Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Cash versus services: 'worlds of welfare' and the decommodification of cash benefits and health care services

Bambra, C.

Cash versus services: 'worlds of welfare' and the decommodification of cash benefits and health care services Thumbnail


Authors

C. Bambra



Abstract

Welfare state models have focused almost exclusively on the study of cash benefits, and typologies established on this limited basis have been used to generalise about all forms of welfare state provision. This ignores the fact that welfare states are also about the actual delivery of services and/or that countries vary in terms of the relative emphasis that they place upon cash benefits and welfare state services. This article explores the cash and services mix in, and between, welfare states with reference to recent welfare state typologies, most notably Esping-Andersen's decommodification-centred ‘worlds of welfare’. It compares the decommodification levels of the main cash benefits with the main area of service provision: health care. The resulting analysis suggests that when services are added into the comparative analysis of welfare state regimes there are five welfare state clusters: Social Democratic, Liberal, Conservative, and sub-groups within both the Liberal and Conservative regimes. The article concludes that, in order to maintain integrity or generalisability, future welfare state typologies need to reflect more adequately the role of services in welfare state provision.

Citation

Bambra, C. (2005). Cash versus services: 'worlds of welfare' and the decommodification of cash benefits and health care services. Journal of Social Policy, 34(2), 195-213. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0047279404008542

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date Apr 1, 2005
Deposit Date Nov 13, 2008
Publicly Available Date Nov 13, 2008
Journal Journal of Social Policy
Print ISSN 0047-2794
Electronic ISSN 1469-7823
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 34
Issue 2
Pages 195-213
DOI https://doi.org/10.1017/s0047279404008542

Files





You might also like



Downloadable Citations