Mass Warfare and the Welfare State – Causal Mechanisms and Effects

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

E-ISSN: 1469-2112|47|1|203-227

ISSN: 0007-1234

Source: British Journal of Political Science, Vol.47, Iss.1, 2015-07, pp. : 203-227

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Abstract

The question of whether and how war has influenced the development of advanced Western welfare states is contested. This article provides a systematic review of the state of the art and outlines an agenda for a comparative analysis of the warfare–welfare state nexus that is informed by an explicit consideration of the underlying causal mechanisms. By distinguishing between three different phases (war preparation, warfare and post-war period) it provides a systematic overview of possible causal mechanisms linking war and the welfare state and a discussion of likely effects of war for belligerent, occupied and neutral countries in the age of mass warfare stretching approximately from the 1860s to the 1960s.