Political Economy in International Perspective
Lecture 1: Introduction to comparative political economy
Weekly schedule:
• 1. Introduction to comparative political economy
• 2. Political parties, corporatism and socio-economic reforms
• 3. Globalisation I
• 4. Globalisation II
• 5. Migration
• 6. Income inequality
• 7. Political economy in the aftermath of the financial crisis
Today’s programme:
• Types of welfare state
• Reforms
• Research method: comparative
• Presentation scheme
Welfare state typologies (1):
• Bismarck:
- Equivalence principle
- Direct relationship between benefits, contributions, loss of earnings and risk
- Contribution limit (contributions are due on the first part of income)
- Mandatory insurances
- Coverage is limited to employees, focus on occupational hazard
- Employers and employees run the system
• Beveridge:
- Solidarity principle
- Flat-rate benefits
- Means-tested programmes
- Government runs the system
Welfare state typologies (2):
• Gøsta Esping-Andersen (1990): ‘Three Welfare-State Regimes’
• Definition welfare state regime: ‘’The institutional arrangements, rules and
understandings that guide and shape concurrent social policy decisions,
expenditure developments, problem definitions, and even the respond-and-
demand structure of citizens and welfare consumers’’
• Dimensions:
- 1. Degree of decommodification (the strength of social entitlements and citizens’
degree of immunization from market dependency)
- 2. Kind of social stratification (a society’s categorization of its people into groups
based on socioeconomic factors like wealth, income, race, education, ethnicity,
gender, occupation & social status)
1
Lecture 1: Introduction to comparative political economy
Weekly schedule:
• 1. Introduction to comparative political economy
• 2. Political parties, corporatism and socio-economic reforms
• 3. Globalisation I
• 4. Globalisation II
• 5. Migration
• 6. Income inequality
• 7. Political economy in the aftermath of the financial crisis
Today’s programme:
• Types of welfare state
• Reforms
• Research method: comparative
• Presentation scheme
Welfare state typologies (1):
• Bismarck:
- Equivalence principle
- Direct relationship between benefits, contributions, loss of earnings and risk
- Contribution limit (contributions are due on the first part of income)
- Mandatory insurances
- Coverage is limited to employees, focus on occupational hazard
- Employers and employees run the system
• Beveridge:
- Solidarity principle
- Flat-rate benefits
- Means-tested programmes
- Government runs the system
Welfare state typologies (2):
• Gøsta Esping-Andersen (1990): ‘Three Welfare-State Regimes’
• Definition welfare state regime: ‘’The institutional arrangements, rules and
understandings that guide and shape concurrent social policy decisions,
expenditure developments, problem definitions, and even the respond-and-
demand structure of citizens and welfare consumers’’
• Dimensions:
- 1. Degree of decommodification (the strength of social entitlements and citizens’
degree of immunization from market dependency)
- 2. Kind of social stratification (a society’s categorization of its people into groups
based on socioeconomic factors like wealth, income, race, education, ethnicity,
gender, occupation & social status)
1
