Liberal Welfare Models - Essay Example

?Liberal Welfare Models Liberal welfare models are becoming more dominant in Europe as compared to other models such as the corporatist and the Universalist model where the difference of each is determined by the emphasis to which they give different social aspects. These include, but are not limited to market, family, church, friends and private institutions and the state in its provision of social services; in all business of State and its provision of social services, the main feature lie in insurance for a better future. The liberal welfare model allows or requires the State to play a small but significant role in upholding the demands of the society, in different cases where civil society is not empowered to look after its own needs and push for improved services from different providers. As such, the state is required to provide benefits and concerns about work incentives receive plenty of attention, while the others are just supporting features of the model in service provision from the government since civil society takes care of the rest. As a result, European countries are tending to focus a lot on the liberal model of social welfare, but it cannot receive full favour by Europe in its entirety, which brings out the goal of this essay in assessing how dominant the model is with evidence from different nations within Europe and how the model is applied. This is especially in defining the role of the government and the people in each country towards adopting this model or its lack of dominance. There is also evidence pointing to a dominant shift away liberal welfare models considering the history of the model, whereby it is part of the oldest models based on the socialist analysis of capitalist societies. A critical evaluation of Britain indicates a shift whereby the Universalist model has taken its place and this proves that liberalism suffers from severe side lining in that there were laws passed in 20th century that eliminated the role of the government in welfare models. These includes the cradle to the grave, which refers to the Old Age Pension Act of 1908, where these two marked a decline of the liberal model in that the government was meant to take over the running of social welfare from the taxes that the people remitted to it (Kemppainen 2012, p.13). This is not just limited to Britain, but also evaluates into Belgium, France, and the Netherlands; where similar changes took place in the past, making sure that Universalist model took over in place of a liberal model (Andersen 2004, p.745). This is considering that modernisation was still in progress and the markets were being too liberalised; hence, the liberal model posed a threat to the people, as seen in the case of Scandinavia. In this case, the liberal model is not at work owing to the fact that welfare arrangements are person’s right, which is not the case in liberal models, since the liberal model serves as an intervention for the failure of civil society and the market in providing welfare services (Andersen 2004, p.745). Consequently, focus on liberal models is not as common due to the lack of integration in individual rights and a central collecting authority. A further look at the liberal models reveals that countries such as those in western Europe provide low level of care services to families whose implication is that rights are not followed due to de-commodification of citizen’s needs. In this perspective, it is evident that the application of the liberal system in western European countries is a capitalist move, which makes the system non-dominant, but more of a Universalist integrated into the liberal model. In addition, the liberal model of welfare is not taking root in Europe due to a number of other aspects that direct attention to Germany and its ways, especially its philosophical ideologies. Therefore, the ideologies that the liberalist model stands for are more of communist styled beliefs that are conservative; and most of Europe is turning or has already turned to full time capitalism, with civil society playing a full role looking after its people (Kemppainen 2012, p.21). Hence, authorities handle better funds provided by the people than shared out between the government and civil society so that the government serves to supplement the needs of its people. Consequently, there are reforms taking place to phase out liberal models from the working of the society based on monopoly and centralisation of people power and welfare in certain bodies. In addition, there is further evidence in different countries that are in a race to phase this out welfare model, where the earlier mentioned monopoly has taken root in European society, and this is a core attribute of liberalism. As a result, the liberal model was more of dominant model of social, welfare and one that is being edged out to allow room for decentralised models that are inclusive of the needs of the society at both individual and collective levels. This is because civil society has played a key role in turning the social service provision industry into a multiplayer one with no role of the government or one where the government runs everything. A look at central and Eastern Europe reveals that the liberal model of social welfare is under reforms in favour of a Universalist model, where there is withdrawal of the state from the public welfare sector and the entire sector turned into a free market for civil society to take over with no government involvement. In addition, there is the introduction of an institutionally polarised welfare system, where governments run the whole system, which is in favour of a Universalist system rather than liberal. However, there are demerits of moving from this liberal model, which is part of why there is a slow reform process from it and towards other models such as the corporate and Universalist. As such, failure to follow the liberal model is bringing about the consequences of capitalism considering that most of the central and eastern Europe for a long time was under communist ideologies. Consequently, the there is growing inequality in income distribution, where there is mass exclusion in society between the rich and the poor, as well as between the young and able and the elderly (Manamu n.d, 235). This is consequent to society shifting its social welfare model from an integrated system as supported by liberalism to other models that move everything to do with social welfare towards the family. However, the reform process despite being slow is not entirely phasing out the liberal model because a comparison of Britain and Poland indicates an integrationist system in Poland and a universal system in Britain. In this case, the implication is that there is adequate use of the liberal framework across Europe, where Poland represents the central and Eastern Europe model of social welfare, while Britain represents Western Europe. Integration in the case of central and Eastern Europe involves borrowing from different models without phasing out the liberal model altogether, in which case these countries have kept some characteristics of the universal and social democratic models. The liberal model in this case is turning out to be too focussed on those that can make huge contributions to its policy of higher contributions is equivalent to higher quality services. As a result, the consequences are that the poor receive low quality services, as compared to non-liberalist systems, where the entire system is inclusive to offer services for all regardless of contributions Besides this, liberal models are also facing stiff challenge from globalisation, which is why it is no longer the dominant model considering that most of Europe is turning into a market-oriented society (Manamu n.d, 230). Therefore, the main goal of these societies is ensuring that all social welfare entities are deregulated so that the social wage reduces significantly, and the above has affected most of northern Europe and the Scandinavian countries to an extent that liberal models are shunned due to their backward trends. The current trends seek to look at communism and its roots in Bismarckian welfare beliefs and failure to follow social markets and economic standings of capitalism (Myles and Quadagno 2002, p.39). In this case, the liberal welfare model is not gaining dominance, but is instead losing dominance and undergoing different levels of modification in order to fit into the global world that Europe has become. In spite of this, the liberal welfare model remains well known due to its low demands on social income, although there are not necessarily enough funds to handle the needs of the people. This is because of the need for the government to come in and offer a helping hand due to the failure of civil society in offering the same services. Thus, embracing liberal models is because of the empowerment it offers to society and room for interaction between state bodies and social needs, which serves as evidence to why central and Eastern Europe countries such the Czech Republic remain under this model (Manamu n.d, 237). In addition, the liberal model is in effect in Eastern Europe than it is in Western Europe due the high numbers of the population working in the public sector, and this is a significant factor. As such, the benefits are fully rolled out to the people rather than allowing decentralisation of the welfare system, which allows for entitlement based on the amount of contributions made. The above remains a distinguishing factor as to how the majority of eastern European nations are on the liberal model, which is in the process of elimination and integration. In conclusion, the liberal model of social welfare cannot be said to be becoming dominant but can only be said to be suffering from modifications, which are similar to it being phased out. This is because of different integrations from other models in order to fit in with globalisation and capitalism after the fall of communism. This can especially with regard to the central and eastern European countries, where the model is dominant while the west has changed to Universalist models. References Andersen, T. 2004. Challenges to the Scandinavian welfare model. Retrieved from European Journal of Political Economy, Volume 20, Issue 3, pp. 743 – 754. Kemppainen, T. 2012. Well-being in socio-political context European welfare regimes in comparison. [Online] Available at: https://helda.helsinki.fi/bitstream/handle/10138/37306/Tutkimuksia123.pdf?sequence=1 [Accessed 31 July 2013] Manamu, S. n.d.. Emerging Eastern European Welfare States: A Variant of the “European” Welfare Model? [Online] Availabla at: http://kms1.isn.ethz.ch/serviceengine/Files/ISN/109912/ichaptersection_singledocument/2e765cc0-2d97-4342-8a66-d08a0a57f31e/en/3-2_Sengoku.pdf [Accessed 31 July 2013] Myles, J. & Quadagno, J. 2002. Political Theories of the Welfare State. Social Service Review, Volume 76, Issue 1, pp. 34 - 57 Read More