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Social Justice and the Welfare State: Institutions, Outcomes, and Attitudes in Comparative Perspective

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Handbook of Social Justice Theory and Research

Abstract

This chapter analyzes the relationship between social justice and the welfare state from an institutional, social-structural, and attitudinal perspective. Drawing on David Miller’s distinction between equality, need, and merit and Gøsta Esping-Andersen’s classification of social-democratic, liberal, and conservative welfare regimes, it elaborates (a) the differential emphasis welfare states give to core principles of social justice, (b) the extent to which they realize these principles through their programs and policies, (c) and what their citizens regard as just. Social-democratic welfare states stand out as distinctly egalitarian through a universal approach to social rights, low levels of poverty and inequality, and a strong egalitarianism of their citizenry. Liberal welfare states, by contrast, focus on meeting basic needs via targeted social policies, thus exhibiting high levels of poverty and inequality while citizens’ orientations display a pronounced liberalism. Conservative welfare regimes rely on social insurances to relate social benefits and contributions in a meritocratic way, involving medium levels of poverty and inequality and solid welfare state support. The concluding section discusses whether public understandings of social justice have changed in conjunction with major welfare state reforms that have occurred throughout the OECD and considers the implications for the future of the welfare state.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Although one could argue that welfare state institutions also incorporate specific principles of procedural justice, I focus on distributive justice as their primary aim.

  2. 2.

    While widely referred to, Esping-Andersen’s (1990) welfare regime typology was also subject to various forms of criticism, e.g., regarding the number of ideal-typical welfare regimes (Castles & Mitchell, 1993; Korpi & Palme, 1998; Leibfried, 1992), its empirical validity (Obinger & Wagschal, 1998), or its gender-blindness (Orloff, 1993). Yet, because much empirical research refers to the typology in its original form, I follow the original classification for the most part of this chapter. For an overview on the debate, see Arts and Gelissen (2002).

  3. 3.

    Yet, Marshall recognized that this drive is limited and that welfare state policies may also represent an “instrument of stratification” (Marshall, 1949/1993, p. 39).

  4. 4.

    However, apart from the Anglo-Saxon tradition (Marshall, 1949/1993), comparative welfare state research in Continental Europe has for a long time tended not to regard education as part of welfare state policy, a fact that is changing recently with the emerging focus on “social investment” (Morel et al., 2012).

  5. 5.

    Miller (1999, p. 137) differentiates between desert (a person deserves a benefit due to his or her performance) and merit (a person’s personal attributes—partly based on past performances serving as an indicator of future performance—make him or her deserving of a good). For the present purposes, to differentiate between current, past, or future performance is not overly important. Thus, I use both concepts interchangeably.

  6. 6.

    In the social policy literature, this perspective goes back to Richard Titmuss’ comparative study on blood donation in Great Britain and the US (Titmuss, 1970). Titmuss found that the system of voluntary blood donation organized by the British National Health Service (NHS) generated a greater supply and better quality of blood than the commercial blood banking system of the US—a fact he attributed to the universalist institutional structure of the NHS which “allowed and encouraged sentiments of altruism, reciprocity and social duty to express themselves” (Titmuss, 1970, p. 225). Thus, the institutional design of social policies incorporates specific social values that in turn foster the development of feelings of social solidarity and mutual obligation among citizens.

  7. 7.

    One may argue that social justice is not the only value that is relevant in the context of the welfare state. While many social scientists and social policy practitioners would not doubt its importance, some neoclassical economists such as Hayek (1959) have claimed that the welfare state’s focus on bringing about greater social justice is misguided and in fact undermines more fundamental values, especially liberty. In a similar vein, also social scientists have pointed to the ambivalent relationship of (some particular forms of) welfare state institutions to individual autonomy (for an overview, see Leisering, 2001). In sum, however, social justice is likely to retain an important place in the normative repertoire of welfare states, not least due to its multiple and also changing meanings.

  8. 8.

    In a comprehensive review article, Breen and Jonsson (2005, p. 236) conclude that “convincing explanations of […] cross-national variation in the origin-education or origin–destination associations are lacking.”

  9. 9.

    In fact, recent analyses show that only in a minority of European countries the level of social assistance benefits—probably the most important means-tested minimum income protection scheme—reaches the poverty thresholds of 50 % of the median income, and none the 60 % threshold (Nelson, 2013, pp. 391–392).

  10. 10.

    However, such a rather “formalist” interpretation of merit along the lines of equivalence is not uncontestable as it makes no assumptions about the specific form which a contribution would take that “merits” a reward.

  11. 11.

    Contrary to many other studies, Goodin et al. (1999) classify the Netherlands as a social-democratic welfare regime.

  12. 12.

    Similarly, social psychological research shows that merit is deemed appropriate for the distribution of status or money, while noneconomic goods should be distributed according to the principles of equality or need (Deutsch, 1975, p. 145; Törnblom & Foa, 1983, p. 165).

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Sachweh, P. (2016). Social Justice and the Welfare State: Institutions, Outcomes, and Attitudes in Comparative Perspective. In: Sabbagh, C., Schmitt, M. (eds) Handbook of Social Justice Theory and Research. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-3216-0_16

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-3216-0_16

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