European Foundations of the Welfare State

While social welfare programs, often inspired by international organizations, are spreading throughout the world, the more far-reaching notion of governmental responsibility for the basic well-being of all members of a political society is not, although it remains a feature of Europe and the former British Commonwealth. The welfare state in the European sense is not simply an administrative arrangement of various measures of social protection but a political project embedded in distinct cultural traditions. Offering the first accessible account in English of the historical development of the European idea of the welfare state, this book reviews the intellectual foundations which underpinned the road towards the European welfare state, formulates some basic concepts for its understanding, and highlights the differences in the underlying structural and philosophical conditions between continental Europe and the English-speaking world.

Franz-Xaver Kaufmann is Emeritus Professor of Social Policy and Sociology at the University of Bielefeld. His research has focused on the history and institutions of social policy and the welfare state as well as its theory, demographic and family issues, and the sociology of religion. His major publications in English include:The Public Sector: Challenge for Coordination and Learning (edited, 1991);Family Life and Family Policies in Europe (co-edited, 2 vols; 1997, 2002);Varieties of the Welfare State (2012); andThinking about Social Policy: The German Tradition (2012).

List of Figures

Foreword
Anthony Atkinson

Translators Preface
Acknowledgements

Introduction: A Sociological Perspective

PART I: INTELLECTUAL FOUNDATIONS

Chapter 1. Pioneers of Social Reformism: Sismondi, List, Mill
Chapter 2.German Origins of a Theory of Social Reform: Hegel, Stein and the Idea of Social Policy
Chapter 3.Christian Infl uences on Social Reform
Chapter 4.Welfare Internationalism before the Welfare State: The Emergence of Social Human Rights

PART II: THEORY OF SOCIAL POLICY

Chapter 5.Social Security: The Leading Idea and its Problems
Chapter 6. Social Policy Intervention: Elements of a Sociological Theory 146
Chapter 7. First-order and Second-order Social Policies

PART III: THEORY OF AND FOR THE WELFARE STATE

Chapter 8. The State and the Production of Welfare
Chapter 9. National Welfare State Traditions and the European Social Model
Chapter 10.Towards a Theory of the Welfare State

PART IV: THE FUTURE OF THE WELFARE STATE

Chapter 11. The Welfare States Achievements and Continuing Problems
Chapter 12.Human Assets and Demographic Challenges to the Welfare State
Chapter 13. Solidarity and Redistribution under the Pressure of International Competition
Chapter 14. What Comes after the Classic Welfare State?

Bibliography
Index of Names
Index of Subjects