The Reassertion of the Regulatory Welfare State: A Preface

• Published date: 01 September 2020
• DOI: 10.1177/0002716220949216
• Date: 01 September 2020
• Author: Avishai Benish,David Levi-Faur

ANNALS, AAPSS, 691, September 2020 7

DOI: 10.1177/0002716220949216

The Reassertion

of the

Regulatory

Welfare State:

A Preface

By

AVISHAI BENISH

and

DAVID LEVI-FAUR

949216ANN THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMYRegulatory Welfare State

research-article2020

The preface presents the main themes of this special

issue. It starts by presenting the argument that the

welfare state and the regulatory state are not dichoto-

mies, arguing that both regulation and fiscal transfers

for social purposes are increasing, particularly after the

financial crisis of 2007, the climate crisis, and the

COVID-19 crisis. Then it moves to introduce the arti-

cles that compose this special issue, their arguments,

and their theoretical and empirical contributions.

Keywords: welfare state; regulation; governance; social

services; social benefits; fiscal transfers;

social rights

This special issue explores the expansion of

regulation in the welfare state and in the

social policy arena. Regulation and fiscal trans-

fer by governments for social purposes have

always been intertwined, before, during, and

after the heyday of the welfare state after the

Second World War. Both continue to grow,

although regulation is growing faster and per-

haps further than fiscal transfer. As the articles

in this special issue demonstrate, they reassert

Avishai Benish is an assistant professor (tenured) at the

Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social

Welfare at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His

fields of expertise are social law and administration,

and his main research is on regulation and governance

reforms in welfare states.

David Levi-Faur is a professor of regulation and policy

in the Department of Political Science and the

Federmann School of Public Policy at the Hebrew

University of Jerusalem. He is a founding editor of

Regulation & Governance, a journal that serves as the

leading platform for the study of regulation and govern-

ance in the social sciences.

NOTE: We would like to thank the Israeli Science

Foundation for their Research Grant (1029/15) and

Workshops Grant (2223/18). This is also the opportu-

nity to thank our research assistants, Yuval Peleg,

Daniel Hirsch, and Tslil Landau.

Correspondence: levifaur@mail.huji.ac.il