The Programmatic Emergence of the Social Security State

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Abstract
Using a theoretical framework that stresses political institutions, we examine the consolidation of income-security programs during the formation of the welfare stare around the turn of the century. Boolean analyses and ancillary historical materials indicate distinct routes to consolidation of social insurance programs. A ''Bismarckian'' path centers on strategic co-optive responses of patriarchal states and state elites to working-class mobilization. A second path, a ''Lib-Lab'' route, centers on strategic incorporation of labor parties and/or unions into governing Liberal coalitions. A possible third path involves reforms by Catholic parties governing patriarchal, unitary states confronting working-class challenges. The virtual absence of leftist governments before the Great Depression has challenged claims for major impacts of the working class on welfare-state formation through the 1920s. However we find that mobilization of the working class was integral to each conjuncture that generated the adoption of social security programs during the 1880-1930 period. Worker mobilization combined with such varied and distinctly state institutions as patriarchal states and Liberal party governments in ways that advanced welfare states.

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