Seeleib-Kaiser, Martin (ed.): Welfare State Transformations. Comparative Perspectives, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008, 264 pp., £50.00 (hbk), ISBN 9780230205789
Since the 1970s, industrial states have started to revise their welfare arrangements. Many scholars have argued that states gave up welfare responsibilities and partially passed them on to private actors like individuals or the market. To examine and to assess this shift is the purpose of this edited volume.
The book provides an overview on the development of social policies across countries and certain policy arenas since around the 1980s. Seeleib-Kaiser aims to empirically advance the discussion about the changing relation between public and private welfare policies, and thus, to overcome the emphasis on normative or functional questions. Although he and the authors, and we in consequence, might arguably accept an increasing shift from public to private, empirical evidence is hard to come by if not impossible with the current methods. Therefore, he proposes a comparison of different welfare arrangements and institutions with special attention to the mixed economy of welfare (MEW). The shift from public to private is examined along the dimensions of financing, provision and regulation. The introduction by Seeleib-Kaiser asks two questions which should guide the reader through the following chapters. Is the transformation of the welfare state a mere shift from public to private arrangements or part of a wider and much more fundamental change by states? And, are there specific developmental differences between states or areas of welfare?
Consequently, the book is divided into two main parts, one for each question, and a third part with a complementing general assessment of the transformations of welfare states as well as the conclusion. In the first part, Martin Powell (UK), Jørgen Goul Andersen (Denmark), Ana Guillén and Maria Petmesidou (Southern Europe), Martin PotůČek (Central and Eastern Europe), and Roger Goodman (Japan) discuss country-specific transformations. The second part contains empirical evidence of the relationship between public and private in specific policy areas by Paul Bridgen and Traute Meyer (pensions), Heinz Rothgang et al. (health care), Daniel Clegg (unemployment), Peter Kemp (incapacity benefits), and Dalia Ben-Galim and Richenda Gambles (work-life balance). John Clarke finally provides a general discussion of the relation between welfare and states in the third part. Seeleib-Kaiser concludes that welfare state transformation is indeed best described through the approach of the mixed economy of welfare. There are many forms of mixes and the transformations of the welfare state are multi-dimensional, sometimes even comprising shifts from private to public as had been argued for in the Southern European countries of Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain.
The book's strength certainly is its comparative empirical approach to different welfare arrangements on both the nation state and the policy area level. The connection of these two levels offers the possibility for identifying country and policy specific transformations. The authors provide a good overview of developments in the relationship between public and private in the welfare systems. Moreover, the framework of the mixed economy of welfare promises the best analytical tool for such an undertaking. A (intended?) majority focus on European countries and approaches to certain policy areas makes the book especially interesting for debates about European welfare states and policies while still being attractive to a broader audience through its inclusion of Japan in the country-specific analyses and several non-European OECD countries, such as the USA or Australia, into the policy specific analyses.
However, a few aspects pose questions. Although Seeleib-Kaiser initially defines public and private in a broader context appropriate for the MEW approach, the individual chapters seldom pick up or even problematise the distinction so that the familiar bipolar distinction of state (public) versus market (private) remains relatively untouched. Other public, e.g., religious institutions, or private actors, e.g., companies, largely stay out of focus, and hence, their absence somewhat diminishes the value of the MEW perspective. It points to another critical aspect of the book; a conservative country in the country-specific discussion is missing, although Seeleib-Kaiser draws links to Esping-Andersen and the policy chapters contain such evidence. The inclusion of a conservative country would have meant not only a better comparison but also a better insight into the mixed economy of welfare since these countries usually have more participation of churches or companies in the welfare system.
Overall, the book provides an interesting account of the relationship between public and private financing, provision and regulation of welfare. Its comparative nature gives the reader a quick but broad insight into different forms of welfare mixes and policy enactments. Especially, its European focus and contrast with Japan and other countries distinguishes it from other books in this area. On the basis of the analysed countries and policy areas, it shows the dimensions of welfare state transformations.
Felix Behling, Department of Sociology, University of Essex