15. Power Resource Theory (PRT) revisited

Christopher Deeming (University of Strathclyde)

Emanuele Ferragina (Sciences Po) 

In this stream, we look at the lasting and continuing relevance of Power Resource Theory (PRT) in the social and political sciences, taking stock of recent trends and developments. Pioneered in the 1970s and 1980s by Walter Korpi, PRT is a political theory and empirical approach to examining the development of welfare states cross-nationally. PRT proposes that variations among welfare states are largely attributable to differing distributions of power between economic classes. It argues that working class power achieved through organisation by labour unions and left parties produces more egalitarian distributional outcomes. At the same time however, competing theories challenged PRT with alternative explanations for the varying levels of welfare development such as the strength of the Right or trust in government for example. In more recent times, the relevance of PRT has also been called into question by ongoing structural changes in society, the changing class structure resulting from post-industrial forces, global transformations, associated with declines in the working class, unions and coordinated wage bargaining and with the repositioning of labour parties. The new politics perspective also challenged the relevance of PRT in an era of permanent austerity; while the social investment perspective emphasised the importance of new interest groups that saw areas of welfare state expansion during the early part of the 21st century. Today, the radical right and populist parties appealing to working class voters are intent on transforming the institutions of the welfare state. Class politics is arguably more important than ever for distributive outcomes, a result of ongoing tension between markets and politics as Korpi observes (1989: 312).