Introduction to the Theme State Intervention and the Social Wage: The Politics of Social Services Expansion

Abstract

State intervention in the consumption process has become increasingly critical to economic growth on the one hand and to real family income on the other. The social wage thus tends to become a conflictual political issue. As a result, the articulation of state intervention with the changing requirements of economic growth is subject to continuous political challenge. This special issue examines the problematic relationship between state intervention in social services and the organization of the capitalist economy. Some contributors study the ways in which state interventions are structured so as to be consonant with the requirements of economic growth and profitability, as well as the difficulties such structures pose. Feshbach's analysis of the Hill-Burton Hospital Construction Program and Mollenkopf's study of San Francisco's public transit system both reflect this concern. Other contributors study the ways in which the organization of the economy constrains the development of democratically responsive social services. Sbragia's study of the capital market and public housing in Italy and Taylor's study of free medical clinics in the U.S. both reflect this concern. Finally, contributors study macroscopic transformations in the relationship between state intervention and the organization of the capitalist economy. Esping-Andersen's study of the political logic of increasing state intervention in production and Hirschhorn's analysis of the defunctionalization of social services attendent upon the disaccumulative tendencies in capitalism both reflect this concern.

This introductory paper reviews four theories which attempt to explain how state intervention is insulated from democratic controls. For each theory, the mechanisms specified to perform this function are subject to weaknesses. An attempt is made to position the contributions to this volume with respect to these theoretical traditions.

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