A welfare-state is a state in which organized power is used to provide social services to a society that cannot provide these things for itself through market-based transactions. Studying the welfare-states of Germany, Sweden and the United States will provide us a valuable perspective in understanding how the state's role in a capitalist democracy affects the security, safety and overall well-being of all its citizens. The following paper seeks to examine how the welfare-states in these three nations have evolved and how the differences in their structures have impacted the socio-economic makeup of each modern society. One must acknowledge that the welfare-states of Germany, Sweden and the United States are embodied in the ideologies of three distinct welfare regimes namely the conservative regime, the social-democratic regime and the liberal regime. The ideals of these three welfare-states differ fundamentally and it is essential to our analysis to understand how and why they have historically emerged.
[...] Political Structure as a Cause of the Welfare-State The political structure of the United States was officially formed in 1789 with the ratification of the U.S. Constitution. The creation of the Constitution was a lengthy process that was strewn with frequent disagreements and consequently with various unjustified political concessions. Because of this, the U.S. Senate and the Electoral College both became bodies of disproportionate representation for reasons not based on ideological calculus, but rather for the sake of arbitrary means of compromise. [...]
[...] It is on these fundamental ideals that the current liberal welfare regime in the United States is founded upon, where the poor are stigmatized as being lazy and the ideals of competition and free- markets are deeply embedded in the roots of both society and government. Conversely, the conservative ideal emerged in opposition to free- market democracy, largely as a reaction to the French Revolution and the Paris Commune (Esping-Anderson, 10). The conservative welfare regime was therefore founded on the principles of maintaining an orderly class structure that was complacently hierarchical. [...]
[...] Doesn't the United States Have a European-Style Welfare State?” Brookings Papers on Economic Activity Alston, Lee J. & Ferrie, Joseph P. Southern Paternalism and the American Welfare State: Economics, Politics, and Institutions in the South, 1865- 1965. Cambridge, U.K., New York: Cambridge University Press Brenner, Robert. “Property Relations and the Growth of Agricultural Productivity in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe,” in Economic Development and the Agricultural Productivity, ed. A. Bradbury and R. Kirstein. In Course Pack. Brown, Michael K. [...]
[...] In a similar vein, the ratio of the minimum wage to the national average wage (measured from 1991-1994) in the United States is only whereas in Germany it is 55% and in Sweden it is 52% (Alesina et al.). One 1988 study also showed that percentage of the aged in poverty ranges from 24% in the United States, to 11% in Germany and less than in Sweden” (Esping-Anderson, 57). All of these statistics point to the glaring reality that U.S. [...]
[...] Thus, opportunities for market transactions were limited, and regardless of this, serfs were averse to adhering to the principles of trade and comparative advantage for a variety of rational reasons. Specialization was particularly risky due to the uncertainty of seasonal hazards the risk of a bad season meant potential starvation and so serfs logically preferred the option of economic security to economic growth. Amidst this seeming state of stagnation, feudal lords' only option of promoting economic growth was through the colonization of new land for the purpose of expanding cultivation, which was achieved through conquest and political accumulation. [...]
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