The welfare system supermyth

This paper is aimed at deconstructing a myth that damages every attempt to design effective, win-win public, specifically welfare, policies. Such a myth is named the 'Welfare System Myth' (WSM) and it is linked to three other lesser myths as corollaries. The WSM states that there is a spec...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International review of sociology 2023-01, Vol.33 (1), p.10-22
Main Authors: Pitasi, Andrea, Portolese, Giovana, Ferone, Emilia
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Common sense
Decision making
Economic systems
Equality
Evolutionary theories
Innovation policy
Innovations
Luhmann
Luhmann, Niklas (1927-1998)
Mythology
Political systems
Property
Social inequality
sustainability
System theory
systems
Welfare
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Summary:This paper is aimed at deconstructing a myth that damages every attempt to design effective, win-win public, specifically welfare, policies. Such a myth is named the 'Welfare System Myth' (WSM) and it is linked to three other lesser myths as corollaries. The WSM states that there is a specific welfare system, while welfare is a topic in the political system agenda. According to the evolutionary complex social system theory, welfare is just a form that belongs to the political system interfaced by structural coupling with its welfare form to the economic system. This interfaces its «public expense form with the welfare form to develop a structural coupling between the political system and the economic system. Welfare has no systemic properties». There are three further myths that are to a certain extent interconnected with the WSM, converging in a Supermyth. The corollaries are in brief: (1) The Myth that a multidimensional systemic strategy can cope with ecological challenges. (2) The Myth that social equality is always good and social inequality is always bad. (3) The Myth of innovation as the easiest one to debate by drawing a distinction between discourse and communication about innovation (overwhelming) and effective innovation policies (a very normal unlikelihood). The WSM and its corollaries together can also be shaped as a Supermyth: the social and political control on lifestyle by presenting as 'science-based' the mere common sense or political decisions that are not by presenting as socially emergent matters - which are not - mere decision-making of the political system agenda.
ISSN:0390-6701
1469-9273
DOI:10.1080/03906701.2023.2187835