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Welfare Capitalism in Crisis: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis of Labour Market Policy Responses to the Great Recession

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 July 2015

FARAZ VAHID SHAHIDI
FARAZ VAHID SHAHIDI*
Affiliation:
Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Social policy responses to the recent economic crisis have varied considerably across advanced capitalist countries. This study aims to explain this cross-national diversity through a qualitative comparative analysis of labour market policy responses to the Great Recession across eighteen advanced welfare states. The results of the study suggest that theories of welfare state change that attribute theoretical centrality to political and institutional factors do not provide a compelling explanation for patterns of labour market reform observed since the onset of the economic crisis. Rather, they appear to be explained principally in terms of the variable fiscal capacity of the state. In particular, the study findings indicate that the presence of fiscal crisis has acted as a necessary (but insufficient) condition for the presence of recommodification, while the absence of fiscal crisis has acted as a sufficient (but unnecessary) condition for the absence of recommodification. These empirical developments suggest that there is a need for a scholarly return to the problematic relationship between capitalism and the welfare state.

Type
Winner of the Best Postgraduate Paper Award 2014 by the UK Social Policy Association
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 44 , Issue 4 , October 2015 , pp. 659 - 686
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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