ABSTRACT
Robert Pinker presents what can be characterised as a “neutral” understanding of welfare pluralism — recognising, nevertheless, that welfare pluralism is a contested concept. Adalbert Evers is the European social scientist who has perhaps done the most to promote discussions of the idea of the welfare mix as an appropriate application to contemporary welfare society. The various welfare-state typologies fit nicely with the welfare-mix differentiation of social orders; yet a number of important criticisms have been voiced against the existing welfare-regime literature. Conventional wisdom has it that social citizenship comes in three variants in modern European society, each linked to the dominant political ideologies of the 19th and 20th centuries: conservatism, liberalism, and socialism. Socialists continue to advocate collectivist planning, while leaving ample scope for the free play of market forces to ensure economic growth. The best-known effort from German social science was made by Stephan Leibfried, who renamed Titmuss/Esping-Andersen’s categories and added a fourth one.
