From the post-Second World War 'restoration of habitation' to the crisis of the restoration

Chapter 3 discusses the approaches to social policy in the post-Second World War period when an actually existing socialist model of society was an important element in the policy environment. The welfare state is examined as an integral part of a new form of regulated capitalism. The contributions to the theory of the welfare state are discussed around the question of the potential of social policy to transform capitalism along with the narratives on the ongoing reality of class and the way it affects the life of workers in welfare societies. In developing countries, the response to social problems was not shaped through historical patterns of social conflict and conflict resolution similar to those in advanced capitalist societies; it was largely the politics of national developmentalism which shaped the policy environment and the nature of socioeconomic relations. After the three post-war decades, both the welfare state and national developmentalist policies began to be challenged in an atmosphere of intense debates around the theme of crisis.