Two distributional mechanisms can be identified in advanced capitalist systems: states and markets. State distribution of resources according to needs-based non-market criteria repre sents a departure from capitalist relations of distribution and accumulation and the 'decommodification' of labour power. Such a departure has been achieved with the development of particular sorts of welfare state institutional forms. These insti tutions are the outcome of a number of political and economic pressures. Politically, the way in which a labour movement is organised in parties and unions has been a crucial determinant of decommodification. Economically, conditions of prosperity and full employment seem important to welfare state develop ment.
Regression analyses, and a brief historical survey of the ex periences of Australia, Sweden and the United States confirm the above propositions suggesting that decommodification as a departure from the logic of private capital accumulation is an important basis for the transformation of capitalism.
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