Regulating-for-Welfare: A Comparative Study of “Regulatory Welfare Regimes” in the Israeli, British, and Swedish Electricity Sectors

Abstract

The regulatory state and the welfare state are two institutions that are central to the analysis of the characteristics of capitalist democracies. The regulatory state is seen as focused on market failures and trust-busting, while the welfare state is said to shield citizens from the negative redistributive effects and externalities of the market. This article explores the relations and boundaries between the welfare state and the regulatory state in the electricity sectors in the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Israel. It demonstrates the emergence of social policy within the context of liberalized, privatized, and (de)regulated electricity sectors. This article finds that the boundaries between the regulatory state and the welfare state are blurred in Israel and the United Kingdom but not in Sweden. These findings may imply a connection between the welfare state and the regulatory state, suggesting that a strong welfare state is needed in order to maintain regulation-for-competition.

Regulation as Social Policy: Home Evictions and Repossessions in the Uk and Sweden

“…In a previous study in the electricity sector (Haber ), Sweden was found to have almost no regulatory social protection regarding debt‐related disconnection from electricity, while in the UK there is a well‐developed regulatory welfare regime in electricity. Taken together, the findings from both the housing credit and electricity sectors may suggest a wider phenomenon of the use of regulation for the prevention of service termination, characteristic of liberal welfare regimes.…”

Two spheres of regulation: Balancing social and economic goals

“…Existing research has situated utility regulators mainly in the realm of economic regulation (Gilardi , pp. 141, 152, 156; Vibert , p. 24; Levi‐Faur , p. 13; Ennser‐Jedenastik , p. 7), while only few studies have so far focused on the realization of welfare goals through the use of rulemaking and regulatory instruments (Haber ; Eckert ). This simplified vision of regulatory bodies masks the fact that public utility regulation typically involves both economic and social regulation.…”

Liberalizing markets, liberalizing welfare? Economic reform and social regulation in the EU's electricity regime

“…Social protection of vulnerable consumers developed in the UK electricity sector since the mid 1990's, a decade after electricity sector reform began in this country. Conversely, similar protection did not develop in the Swedish context, despite undergoing similar economic reform during the same period (Haber 2011). …”