Table Of ContentContents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Introduction
Notes
1 The Life and Times of the Welfare State
Notes
2 The Battle of Ideas
Notes
3 Four Challenges
Affordability
International competitiveness
New social risks
Ageing
Notes
4 A Future for the Welfare State
Notes
Further Reading
End User License Agreement
‘This book argues that sustaining humane welfare states is a matter of political
will. Modern welfare states face many challenges from neo-liberalism, austerity,
globalization, population ageing and the emergence of new social risks. None of
these challenges is insuperable. The real question is whether the political
solidarities on which the welfare state was founded can be renewed in a more
open and unequal world.’
Peter Taylor-Gooby, University of Kent
‘At moments of great economic uncertainty and social insecurity, it is wise to
count one’s blessings. In this marvellously concise and timely essay Andrew
Gamble, one of Britain’s most prolific political commentators, steers clear of
nostalgia. There is no ground for retrospective ‘ill fares the land’ melancholia.
Capitalism, democracy and modern welfare provision can only prosper in sync.
The welfare state is an integrative institution – not a divisive one. But this
general lesson requires a strong reformist political commitment to invest in a
future-oriented social infrastructure for rich twenty-first century capitalist
democracies. This political commitment cannot be taken for granted at a time
when many citizens and politicians wrongly believe that the welfare state era is
over. Sobering but extremely important reading for all who care.’
Anton Hemerijck, VU University Amsterdam and the London School of
Economics and Political Science
Global Futures Series
Mohammed Ayoob, Will the Middle East Implode?
Christopher Coker, Can War be Eliminated?
Howard Davies, Can Financial Markets be Controlled?
Jonathan Fenby, Will China Dominate the 21st Century?
Joseph S. Nye Jr., Is the American Century Over?
Jan Zielonka, Is the EU Doomed?
Andrew Gamble
Can the Welfare State Survive?
polity
Copyright © Andrew Gamble 2016
The right of Andrew Gamble to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with
the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published in 2016 by Polity Press
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ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-9877-9
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In memory of my mother and father,
Joan Westall, 1919–2015
Marc Gamble, 1914–2007
Introduction
Can the welfare state survive? Yes, I think it can. It might seem strange even to
pose the question. Western societies have grown steadily richer and safer over
the seventy years since the Second World War. The establishment and extension
of welfare states over this period has been one of the proudest achievements and
most obvious fruits of Western prosperity. It is one of the features which makes
rich societies distinctive. Pooling collective risks over the life-cycle,
redistributing between the generations to provide a better, more secure existence
for everybody, alleviating poverty – who can be seriously opposed to that? Yet
all is not well with our welfare states. The richer we become, the less willing and
able we seem to be to pay for them. We hear constantly of underfunding, of a
looming crisis of entitlements, of costs escalating and service standards slipping.
For many decades now, welfare states of all kinds have been under siege, even in
times of prosperity and economic growth. Their era of expansion came to an end
in the 1970s, and since then they have entered an era of permanent austerity.
There have been constant complaints that welfare states are becoming
unaffordable, are wasteful and inefficient, and are in need of drastic reform.
During the 1990s, far-reaching reforms were launched which seemed for a time
to offer them a new political foundation. But since the financial crash in 2008
and its troubled aftermath, they have had to confront a new era of retrenchment
and austerity. New struggles have erupted over which welfare programmes
should be protected and which should be axed or scaled back, and there are those
who dare to think the unthinkable and wonder whether we need a welfare state at
all. Is the welfare state out of time, a relic of the industrial capitalist past, which
may once have had its place, but increasingly jars with the political economy of
the twenty-first century and should be dismantled?
What do we mean by welfare? The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as the
state or condition of doing or being well; good fortune, happiness or well-being;
prosperity. ‘Well fare you’ in the sixteenth century meant ‘May it go well with
you.’ Everyone wants to fare well, to have opportunities, good health and
education, to enjoy protection against the risks of being unable to earn a living
through ill health, injury, or unemployment, and to have access to the basic
resources needed to live a full life. But why do we need the state to be involved?
This is where the controversy lies. The role of states in providing welfare has
taken different forms, which explains why the American definition of ‘welfare’
