The decline of the welfare state and the outlining of new forms of social protection

Abstract

The debate on the decline of the welfare state and the outlining of new forms of social protection is an issue which has attained a relative degree of maturity in the agendas of research and academic production. The political-social terms of this transition — from a classical form of protection to institutional formats yet not fully defined — deserve, according to the author, a closer and more systematic observation. This essay paper suggests that the said transition is taking place in the sphere of a movement that is neo-puritanist in profile with the aim to regulate a selective and excluding process of a new kind of worker. It is pointed out that this process takes place within the molds of the transition that occurred in the capitalist relations transformation movement, in the early 1900’s, when a manual form of production gives way to mechanical production, in other words, the introduction of the Taylor-Ford production system. Key words: Welfare state; Violence; Post-Fordism.