Welfare State Regimes - Assignment Example

Based on the three political movements of the time, Danish sociologist Epsing-Andersen created a welfare regime typology. It was based on Social Democracy, Christian democracy (Conservatism), and Liberalism. (Gough)

The welfares are evaluated on the concepts of decommodification and defamiliarisation. Decommodification is the extent to which social provisions such as healthcare and education are free of the market’s influence. It is the government’s impetus that reduces the people’s dependency on the market. Decommodification views utilities as entitlements rather than commodities for sale (Wood and Gough, 349)

Defamilisation is the degree to which family care and responsibility are relaxed by the welfare state provisions. The household is not responsible for the members’ welfare since the welfare state provided can ensure that every citizen has provisions and is relatively living comfortably. It should not be mistaken for the ‘anti-family approach in social policy. Defamilisation is entirely a concept of reducing the dependency on family members for survival (Bambra, 47)

            Social Democratic welfare is based on universalism and the provision of services and benefits on grounds of citizenship. The welfare state provides a high degree of decommodification and defamiliarisation. It limits the reliance on family and the market. The notion is that this welfare is ‘politics against the market’. The state is concerned primarily with directing the resources to the people who are in the deepest need. It is has a highly bureaucratic control over the citizens (Aspalter, 293)

            The Christian-Democratic (Conservative) welfare is solely based on social insurance schemes and subsidiarity. They are mainly guided by social classes and earnings. The state distributes amenities and social insurance without bureaucratic interference to people provided they fulfill set values. The established criteria for qualification could be having a number of children, medical history, age and so on. The welfare state requires very high taxation to run and is dominantly used in Scandinavian countries. It also emphasizes the role of the family. It offers a middle level of decommodification and no defamiliarisation (Baldock, 402)

The Liberal welfare state is based on citizenship and welfare, as a right to a certain extent, which may be modified to suit needs. It is set on the concept of market dominance and private provision. The state’s main objective is the eradication of poverty generally and the provision of only basic needs. The commodification and familiarisation potential of the benefits is very low. Provisions are offered by the private sector mainly and their quality is defined by how much an individual can raise towards them (Borell et al, 157)

The welfare state regimes all affect public health directly. Education and healthcare are the provisions that feature mainly on the regime’s concepts and evaluation. As for healthcare, there is none of the three that provides a foolproof criterion for provision entirely. The social democratic welfare gives a trial at provision, however; it is limited since the quality is governed by the government’s ability to provide quality healthcare (Chung and Muntner, 334).Conservative welfare is better since the welfare is tailor-made. If one qualifies, healthcare is provided to them. Nonetheless, there are rigorous vetting procedures before qualification. The liberal welfare is the poorest in the provision of public health (Eikemo et al, 177) The state only offers basic health while specialized treatment is sought from private institutions at a cost. The Christian Democratic welfare regime has scored well in researches in promoting public health. Except for the conservatism welfare, they seem to lead to health disparity amongst the citizens. They can be viewed from the materialistic theory of health inequalities. (Bambra, 75)

In Nigeria, widespread corruption and misrule have destabilized government functions and incapacitated the government’s ability to provide for its people conclusively. Nigeria is a country whose government only provides the very basic needs and most provisions are done by the private sector.