ABSTRACT
Sociologists have long regarded the state as holding the silver bullet for eliminating the inequalities of industrial markets. Marx (1967 [1848]) argued market mechanisms would cause a worldwide worker revolt that would hand the reins of production over to the state. Polanyi (1944) claimed it was the state’s minimum obligation to ease the most deleterious individual consequences of market exchange. Wedderburn (1965) suggested the role of the welfare state was to actively structure social equality. Esping-Andersen (1990) pointed out that only social-democratic welfare regimes shared a goal of greater social equality, whereas most welfare regimes actively reinforced social and material hierarchies.
