Competing Ideas: The Religious Foundations of the Italian and German Welfare States (original) (raw)
The Religious Foundations of the Italian and German Welfare States What explains the formation of conservative welfare states in continental Europe? In recent years, scholars have increasingly pointed to the power of religion. Studying the Catholic influence on the formation of the welfare state in Italy and Germany, this paper shows that the same religion can influence different welfare state outcomes. The German Catholic church had a strong influence on the formation of the first modern welfare sate while in Italy the very same institution actively forestalled the development of a modern welfare state. The key to this counterintuitive observation lies in the different patterns of ideational competition. While the Catholic Church in Germany entered into a virtuous cycle of ideational competition, Italian Catholicism was caught in a vicious cycle that did not allow generating modern social security ideas.
Sign up for access to the world's latest research.
checkGet notified about relevant papers
checkSave papers to use in your research
checkJoin the discussion with peers
checkTrack your impact
Loading Preview
Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. You can download the paper by clicking the button above.