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THE (GOLDEN) AGE OF THE WELFARE STATE: INTERROGATING A CONVENTIONAL WISDOM
Author(s) -
WINCOTT DANIEL
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
public administration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.313
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1467-9299
pISSN - 0033-3298
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9299.2012.02067.x
Subject(s) - welfare , axiom , state (computer science) , welfare state , sociology , positive economics , law and economics , environmental ethics , political science , aesthetics , law , political economy , economics , philosophy , computer science , mathematics , geometry , algorithm , politics
The idea of a (golden) age pervades most academic analysis and debate about the welfare state. This article interrogates this largely unquestioned epochal image of welfare history which is, in effect, a shared conventional wisdom. That vast and often disputatious scholarly literatures should share a conventional epochal axiom is remarkable. So is the absence of academic debate focused on this idea, which is both pervasive and vague. Perhaps paradoxically, our easy recognition of the (golden) age of the welfare state may contribute to the lack of precision in its use: taken‐for‐granted concepts are often sloppily deployed.