An Overview: From Contradictions of Capital to the History of Contradictions of the Welfare State

Abstract

Ksenia Kirkham – PhD Candidate, Teaching Assistant, King’s College London, United Kingdom. Email: Ksenia.kirkham@kcl.ac.uk

The development of welfare states should be explained not only as a factor of deindustrialization, social power resources, or economic competitiveness, but also as the consequence of Cold War confrontation, the post‑9 / 11 new world order, and more broadly the long-term geopolitical competition between modern societies. Contradictions inherent to capitalism are the driving forces of recent trends in international political economy. Drawing upon Harvey’s perspective, the aim of this article is to bind the contradictions of capital to the contradictions of the welfare state. While this does not entail suggesting these contradictions are of the same nature, it can be argued that the latter derives from the former. This perspective helps to integrate a global dimension into welfare state conceptualisation since the contradictions of capital are not only the product of state interrelations, but also reflect the interaction of market and society at the domestic and supra-national level. The purpose of this article is to apply Harvey’s framework on the contradictions of capital to the period in which they have most affected welfare state reform, and to establish a chronology of the contradictions of the welfare state. This will demonstrate how the welfare state has evolved in response to the paradoxes of capital. However, instead of resolving the tensions inherent in capitalism, the welfare state started developing contradictions of its own. A deeper understanding of the contradictions of welfare states is vital in assessing the dynamics of modern social policies, as it enables the policy-makers to better understand why these arrangements do not often meet public expectations.