The Concept of Social Democracy in the Operation of Welfare States
Discuss About The Transformation Europe After Great Recession.
This essay discusses the concept of social democracy in the operation of welfare states. The ideologies that the governments of the welfare states follow, largely focus on the appropriate combination of democracy and capitalism in protecting the interest of the citizens of the country (Ringen and Ngok 2017). Due to the fact that the aims of the capitalism sharply oppose the aims of a democratic state. Most of the welfare states either follow three different categories namely social democracy, liberal and conservative or have formed a new model to govern effectively for instance, the government of Canada, Finland, Sweden and Norway and France. There are various advantages as well as disadvantages of social democratic welfare state model.
Social democracy refers to the gradual but peaceful transition from capitalism to socialism by democratic means. It is a social, political and economic ideology which supports social and economic interventions for promoting social justice within the structure of liberal democratic institution and capitalist economy (Bergh and Bjørnskov 2014). Social democracy builds a political regime that involves commitments to the participatory and representative democracy. This type of setting, measurers income redistribution along with regulation of economy in the general interest as well as welfare state provisions. This can include, cash payments, concessions, subsidies, grants and public distribution.
Welfare state remains responsible for protecting and promoting the social as well as economic well-being of the citizens. These governments believe in the principles of equal opportunity for everyone, equal distribution of wealth in the society. The Republic of China is the greatest example of social welfare state (Ringen and Ngok 2017). For being a welfare state, it is socialistic in nature. It believes the principles of equality and feels keen to provide equal opportunities to all. It also aims to ensure equitable distribution of wealth. In addition to this, the state takes responsibility for the people who are unable to avail minimum provisions for good life (Bergh and Bjørnskov 2014). Modern welfare states include the Nordic countries such as Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Norway and other European countries like France, Belgium, Germany and Netherlands. These welfare states involve the transfer of fund from state to services provided like healthcare and education. The states like Canada and China also provide assistance to the public directly through taxation. Such type of taxation usually includes a larger income taxes for the people with high income which is referred as progressive tax (Scase 2016).
The social democratic welfare states follow a particular model which is based on the principles of universalism that grant access to the services and advantages based on citizenship (Ringen and Ngok 2017). The social welfare states provide autonomy to the citizen but limit reliance of the market as well as family. In such context the social policies are seen to be policies against market. According to Rothstein and Steinmo (2016) the chief aim of the non-universal welfare states, is directing the resources to the people most in need.
Categories of Welfare States in Europe
The welfare states that follow the ideologies of social democracy, has similarities with the socialist states in their operations. The social democrats are committed to act for the common good (En.unesco.org 2018). The ideology of social democracy falls in the central left of the political spectrum. This kind of governments believe in individual freedom as well as democratically selected government in one hand and emphasise the requirement for protecting the interest of the minority groups (Forrest and Murie 2014). They arrange programs for supporting the people economically lagged behind. Social democratic welfare states support gender equality, freedom education and trade unions.
Finland is a social welfare state which has one of the best education systems in the globe. The students do not spend tuition fees and also given meals by the government. The literacy rate here is 100% (En.unesco.org 2018). Both the countries of the Netherlands as well as Finland have the highest standard of living. In Netherlands, the government execute less control over the country’s economy, but follows socialist welfare system. The lifestyle of the people in these states is very egalitarian yet organized, where even the higher authorities of any organisation do not treat subordinates rudely (Taylor-Gooby, Leruth and Chung 2017).
Social democratic welfare states like Canada and Denmark take special care for the minority groups (En.unesco.org 2018). They monitor economy by regulating market. This guarantees full employment and proper distribution of wealth thus reduce inequality in the society (Raphael 2014). The minority communities in any region tend to be the easiest target of exclusion., discrimination even violence. People’s Republic of China builds provisions for all kinds of minority groups diversified by ethnicity, wealth, language and religion (Coppieters, Deschouwer and Waller 2014). It takes measure to prevent the inequalities and provide opportunities for equal access to all the state provided facilities.
Subsidised education system is one of the major characteristics of the social democratic welfare states which draws a distinct line between the welfare states and other government systems (Ringen 2017). In the countries like Sweden, France, Canada, the government aim to provide education to all the students irrespective of social and economic class (Hesmondhalgh et al. 2015). Moreover, these governments play an active role in providing systematic incentives to the universities and colleges so that they can spend money in the scholarships and raise tuitions. Here the aim is again to help the poor but meritorious students to excel. It is greatly followed by both China and the Netherlands (En.unesco.org 2018).
The chief activities of the welfare states aim to strengthen the disadvantaged classes and promote equality in the society (Rueschemeyer and Skocpol 2017). However, many critics have found out that these provisions and facilities make people more dependent on the state. This may create a large number of less motivated labours who are habituated to receive financial and all other supports from the government without having any contribution to the progress of the state. These people tend to prolong the processes as long as possible that reduces their skills. Belgium is a social democratic state which provides all kinds of social security benefits that other social democratic countries offer, including old age and invalid pensions (En.unesco.org 2018). However, in order to provide these essential needs to the citizens, the government controls businesses, hospitals and schools. For running these institutions, the welfare states need a large amount of money which is generally collected from the people as tax (Taylor-Gooby, Leruth and Chung 2017). This is the reason the income tax rate of Finland, Netherlands, France and other welfare states is higher than that of the other types of government systems. Moreover, in the social democratic states, their government changes within four to six years hence one government changes the rules and polices applied by the other (Rod et al. 2015). Ireland has one of the best welfare systems, where the issue of unemployment is higher than Denmark or Switzerland’s. more than 20% of GDP goes to manage the welfare system by Ireland government whereas as America’s social support programs need only 15% (En.unesco.org 2018). This is the reason why this type of states does not have plan long term goals hence the development gets disturbed.
Therefore, it can be concluded that there are different advantages as well as disadvantages in the social democratic welfare states. It provides all types of benefits to its citizens such as education, health care system and arranges various allowance systems for the wellbeing of the citizens. On the contrary these services are being initiated through the taxes given by the citizens. Hence the tax structure of these countries are quite high in compared to the other nations in the world. Therefore, it can be said that people of these countries are less competitive yet lead high quality lifestyle.
References:
Bergh, A. and Bjørnskov, C., 2014. Trust, welfare states and income equality: Sorting out the causality. European Journal of Political Economy, 35, pp.183-199.
Coppieters, B., Deschouwer, K. and Waller, M., 2014. Social democracy in a post-communist Europe. Routledge.
En.unesco.org (2018). Countries. [online] UNESCO. Available at: https://en.unesco.org/countries/ [Accessed 17 Apr. 2018].
Forrest, R. and Murie, A., 2014. Selling the welfare state: The privatisation of public housing. Routledge.
Hesmondhalgh, D., Oakley, K., Lee, D. and Nisbett, M., 2015. Culture, Politics and Equality: The Challenge for Social Democracy. In Culture, Economy and Politics (pp. 1-35). Palgrave Macmillan UK.
Raphael, D., 2014. Challenges to promoting health in the modern welfare state: The case of the Nordic nations. Scandinavian journal of public health, 42(1), pp.7-17.
Ringen, S. and Ngok, K., 2017. What kind of welfare state is emerging in China?. In Towards Universal Health Care in Emerging Economies (pp. 213-237). Palgrave Macmillan, London.. Ringen, S., 2017. The possibility of politics: a study in the political economy of the welfare state. Routledge.
Rod, M.H., Jöhncke, S., Steffen, V. and Raahauge, K.M., 2015. The social life of evidence: Rationalizing professional practice in the welfare state. Between Magic and Rationality: On the Limits of Reason in the Modern World, 4, p.43.
Rothstein, B. and Steinmo, S. eds., 2016. Restructuring the welfare state: political institutions and policy change. Springer.
Rueschemeyer, D. and Skocpol, T. eds., 2017. States, social knowledge, and the origins of modern social policies. Princeton University Press.
Scase, R., 2016. Social democracy in capitalist society: working-class politics in Britain and Sweden. Routledge.
Taylor-Gooby, P., Leruth, B. and Chung, H. eds., 2017. After Austerity: Welfare State Transformation in Europe After the Great Recession. Oxford University Press.
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