Title: Why Do We Need the Theory of Authoritarian Social Policy in Comparative Research
Abstract: I claim in this paper that scholars cannot fully answer the question of whether and how the political regime matters for the development of social policy unless the theoretical tools of comparative research are adjusted. The welfare state theory apparatus used in comparative research is democratically oriented. The assumption researchers make is that the development of social policy is the result of the political action of organized social interests. This orientation is problematic since vast empirical evidence suggests that social policy can develop in a number of other ways. The democratic lens of the welfare state theory developed partially as a result of the lack of comparative research between the capitalist West and the communist East during the Cold War and the influence of modernization paradigm afterwards. I pull together the existing research that uses the non‐democratic understanding of social policy and distinguish three themes in this research agenda: (1) the policy formation process with proactive elites and alternative feedback mechanisms; (2) the state as an institutional environment; and (3) the meanings of social policy unrelated to civil rights. I suggest that the theory of authoritarian social policy should be introduced into comparative research to balance the existing democratic orientation and that countries with hybrid regimes are the best sites to marry the democratic theory of social policy with the authoritarian one.
Publication Year: 2013
Publication Date: 2013-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 1
AI Researcher Chatbot
Get quick answers to your questions about the article from our AI researcher chatbot