Culture and Welfare State

Values and Social Policy in Comparative Perspective

Edited by Wim van Oorschot, Professor of Social Policy, University of Leuven, Belgium, Michael Opielka, Institute for Social Ecology and Birgit Pfau-Effinger, Professor of Sociology, University of Hamburg, Germany

Culture and Welfare State provides comparative studies on the interplay between cultural factors and welfare policies. Starting with an analysis of the historical and cultural foundations of Western European welfare states, reflected in the competing ideologies of liberalism, conservatism and socialism, the book goes on to compare the Western European welfare model to those in North America, Asia and Central and Eastern Europe. Comprehensive and engaging, this volume examines not only the relationships between cultural change and welfare restructuring, taking empirical evidence from policy reforms in contemporary Europe, but also the popular legitimacy of welfare, focusing particularly on the underlying values, beliefs and attitudes of people in European countries.

‘. . . the book focuses on a very interesting and important. . . dimension of welfare analysis. . . the book provides a very rich and interesting range of analyses of the complex links between culture and welfare state. It deserves to be read both by advanced undergraduates and academics working in this area, and perhaps should also be read by policy-makers and politicians as a useful corrective to an overly economistic approach to welfare in the straitened years ahead.’
——罗伯·赛克斯,副部l Policy and Administration

‘The essays in this collection advance cultural analysis of the welfare state by describing the experiences of a large array of developed nations. . . Highly recommended.’
– D. Stoesz, Choice