The political economy of the welfare state: from power resources to varieties of capitalism to growth strategies

Anke Hassel and Bruno Palier

Chapter 13 in Handbook of Comparative Political Economy, 2025, pp 234-251 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: The chapter reviews the recent advances in comparative political economy for social policy development. Welfare state research has long been divided between those who assume that social policy is adopted by governments against markets and those who emphasize the productive effects of social policies for the functioning of markets. Recently, we can observe a synthesis of both approaches in the framework of growth and welfare regimes. This new literature situates the welfare state as an important component of the political economy of advanced economies and assumes that governments situate their social policy reforms in wider growth strategies. The chapter develops the argument in four steps. First, we present a historical perspective on the welfare state. Second, we identify the contributions of the productive role of the welfare state and introduce the notion of growth regimes and their connections to welfare regimes. The next section presents five types of growth strategies and social policy reform. Finally, we address the political support for the welfare state in different growth regimes.

Keywords: Welfare state; Social policy; Growth regimes; Welfare reforms; Growth strategy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035327775
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