2 - Theoretical Framework

Summary

FROM THE ANALYSIS OF WELFARE STATES TO INFORMAL SECURITY REGIMES

In the Western world, the welfare state has received much attention. According to Esping-Andersen, the question what a welfare state can accomplish, can only be answered by elaborating the state's larger role in managing and organizing the economy. Economic issues of employment, wages and overall macro-economic steering are thus considered integral components in the welfare-state complex (Esping-Andersen 1993, p. 2). Esping-Andersen thus uses the concept of a welfare regime, which combines an analysis of the role that the state plays in providing welfare as well as an in depth investigation of the market and the community as the other two important pillars of welfare provision.

The overall concept of welfare regimes is not only useful for the analysis of Western social systems, but also for the rest of the world. Especially in developing countries, the conditions in terms of the authority of the state to nationally implement and regulate policy issues including the health and education system are often weak. States in developing countries often lack the ability to extract substantial income from private economic activity in the form of tax revenues, which can then be used for redistributive planning. The steering of central governments is weak and lower levels of government more often disobey than obey policies by central governments. Labour is only weakly formalized, which makes it more difficult to gain additional resources for the social system through taxing labour.

The welfare regime typology is a good starting point through which welfare regimes in developing countries can be analysed. However, given the fact that most welfare regime concepts are based on the example of developed high-income Western democracies, adjustments in the conceptualization need to be done in order to analyse the case study of health protection in Vietnam. Major parts of the theoretical framework of this study will be drawn from the writings of Esping-Andersen (1993) and Gough and Wood (2004). While employing their central theoretical concepts, the study will enhance their explanatory power by adding network analysis, which allows investigating the policymaking process more concretely.