths or the elderly. Outcomes cluster countries largely in line with previous institutionalist literature, differentiating between conservative, liberal, Mediterranean and social-democratic regimes. As the main exception, we identify Germany, which can no longer be characterised as the proto-typical conservative welfare state. When analysing old social risks such as unemployment and old age, Europe appears to be characterised by two groups, i.e. one consisting of liberal and Mediterranean countries and a second made up of social-democratic and conservative countries. New social risks such as child and youth poverty, by contrast, replicate very closely the theoretical four-cluster typology. Our sensitivity analyses reveal that our clusters tend to be stable over time. Welfare regimes continue to serve as a useful analytical tool and relate to outcomes experienced by European citizens.

The Alternatives to ‘Liberal Democracy’: A Latin American Perspective

1992 ◽  
Vol 40 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. 146-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurence Whitehead
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Social Resources ◽  
New Democracies ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
American Perspective ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Democratic Regimes ◽  
Major Factors ◽  
American Nation

Although some conventional liberal democratic regimes are likely to become consolidated in Latin America, the dominant pattern is better understood as ‘democracy by default’, and in a few cases little more than ‘facade democracy’ is to be expected. This paper reviews the major factors accounting for the fragility, instability and policy ineffectiveness of many of these new regimes. Although current fiscal crises lend some plausibility to the ‘neo-liberal’ analyses of democratization, the paper argues that in the longer run consolidated democracies will tend to develop a range of ‘social democratic’, participatory and interventionist features that are at variance with the neo-liberal model. Latin American nation-states are relatively well integrated and contain a stock of human and social resources that should favour constitutional outcomes, so that although many of these new democracies will remain provisional and incomplete for the time being, they possess the potential for subsequent extension and entrenchment.

What do people want? Leave policy preferences in different countries1

2019 ◽  
pp. 167-186
Author(s):  
Isabel Valarino
Keyword(s):  
Family Policy ◽  
Policy Instrument ◽  
Policy Preferences ◽  
Welfare Regimes ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
Democratic Regimes ◽  
Leave Policy ◽  
Institutional Contexts ◽  
And Gender ◽  
One Year

Leave schemes vary considerably across countries, notably regarding their duration and the extent to which mothers and fathers are encouraged to share them. This chapter analyses individuals’ attitudes toward leave duration and gender division of leave in 27 countries to examine whether these different institutional contexts influence leave policy preferences. It draws on representative sample data from the period 2012-2014 and uses descriptive statistics and logistic regression analyses. Results show that paid leave is a well-accepted family policy instrument in Europe and beyond, but that stark differences exist across welfare regimes regarding what is considered a ‘good’ leave. Leave duration preferences range from about six months in liberal regimes, to roughly one year in social democratic and conservative ones, and up to two and three years in some post-communist regimes. Consensus is highest in post-communist and social democratic regimes, where leave has the longest history and is most institutionalised.

Free Market Fairness

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Tomasi
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Justice ◽  
John Rawls ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Fair Value ◽  
First Principle ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
Justice As Fairness ◽  
Democratic Regimes ◽  
Fair Equality Of Opportunity ◽  
The Difference

This chapter defends a “market democratic” interpretation of justice as fairness that it calls free market fairness, with a particular focus on institutions. The discussion encompasses the difference principle, fair equality of opportunity, fair value of political liberties, and the rest of the first principle guarantee of basic liberties. Market democracy is explored in light of some secondary considerations of justice: the just savings principle, environmental justice, and duties of international aid. The chapter also examines how free market fairness interprets the component of justice as fairness in question and how that interpretation compares to John Rawls' social democratic interpretation. Finally, it asks whether market democratic regimes can satisfy the distributional requirements of free market fairness.

A (Personal) French View of the Referendum Debate

2014 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 389-395 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith Dixon
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Cultural Imagination ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
Nationalist Movements ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Gradual Shift

Historically, there has been a lack of a clear French vision of the multinational nature of the United Kingdom. A gradual shift towards a clearer understanding has been demonstrated by a well-informed and even-handed presentation of the referendum debate in the French media. This article examines the presentation of that debate, as well as Scotland's increasing familiarity in France's cultural imagination. In politics there has been neither much enthusiasm nor overt hostility to the referendum, although a lingering suspicion of nationalist movements, wherever they might be, means that many French are surprised to discover the broadly social-democratic, pro-European and ‘civic’ nature of Scotland's nationalism.

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