Democracy and the Welfare State : The Two Wests in the Age of Austerity

After World War II, states on both sides of the Atlantic enacted comprehensive social benefits to protect working people and constrain capitalism. A widely shared consensus specifically linked social welfare to democratic citizenship, upholding greater equality as the glue that held nations together. Though the "two Wests," Europe and the United States, differ in crucial respects, they share a common history of social rights, democratic participation, and welfare capitalism. But in a new age of global inequality, welfare-state retrenchment, and economic austerity, can capitalism and democracy still coexist? In this book, leading historians and social scientists rethink the history of social democracy and the welfare state in the United States and Europe in light of the global transformations of the economic order. Separately and together, they ask how changes in the distribution of wealth reshape the meaning of citizenship in a post-welfare-state era. They explore how the harsh effects of austerity and inequality influence democratic participation. In individual essays as well as interviews with Ira Katznelson and Frances Fox Piven, contributors from both sides of the Atlantic explore the fortunes of the welfare state. They discuss distinct national and international settings, speaking to both local particularities and transnational and transatlantic exchanges. Covering a range of topics—the lives of migrant workers, gender and the family in the design of welfare policies, the fate of the European Union, and the prospects of social movements— Democracy and the Welfare State is essential reading on what remains of twentieth-century social democracy amid the onslaught of neoliberalism and right-wing populism and where this legacy may yet lead us. Historians interpret the welfare state, 1975-1995 / Maurizio Vaudagna -- Reconciling European integration and the national welfare state : a neo-Weberian perspective / Maurizio Ferrera -- Democracy after the welfare state : an interview / Ira Katznelson -- Privatization and self-responsibility : patterns of welfare state development in Europe and the United States since the 1990s / Christian Lammert -- Paradise lost? : social citizenship in Norway and Sweden / Gro Hagemann -- Social citizenship in the U.S. Affordable Care Act / Beatrix Hoffman -- In the shadow of employment precarity : informal protection and risk transfers in low-end temporary staffing / Sebastien Chauvin -- From the welfare state to the carceral state : whither social reproduction? / Mimi Abramovitz -- Family matters : social policy, an overlooked constraint on the development of European citizenship / Chiara Saraceno -- Transforming gendered labor policies in Sweden and the United States, 1960s-2000s / Ann Shola Orloff -- Breadwinner liberalism and its discontents in the American welfare state / Robert O. Self -- Nationalism's challenge to European citizenship, democracy, and equality : potential for resistance from transnational civil society / Birte Siim -- Poor people power : the state, social provision, and American experiments in democratic engagement / Marisa Chappell -- Grass roots challenges to capitalism : an interview / Frances Fox Piven Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter One. Historians Interpret the Welfare State, 1975–1995 Part I.Democracy and the Welfare State in Europe and the United States Chapter Two. Reconciling European Integration and the National Welfare State Chapter Three. Democracy After the Welfare State Part II. Varieties of Retrenchment Chapter Four. Privatization and Self-Responsibility Chapter Five. Paradise Lost? Chapter Six. Social Citizenship in the U.S. Affordable Care Act Chapter Seven. In the Shadow of Employment Precarity Chapter Eight. From the Welfare State to the Carceral State Part III. Gender, the Family, and Social Provision Chapter Nine. Family Matters Chapter Ten. Transforming Gendered Labor Policies in Sweden and the United States, 1960s–2000s Chapter Eleven. Breadwinner Liberalism and Its Discontents in the American Welfare State Part IV. Possibilities of Resistance Chapter Twelve. Nationalism’s Challenge to European Citizenship, Democracy, and Equality Chapter Thirteen. Poor-People Power Chapter Fourteen. Grassroots Challenges to Capitalism Selected Bibliography Contributors Index Though the “two Wests,” Europe and the United States, differ in crucial respects, they share a common history of social rights. In Democracy and the Welfare State , leading historians and social scientists rethink this history in light of global transformations of the economic order and the onslaught of neoliberalism and right-wing populism.