>above was Claus Offe's argument before he went off into new social
>movements, 'post-communist' transitions, and 'beyond employment'...
>
>"Under modern capitalist conditions, a supportive framework of non-
>commodified institutions is necessary for an economic system that
>utilizies labor power is if it were a commodity." (The Contradictions
>of the Welfare State, p. 263)
>
>in other words, the capitalist system of commodified production
>(competitive market) requires a certain degree of political
>intervention (state regulation) and decommodified provision
>(social welfare) to sustain and reproduce itself (capital
>accumulation)...
>
>capitalist state has contradictory functions - accumulation &
>legitimation...
If this is the case, how do the U.S. and other liberal countries get by?
Compresing the income distribution, dulling the sting of unemployment, reducing poverty rates close to 0, and lightening the familial responsibilities of women are real achievements. In this, the social democratic Nordic countries were way ahead of the continental, corporatist countries, like Germany, which tie their welfare states to employment, especially male breadwinner employment. We can talk about their shortcomings - their dependence on imperialism, for one - but it's better than nothing.
Doug