The Associative Economy : Insights Beyond the Welfare State and Into Post-Capitalism

Are Welfare States in crisis? Forty years after Gunnar Myrdal's seminal Beyond the Welfare State it is still little grasped in the 'reform' debate that the whole structure and economies of our societies are being transformed. This book reasserts the importance of a new employment and productive model - that of the 'associative economy' - which integrates social solidarity with economic planning. The Main Thesis Of The Book Is That The Welfare State Cannot Have A Sustainable Future, Given The Overburdened State Budget, Unless It Is Managed By A Strategic Planning Process. The Book Deals, Moreover, With The New Emergence Of A Nonprofit Private Sector That Feeds A Kind Of 'associative Economy'. In This Economy, Which Can Be Termed 'post-industrial Society', Deep Changes Occur In The Structure Of Consumption Preferences, Production Modes, Labour-market Behaviour And The Role Played By The State.--jacket. From Social Protection To Social Integration: A Glance At The Major Social Issues In The Advanced Countries -- Social Protection And Social Integration -- Social Protection Versus Social Integration? -- The Welfare State And Social Integration -- Social Integration From Industrial To Post-industrial Society -- From The Present Shortcomings To A New Type Of Social Integration -- The Contextual Challenges -- The Relationship Between The Active And Non-active Population: A Mystification -- The Impact Of The Technological Revolution -- Poverty And Marginalization -- The Possible Perspective Issues -- The De-institutionalization Of Social Roles -- De-scholarization And 'permanent Education' -- Cutting Down Working Time -- Towards Guaranteed Income -- Employment And Activities Planning Or The Crisis Of The Welfare System -- Summarizing The Transition Towards Social Integration And Planning -- Brief Scheme Indicating How The Subject Will Be Treated, Or Schedule Of This Book -- Critical Analysis Of The Social Change -- Structural Change: A Reappraisal Of The Various Approaches -- What Is Meant By 'structural Change' In The Contemporary Economy? -- The Technological Approach -- The Historians Of Technology -- Technology: Is It Exogenous Or Endogenous To Economic Progress? -- The Economic Approach -- The Internal Dynamic Of Economic Progress -- The Schumpeterian Objection -- The Rostow Objections To The Theories Of Economic Development -- Sylos Labini's Answers -- Beyond The Economics Of Technological Change -- The Historical-institutional Approach. Franco Archibugi. Includes Bibliographical References And Indexes. Contents 6 List of Tables and Figures 13 Preface 14 Acknowledgements 17 Chapter Sources 18 Introduction 20 1. From Social Protection to Social Integration: A Glance at the Major Social Issues in the Advanced Countries 21 Part I. Critical Analysis of the Social Change 42 2. Structural Change: A Reappraisal of the Various Approaches 43 3. Structural Change: Towards a Convergence of Various Approaches 87 4. The Change in the Structure of Consumption and the ‘Tertiarization’ Process 102 5. The Change in the Structure of Production 115 6. The Change in the Labour Market 137 7. The Service Society versus the Industrial Society 151 8. The Process of Redistribution in the Two Models of Society 165 9. The Expansion and Decline of Public Services 179 Part II. Critical Analysis of theManagement Problemsof the Change 193 10. Beyond the Welfare State 194 12. A New Social Model: The Associative Economy 221 11. Beyond Capitalism? 201 13. New Policies and Instruments 252 Notes and References 271 Bibliography 339 Author Index 373 Subject Index 380 Front Matter....Pages i-xviii From Social Protection to Social Integration: A Glance at the Major Social Issues in the Advanced Countries....Pages 1-21 Front Matter....Pages 23-23 Structural Change: A Reappraisal of the Various Approaches....Pages 25-68 Structural Change: Towards a Convergence of Various Approaches....Pages 69-83 The Change in the Structure of Consumption and the Tertiarization’ Process....Pages 84-96 The Change in the Structure of Production....Pages 97-118 The Change in the Labour Market....Pages 119-132 The Service Society versus the Industrial Society....Pages 133-146 The Process of Redistribution in the Two Models of Society....Pages 147-160 The Expansion and Decline of Public Services....Pages 161-174 Front Matter....Pages 175-175 Beyond the Welfare State....Pages 177-183 Beyond Capitalism?....Pages 184-203 A New Social Model: The Associative Economy....Pages 204-234 New Policies and Instruments....Pages 235-253 Back Matter....Pages 254-373 Annotation The main thesis of the book is that the welfare state cannot have a sustainable future, given the overburdened state budget, unless it is managed by a strategic planning process. The book deals, moreover, with the new emergence of a non-profit private sector that feeds a kind of 'associative economy'. In this economy, which can be termed 'post-industrial society', deep changes occur in the structure of consumption preferences, production modes, labour-market behaviour and the role played by the state. The book also warns of the possible impact of the structural changes described by the accepted paradigms of conventional economics. The book gives a more clearly defined face to the undetermined post-industrial or post-capitalist society in advanced countries