Exploring the Culture—Welfare Nexus: Key Trends, Key Cases

Abstract

In this chapter we focus in greater depth on some key trends and key cases highlighted in chapters. More specifically, we examine four issues: the Conservative/Corporatist regime puzzle; the Liberal regime bifurcation; the meaning of traditional family values; and, the significance of optimistic values. In exploring these issues we demonstrate how more detailed exploration of case study evidence may help understand how the culture-welfare nexus operates in practice, offering a more nuanced perspective than is possible through broad-brushed macro-level comparisons alone. We also explore some of the methodological challenges uncovered in Chapters 2 and 3, pointing to refinements to our approach that may be taken forward in future research.