TOWARDS A SCHUMPETERIAN WORKFARE REGIME IN BRITAIN - REFLECTIONS ON REGULATION, GOVERNANCE, AND WELFARE-STATE

In this paper I offer various comments on the contributions on economi c and social policy in this special issue of Environment and Planning A. The contributions range from general theoretical reflections on reg ulation, governance, the politics of identity, and the welfare state t o rich, detailed case studies of restructuring and reorientation in sp ecific policy areas. Taken together these papers not only provide tell ing empirical material on recent dramatic changes in the British welfa re state, but they also have important implications for a wide range o f theoretical and methodological issues concerning the regulation appr oach. My own comments are also wide ranging but far less detailed. The y focus on some key issues which arise in several of the papers and/or which pose more general questions regarding regulation-theoretic and state-theoretic analyses of contemporary Britain. Thus I first conside r some methodological issues posed by the contributors' use of the reg ulation approach to contextualize and/or explain recent changes in the British welfare state. I then address some theoretical issues posed b y their relative neglect of the distinctive political dynamic of the p ostwar British polity and/or the relevance of its distinctive crisis t o the recent restructuring of the welfare state. This enables me to ad dress some of the perverse effects of neoliberalism and the extent to which it represents a novel continuation of the crisis of Britain's 'f lawed' Fordism rather than its resolution. I conclude with some genera l remarks on the regulation approach.