China Social Science Review

No.4, 2020

Emerging Welfare States: Concepts, Research Progress and Implications for China

(Abstract)

Yue Jinglun and Liu Yang

With the advent of the 21st century, the welfare regimes that took shape and developed in newly industrialized countries/regions have become an important topic in comparative politics and the comparative social policy, giving rise to the concept of “emerging welfare states.” Under the influence of this concept, scholars are following the theoretical approaches of functionalism, power resource theory, neo-institutionalism, etc. In so doing, they have begun to break down the discourse system of existing welfare state research, integrating the many forms of social welfare policy practice in these countries/regions in an endeavor to establish a research framework suited to analyzing their practice with a view to explaining these countries/regions’ different types of welfare regimes and dynamic development mechanisms. A brief review of overseas research on emerging welfare states may help to encourage research on the topic of China’s welfare regime and promote dialogue between China and other developing countries in the field of welfare development. This is not only conducive to telling a Chinese story that enhances the well-being of the people, but also helps to build Chinese discourse power in welfare development.