Esping-Andersen: The Three Types Of Welfare Reform

In Esping-Andersen (1990), they describe three types of welfare states; liberal, conservative, and social democratic. Each model places higher value on what is important for their society. For example, in the liberal welfare state, the market is a keystone to their welfare system, whereas in the conservative welfare state family and contribution to society are placed higher in value. Germany is often considered to be a conservative welfare state, with large emphasis given to civil society and the family structure. Instead of privatization and reliance on the market based system, there is more government intervention by providing public services through subsidies and heavy regulation of big business. One of the representations of their conservative …show more content…
Even though there are still hints of conservatism within the German welfare state, such as women still being the main provider of childcare and still mainly access benefits through a male breadwinner, there are significant changes to the system that prove that it is not a strict conservative state anymore. With the reforms to pensions and labor that open up market structures and allow for more fluidity of business aims, these reforms have taken Germany to be more of a mix between conservatism and liberalism. Reforms like Agenda 2010 has increased the weight that German society gives to the private sector by reducing or completely eliminating public services and changing them over privatized services. There are more opportunities for women to be more involved in the workforce and ascend to higher paid positions with the increase in childcare and the transition to a market based economy. In Germany’s case, the three worlds of capitalism have started to blend together to create both a conservative and liberal welfare state through the enacting of reforms and globalization of the