Social Provision and Regulation: Theories of States, Social Policies, and Modernity (WP-04-07)
Ann Shola Orloff
This working paper provides an overview of the theoretical battles that have raged across the terrain of modern systems of social provision and regulation—the “modern welfare state.” Orloff makes the case that we could use some fraternization (that is, greater theoretical engagement) across the battle lines, and that feminist work provides an admirable example of theoretical hybridity, drawing on the significant theoretical resources associated with Weberian, Foucauldian, culturalist, and Marxist analytic traditions. She also argues that we need to break more fully with the analytic baggage associated with social determinism.