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The Welfare State as Universal Social Security: A Global Analysis

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  • Kerem Gabriel Öktem

    (Faculty of Sociology, Bielefeld University, Germany)

Abstract

Over the past decades, the geography of comparative welfare state research has transformed. Whereas scholars used to focus on a limited number of advanced industrialised democracies, they now increasingly study developments in Europe’s periphery, East Asia, and Latin America. So, does this mean that the welfare state has spread around the world? To answer this question, we analyse different ways to measure welfare states and map their results. With the help of International Labour Organization and International Monetary Fund data, we explore measurements based on social expenditures, social rights, and social security legislations and show that each of them faces serious limitations in a global analysis of welfare states. For some measurements, we simply lack global data. For others, we risk misclassifying the extent and quality of some social protection systems. Finally, we present a measurement that is grounded in the idea that the welfare state is essentially about universalism. Relying on a conceptualisation of the welfare state as collective responsibility for the wellbeing of the entire population, we use universal social security as a yardstick. We measure this conceptualization through health and pension coverage and show that a growing number of countries have become welfare states by this definition. Yet, it is possible that at least some of these cases offer only basic levels of protection, we caution.

Suggested Citation

  • Kerem Gabriel Öktem, 2020. "The Welfare State as Universal Social Security: A Global Analysis," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(1), pages 103-113.
    • Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v8:y:2020:i:1:p:103-113
    DOI: 10.17645/si.v8i1.2509
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Wood, Geof & Gough, Ian, 2006. "A Comparative Welfare Regime Approach to Global Social Policy," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(10), pages 1696-1712, October.
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    6. Rudra,Nita, 2008. "Globalization and the Race to the Bottom in Developing Countries," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521886987, July.
    7. Chris Pierson, 2004. "’Late Industrializers’ and the Development of the Welfare State," Social Policy in a Development Context, in: Thandika Mkandawire (ed.), Social Policy in a Development Context, chapter 10, pages 215-245, Palgrave Macmillan.
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    Cited by:

    1. Monica Budowski & Daniel Künzler, 2020. "Universalism in Social Policies: A Multidimensional Concept, Policy Idea or Process," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(1), pages 86-89.
    2. Naoki Akaeda, 2025. "The Consequences of Social Policy for Subjective Well-Being: A New Paradox?," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 26(3), pages 1-23, March.

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