Measuring retrenchment in welfare states: overcoming the challenges to the definition, operationalization and measurement of welfare policy change

Questions of how to measure welfare efforts are not simple and are highly contingent on the theoretical conceptualization of such regimes and upon the types of policies and the levels of government being examined. How to define welfare and well-being from the perspective of outputs or outcomes, whether to focus on the politics of welfare state change (reforms) and/or the policies of welfare state growth, how to categorize policy components, how to define and measure the impacts of fixed and variable costs due to demographic changes, are amongst the many considerations which have to made when determining how to estimate welfare state activity. The chapter examines the obstacle that is the dependent variable problem in the study of welfare states. Once the challenge for consensus on central theoretical definitions of welfare and retrenchment has been explored, the need for elements of policy to be disentangled is discussed. The importance of proper classification tools and measurements is emphasized and the need to adopt a mixed-methods approach to the subject.