SOCIAL-DEMOCRACY, CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY, CONSTITUTIONAL STRUCTURE, AND THE WELFARE-STATE

The literature on the determinants of welfare state effort displays ma ny inconsistencies and contradictions. This article takes important st eps toward resolving these issues with the use of pooled cross-section al and time-series analyses. The findings are that various independent variables affect different measures of welfare state effort in differ ent and theoretically meaningful ways. Of special importance are the c ontrasting effects of Christian democracy and social democracy on tran sfer payments, social benefits expenditure, and total government reven ue. There is also a strong effect of constitutional structure on welfa re state effort, a finding that provides the first solid support for t he state-centered perspective in a quantitative analysis.