ABSTRACT
What factors influence the development of the welfare state? Is the political composition of governments of significance in this process? These questions are of political as well as of scientific interest. During the postwar period social scientists have explored them using various theoretical perspectives. Most of these studies have come in the mainstream of the social sciences, where the ideas of the pluralist industrial model dominate. 1 Some have also represented varieties of Marxian theory. 2 Despite this theoretical diversity, however, their conclusions have been strikingly similar.
