Rediscovering social investment in developmental welfare state ...
Rediscovering social investment in developmental welfare state ...
Rediscovering social investment in developmental welfare state ...
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R E D I S C O V E R I N G S O C I A L I N V E S T M E N T I N D E V E L O P M E N T A L W E L F A R E S T A T E P O L I C I E S :<br />
B A C K T O T H E F U T U R E<br />
language or lexicon that prevails <strong>in</strong> the <strong>welfare</strong> <strong>state</strong> literature. 6 What follows is an abbreviated<br />
<strong>in</strong>tellectual chronology that beg<strong>in</strong>s with the desire to expla<strong>in</strong> the bumblebee anomaly, attempts to<br />
account for our failure to do so, and explicates the need for a new perspective.<br />
Conventional economic logic suggests that there is a tradeoff between efficiency and equality (Okun,<br />
1975). Consistent with this perspective, some countries achieve high efficiency along with high<br />
poverty, while others atta<strong>in</strong> low poverty at high economic cost. Yet some countries do not fit this<br />
pattern and are able to achieve very low levels of poverty with relatively high levels of economic<br />
efficiency. Why are Northern European countries <strong>in</strong> particular, analogous to the bumble bee that is<br />
able to fly when by conventional economic logic, it should not (Persson, 2000)? 7 Generally, evidence<br />
for the negative impact of <strong>welfare</strong> <strong>state</strong>s on economic performance is mixed and any productive<br />
benefits of <strong>social</strong> policy rema<strong>in</strong> relatively poorly understood (Goul Andersen, 2007). As Korpi<br />
(2005) notes, ―the fact that theoretically predicted negative effects of taxes and <strong>welfare</strong> <strong>state</strong>s are<br />
very difficult to verify <strong>in</strong> areas where they are most likely to turn up and <strong>in</strong> which we also have<br />
empirically useful data should generate discussion on the theoretical foundations of these<br />
hypotheses‖ (p. 207). The problem, as Hagen and Sitter (2006) note, is that ―the empirical evidence<br />
is used to refute the neoliberal recipe of how economic efficiency is (or should be) produced,<br />
without, however, be<strong>in</strong>g able to identify what mechanisms expla<strong>in</strong> better what is observed‖ (p. 3). 8<br />
The case of the bumblebee, <strong>in</strong> which a static object is governed by different stability laws than a<br />
dynamic object, poses a challenge to theoretical oversimplifications that sometimes occur <strong>in</strong><br />
economics (L<strong>in</strong>dert, 2004b). Explanations for anomalous outcomes have yet to be developed.<br />
An <strong>in</strong>tegrative assessment and synthesis of the relevant literature reveals that (1) <strong>welfare</strong> <strong>state</strong>s face a<br />
variety of pressures and dilemmas, (2) there is a long legacy of conceptual ambiguity surround<strong>in</strong>g the<br />
6 Nordic researchers such as Kangas and Palme (2005) have begun to focus on the <strong>developmental</strong> aspect of <strong>social</strong> policy.<br />
In particular, they study how to bridge the divide between development studies and study of the <strong>welfare</strong> <strong>state</strong> and<br />
explore how <strong>social</strong> policy may facilitate economic development. However, these efforts have not explicitly revisited the<br />
<strong>social</strong> development literature or attempted to def<strong>in</strong>e <strong>developmental</strong>ism <strong>in</strong> the context of comparative <strong>welfare</strong> <strong>state</strong><br />
research. Kangas and Palme (2005) is part of the UNRISD series, Social Policy <strong>in</strong> a Development Context, which exam<strong>in</strong>es the<br />
ways that <strong>social</strong> policy can be <strong>in</strong>strumental to economic development while ma<strong>in</strong>ta<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g its goal of <strong>social</strong> protection and<br />
equity. In a recent report by the Institute for Futures Studies (Morel, Palier, & Palme, 2009), the <strong>social</strong> <strong><strong>in</strong>vestment</strong><br />
paradigm is identified as the def<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g feature of the new <strong>welfare</strong> <strong>state</strong> and it suggests the need for new strategies for<br />
achiev<strong>in</strong>g equality with growth. In contrast, <strong>developmental</strong>ism—as I redef<strong>in</strong>e it here—is concerned with the types of<br />
policies that Myrdal historically saw as <strong><strong>in</strong>vestment</strong>s <strong>in</strong> the population and as a complement to the <strong>social</strong> rights<br />
perspective (L<strong>in</strong>dh, 2009).<br />
7 In remarks before the Social Democratic Extra Party Congress <strong>in</strong> Stockholm, 10–12 March 2000, liken<strong>in</strong>g the Swedish<br />
<strong>welfare</strong> <strong>state</strong> to a bumblebee, former Swedish Prime M<strong>in</strong>ister Göran Persson, suggested that ―with his altogether too<br />
heavy body and th<strong>in</strong> w<strong>in</strong>gs he should not be able to fly,‖ but he noted that ―all the same he does.‖ Accord<strong>in</strong>g to 20th<br />
century folklore, the laws of aerodynamics prove that the bumble bee should be <strong>in</strong>capable of flight, as it does not have<br />
the capacity (<strong>in</strong> terms of w<strong>in</strong>g size or beat per second) to achieve flight with the degree of w<strong>in</strong>g load<strong>in</strong>g necessary, and<br />
yet, not be<strong>in</strong>g aware of scientists prov<strong>in</strong>g it cannot fly, the bumblebee succeeds. John McMasters (1989) recounted an<br />
anecdote about an unnamed Swiss aerodynamicist at a d<strong>in</strong>ner party who performed some rough calculations and<br />
concluded, presumably <strong>in</strong> jest, that accord<strong>in</strong>g to the equations, bumblebees cannot fly. In later years, McMasters backed<br />
away from this orig<strong>in</strong>, suggest<strong>in</strong>g that there could be multiple sources, and that the earliest he has found was a reference<br />
<strong>in</strong> the 1934 French book Le vol des <strong>in</strong>sectes by M. Magnan. Magnan is reported to have written that he and a M. Sa<strong>in</strong>t-<br />
Lague had applied the equations of air resistance to <strong>in</strong>sects and found that their flight was impossible, but that ―One<br />
shouldn‘t be surprised that the results of the calculations don‘t square with reality.‖ It is believed that the calculations<br />
that purported to show that bumblebees cannot fly are based upon a simplified l<strong>in</strong>ear treatment of oscillat<strong>in</strong>g aerofoils.<br />
The method underestimates the additional lift generated by the bumblebee‘s w<strong>in</strong>gs that allow it to fly.<br />
8 See Johnson (2010) for a more extensive discussion of the mixed economic evidence.<br />
C E N T E R F O R S O C I A L D E V E L O P M E N T<br />
W A S H I N G T O N U N I V E R S I T Y I N S T . L O U I S<br />
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