In which way can the Esping-Andersen theory help us into doing a comparative analysis of the European social systems?

Résumé du document

Europe is facing major changes at the beginning of the 21st century. Many consider the 19th century as savage industrialization's one. Liberalism largely evolved in the 20th century as evidenced by the fantastic pace of growth of welfare state in many countries in the 1960s and the 1970s. Indeed, in the period following the Second World War, providing welfare to citizens became a fundamental feature of western statehood. Immediately after the war, a new social spirit dominated Europe and affected all social classes. This was largely due to the sense of purpose that developed during the war and a revulsion against the irresponsible, decadent and depression-ridden interwar period. Therefore, social expenditures increased rapidly and traditional relief systems that provided assistance only to the most needy of populations were transformed into comprehensive systems of universal benefits through the welfare state. Marshall, writing in the 1950's, was the first to understand this was an inevitable step in the natural progression of states' relations to their citizens.

Extraits

[...] In which way can the Esping-Andersen theory help us into doing comparative analysis of European social systems? Europe is facing major changes at the beginning of the 21st century. Many consider the 19th century as savage industrialization's one. Liberalism largely evolved in the 20th century as evidenced by the fantastic pace of growth of welfare state in many countries in the 1960s and the 1970s. Indeed, in the period following the Second World War, providing welfare to citizens became a fundamental feature of western statehood. [...]

[...] The global trend is that the higher de- commodification score is, the lower Gini coefficient is. Thus, United Kingdom which has the lowest de-commodification score gets the higher Gini coefficient. In other words, liberal social policy seems to lead to a more unequal society, whereas socialist policy, as evidenced by the case of Sweden, avoids inequalities to be important too much. Sources: The three worlds of the welfare capitalism, Esping-Andersen 1990; Eurostat 2008 Thus, Esping-Andersen's typology is confirmed in many aspects. [...]

[...] The interest of Esping-Andersen's work is not only to give a de-commodification ranking of Western European countries. Esping-Andersen adheres to the mainstream that is to say the political school in social welfare policy, highlighting the crucial impact of politics on social welfare policy, because welfare state is the child of politics and so, also will be its future'' (Esping-Andersen, 1996). In other words, from de-commodification ranking, he distinguishes three main countries clusters corresponding to three different political theoretical frameworks. The first model is the "liberal welfare state" in which “means-tested assistance, modest universal transfers, or modest social-insurance plans predominate”. [...]

[...] On the other hand, the liberal myth argues that welfare states contribute to the decline of class division. In this regard, Esping Andersen's work is particularly interesting. He aims at giving an empirical explanation of the stratification role of welfare states, differentiating capitalist welfare states. Thus, the conservative cluster of countries which inherited according to Esping-Andersen a paternalist tradition from feudal manorial society and absolutist monarchical regimes is characterized by bismarckian principles. In other words, this state paternalism has left a strong mark on two areas of social policy. [...]

[...] Esping-Andersen uses an additive method to calculate the overall de-commodification score. If the objective is to compare countries relative to each other on all three program areas, then adding the decommodification scores inadvertently weights pensions almost 50% more than unemployment. That is why we have here calculated z-scores which constitute a more rigorous method of calculation. This calculation confirms however Esping-Andersen analysis. As we can see in the table, the social-democrat policy of Sweden is ranked first both in de-commodification score and z-score, whereas the United Kingdom is ranked third. [...]