Financing welfare regimes: mapping heterogeneous revenue structures

This article studies how the composition of public revenues in terms of sources (such as taxation, social insurance contributions, mineral rents, foreign aid) is associated with different welfare regimes and social policy outcomes. It is divided into two halves: a review of literature and research, and a cross-national data analysis. The first half reviews literature on the emergence of tax and revenue systems in the West, and on the relevance of these frameworks and findings to developing countries. The second half uses cluster analysis to identify groups of developing countries with contrasting revenue systems in 2000, and then compares these with our previous analysis of welfare regimes in the global South. We conclude that higher tax or revenue levels are not associated with more advanced or effective welfare systems. It is only the scope of social security contributions that correlates with proto-welfare states in the developing world.