Dossier du CERI: The Social Contract and the Welfare State: A Comparative Perspective
A Dossier du CERI, edited by Laurence Louër
Choosing to look elsewhere makes it possible to take some distance from the assumptions of the literature on the welfare state that tends to consider more or less implicitly that the welfare state both results from and accompanies democracy, and that it requires an autonomous state that has strong “infrastructural power” as well as a formal labour market and functional financial markets. However, in many non-Western countries these prerequisites are far from being met: political regimes are often authoritarian and democracies often dysfunctional; the state has little capacity to penetrate society and implement public policies; the majority of jobs are in the informal sector; and markets—often dominated by oligopolies and monopolies—are strongly linked to political elites by patrimonial and clientelist dynamics. In addition, many developing countries are heavily dependent on international aid, including for their assistance policies for the poorest members of their societies. The articles presented in this Dossier each explore one aspect of these issues, based on countries in Africa, the Middle East, post-Communist Europe, and Latin America. (...) Read more...
Introduction. The Social Contract and the Welfare State: A Comparative Perspective
Laurence Louër
The Political Economy of Social Protection in Africa: Political Survival Strategies in the Context of Transnational Advocacy
Tom Lavers, Global Development Institute, University of Manchester
Communitarian Versus Individual Norms. Do Conflicting Norms Threaten the Sustainability of Social Protection Programmes in Africa?
Marianne S. Ulriksen, University of Southern Denmark
In Defiance of Rentier-State Theory: The Welfare System in the Islamic Republic of Iran
Kevan Harris, University of California-Los Angeles
Social Citizenship in the Gulf Monarchies: Beyond the Rentier State Paradigm
Laurence Louër
Charitable Organisations and Welfare in Syria: From Ba’thist Etatism to the Outsourcing of Social Responsibilities Laura Ruiz de Elvira, IRD/CEPED
The Privatisation of the State from the Inside: Public Health and Assistance Policies in the State of São Paulo
Isabel Georges, IRD-Institut de recherche pour le développement
Three Decades of Family Policy Change in Hungary, Lithuania and Romania
Borbála Kovács, Department of Global Studies, Université Aarhus, Danemark
Cover image: Paul Klee Strahlung und Rotation, Image in the Public Domain
