IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/imk/fmmpap/16-2018.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Re-theorizing the welfare state and the political economy of neoliberalism's war against it

Author

Listed:
  • Thomas I. Palley

Abstract

This paper argues neoliberalism is engaged in a war against the welfare state. At issue are competing views regarding the size of the welfare state and how it should be organized. In waging this war, neoliberalism seeks to politically discredit the traditional welfare state and change the economic structure so that the latter becomes unviable. The paper presents a new theoretical framework that distinguishes between modes of production and financing of the welfare estate. Neoliberalism's war rests on ideologically grounded criticisms drawn from mainstream economics; implementation of policies that undermine social solidarity toward the welfare state; exploiting pressures fostered by neoliberal globalization; and misrepresentations about affordability. The welfare state was critical in saving capitalism from itself after World War II. It is a way of embedding the market system so as to produce socially acceptable outcomes that are politically stable. Neoliberalism's war promises a body blow against shared prosperity. More ominously, it may so dis-embed the market system as to recreate conditions Polyani (1944) blamed for the rise of fascism in the 1930s.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas I. Palley, 2018. "Re-theorizing the welfare state and the political economy of neoliberalism's war against it," FMM Working Paper 16-2018, IMK at the Hans Boeckler Foundation, Macroeconomic Policy Institute.
    • Handle: RePEc:imk:fmmpap:16-2018
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.boeckler.de/pdf/p_fmm_imk_wp_16_2018.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. George J. Stigler, 1971. "The Theory of Economic Regulation," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 2(1), pages 3-21, Spring.
    2. Thomas I. Palley, 1998. "The Economics of Social Security: An Old Keynesian Perspective," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(1), pages 93-110, September.
    3. Feldstein, Martin S, 1974. "Social Security, Induced Retirement, and Aggregate Capital Accumulation," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 82(5), pages 905-926, Sept./Oct.
    4. Ms. Andrea Schaechter & Mr. Carlo Cottarelli, 2010. "Long-Term Trends in Public Finances in the G-7 Economies," IMF Staff Position Notes 2010/013, International Monetary Fund.
    5. Krueger, Anne O, 1974. "The Political Economy of the Rent-Seeking Society," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 64(3), pages 291-303, June.
    6. Burgin, Angus, 2012. "The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free Markets since the Depression," Economics Books, Harvard University Press, number 9780674058132, march.
    7. Andrea Schaechter & Carlo Cottarelli, 2010. "Long-Term Trends in Public Finances in the G-7 Economies," IMF Staff Position Notes 2010/13, International Monetary Fund.
    8. Mr. Manmohan S. Kumar & Mr. Dennis P. Quinn, 2012. "Globalization and Corporate Taxation," IMF Working Papers 2012/252, International Monetary Fund.
    9. Shapiro, Carl & Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1984. "Equilibrium Unemployment as a Worker Discipline Device," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(3), pages 433-444, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Thomas Palley, 2018. "Government Spending and the Income-Expenditure Model: The Multiplier, Spending Composition, and Job Guarantee Programs," FMM Working Paper 30-2018, IMK at the Hans Boeckler Foundation, Macroeconomic Policy Institute.
    2. Heise, Arne & Serfraz Khan, Ayesha, 2018. "The welfare state and liberal democracy: A political economy approach," ZÖSS-Discussion Papers 71, University of Hamburg, Centre for Economic and Sociological Studies (CESS/ZÖSS).
    3. Javier Bilbao-Ubillos, 2021. "The Crisis of the European Social Model in the Adverse Environment of Globalization," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 53(3), pages 478-500, September.
    4. Liberati, P., 2024. "Are European Health Models Still Different?," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 2441, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    5. Mark Setterfield, 2020. "Managing the discontent of the losers," Review of Social Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 78(1), pages 77-97, January.
    6. Abdulhalim Çelik & Kübra Yavuz, 2023. "The Evolving Role of the State in the 15th Year of Türkiye Social Security System Reform," Journal of Social Policy Conferences, Istanbul University, Faculty of Economics, issue 84, pages 111-124, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Deniz Igan & Prachi Mishra & Thierry Tressel, 2012. "A Fistful of Dollars: Lobbying and the Financial Crisis," NBER Macroeconomics Annual, University of Chicago Press, vol. 26(1), pages 195-230.
    2. Malick Souare, 2003. "Macroeconomic Implications of Population Aging and Public Pensions," Social and Economic Dimensions of an Aging Population Research Papers 100, McMaster University.
    3. Giuseppe Dari-Mattiacci & Eric Langlais & Bruno Lovat & Francesco Parisi, 2007. "Crowding-out in productive and redistributive rent-seeking," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 133(1), pages 199-229, October.
    4. Hambeleleni Iiyambo & Teresia Kaulihowa, 2020. "An assessment of the relationship between public debt, government expenditure and revenue in Namibia," Public Sector Economics, Institute of Public Finance, vol. 44(3), pages 331-353.
    5. Miguel Boucinha & Carlo Altavilla & Frank Smets & José-Luis Peydró, 2019. "Banking Supervision, Monetary Policy and Risk-Taking: Big Data Evidence from 15 Credit Registers," Working Papers 1137, Barcelona School of Economics.
    6. Robert Tollison, 2012. "The economic theory of rent seeking," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 152(1), pages 73-82, July.
    7. Nikos Alabanos & Sotiris Theodoropoulos, 2016. "A key-point comparison & the new challenges for the existent Administrative Burden Models (A.B.M’s)," SPOUDAI Journal of Economics and Business, SPOUDAI Journal of Economics and Business, University of Piraeus, vol. 66(1-2), pages 32-45, January-J.
    8. Ernesto Dal Bó & Pedro Dal Bó, 2011. "Workers, Warriors, And Criminals: Social Conflict In General Equilibrium," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 9(4), pages 646-677, August.
    9. Gawel, Erik & Lehmann, Paul & Strunz, Sebastian & Heuson, Clemens, 2018. "Public Choice barriers to efficient climate adaptation – theoretical insights and lessons learned from German flood disasters," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(3), pages 473-499, June.
    10. Rajan, Raghuram & Laeven, Luc & Klapper, Leora F., 2004. "Business Environment and Firm Entry: Evidence from International Data," CEPR Discussion Papers 4366, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    11. Klapper, Leora & Laeven, Luc & Rajan, Raghuram, 2006. "Entry regulation as a barrier to entrepreneurship," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(3), pages 591-629, December.
    12. Stephan Schulmeister, 2018. "From Prosperity into the Crisis and Back. On the Role of Economic Theories in the Long Cycle," WIFO Working Papers 571, WIFO.
    13. Mara Faccio & Luigi Zingales, 2022. "Political Determinants of Competition in the Mobile Telecommunication Industry," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 35(4), pages 1983-2018.
    14. Franklin G. Mixon, 2018. "Camaraderie, common pool congestion, and the optimal size of surf gangs," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 381-396, November.
    15. Holcombe,Randall G., 2018. "Political Capitalism," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781108449908, May.
    16. Philip Grossman, 1988. "Government and economic growth: A non-linear relationship," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 56(2), pages 193-200, February.
    17. Li, Guoping & Zhou, Hong, 2015. "Political connections and access to IPO markets in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 76-93.
    18. Feng, Xunan & Johansson, Anders C. & Zhang, Tianyu, 2015. "Mixing business with politics: Political participation by entrepreneurs in China," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 220-235.
    19. Matei Alexandru APAVALOAEI, 2015. "Interventionism: An Economic Analysis Of Priceless Resource Allocation," Scientific Bulletin - Economic Sciences, University of Pitesti, vol. 14(1), pages 21-29.
    20. Diana W. Thomas, 2018. "A process perspective on regulation: Who bears the dispersed costs of regulation?," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 31(4), pages 395-402, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • H1 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government
    • H10 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - General
    • H50 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:imk:fmmpap:16-2018. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sabine Nemitz (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/fmbocde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.