Karl marx returning: The Welfare State and Neo-Marxist, Corporatist and Statist Theories

Abstract

Over the past two decades the prevailing postwar political theory paradigm of pluralism has been strongly challenged by other approaches, such as neo-Marxism, Corporatist theory, and a state-centered approach. After the exhaustion of the first wave of neo- Marxism, the 1980s have seen the development of an empirical neo-Marxism Mark II, largely focusing on comparative welfare state research. A critical overview of the bear ing of Pluralist, Corporatist, Statist, and neo-Marxist II conceptions on the patterns of development, the structural forms, and the socio-economic implications of welfare states is given. Finally, a perspective for further elaboration of welfare state theory and analysis is presented, along neo-Marxist lines but incorporating contributions from other intellectual sources. © 1986, Sage Publications. All rights reserved.