Social Policies in Asia and Europe in the Twenty-First Century Convergence or Path Dependence?

• Published in: International journal of sociology Vol. 41; no. 3; pp. 46 - 67
• Main Author: de Haan, Arjan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 01.10.2011; M. E. Sharpe
• Subjects: Corporatism; Economic crises; Economic Development; Economic globalization; Economic growth models; Economic policy; Globalization; Ideologies; Indian literature; International economics; Netherlands; Peoples Republic of China; Political debate; Politics; Poverty; Social Policy; Universalism; Welfare state
• ISSN: 0020-7659; 1557-9336
• DOI: 10.2753/IJS0020-7659410302

This article attempts to "globalize" the social policy literature, inspired by Ian Gough's argument that there are analytical lessons from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) welfare state literature, and the rise of social policy analysis elsewhere. This explores the nature of social policy in three contexts, in the old OECD (the Netherlands, in particular) and in the emerging economies of East Asia (China) and South Asia (India). The comparison focuses on how economic contexts, politics and institution, and ideas and ideologies structure social policies. This shows that the constellations of and changes in social policy across those very different contexts can be characterized on two axes: a productivism-welfarism distinction, and Esping-Andersen's triad of universalism, corporatism, and liberalism. Moreover, the comparison shows that economic globalization has led to some degree of convergence-however, different politics and ideologies in which social policies are embedded, and not just levels of development, continue to result in social policy divergence.