{"id":1623,"date":"2023-07-06T15:36:15","date_gmt":"2023-07-06T04:36:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/davidmhart.com\/wordpress\/?p=1623"},"modified":"2023-07-06T15:36:15","modified_gmt":"2023-07-06T04:36:15","slug":"the-class-structure-of-the-modern-welfare-administrative-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/davidmhart.com\/wordpress\/the-class-structure-of-the-modern-welfare-administrative-state\/","title":{"rendered":"The Class Structure of the Modern Welfare\/Administrative State"},"content":{"rendered":"

Date: 6 July, 2023<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A Summary View<\/h2>\n
    \n
  1. The Sovereign Power<\/li>\n
  2. The Ruling Elite<\/li>\n
  3. The Political Class<\/li>\n
  4. The Bureaucratic or Functionary Class\n
      \n
    1. Force Wielding Institutions<\/li>\n
    2. The Welfare State<\/li>\n
    3. The Regulatory State<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n
    4. The Plutocratic or \u201cCrony Capitalist\u201d Class<\/li>\n
    5. State Privileged or Dependent Firms & their Employees\n
        \n
      1. State Owned Firms<\/li>\n
      2. State Privileged Firms<\/li>\n
      3. State Dependent Firms<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n
      4. The Dependent Class<\/li>\n
      5. Net Tax Payers (NTP)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        A More Detailed Discussion<\/h2>\n

        <\/p>\n

        The Sovereign Power<\/h2>\n

        The Sovereign Power historically used to be a single person, such as a monarch, emperor, or dictator. All legitimate power came from them and they considered all the property and the inhabitants in the country to be \u201ctheirs\u201d to do with what they willed. In the modern state \u201csovereignty\u201d is more nebulous in that it can reside in a semi-fictitious entity known as \u201cThe Crown\u201d, or \u201cthe people\u201d as represented in an elected body like Parliament or Congress.<\/p>\n

        The Ruling Elite<\/h2>\n

        The \u201cruling elite\u201d is the ultimate decision maker of policy, drawn from the ruling family, tribe, army, nobility, church, political party, senior leaders of congress or parliament, and legal, banking, industrial, security elites, depending upon the historical circumstances. This relatively small group control the \u201cCommand Centres\u201d of the state (the Presidency, Congress, the military, the intelligence services, the Federal Reserve (or Reserve Bank), the Supreme Court, the Taxation Office, etc) and run the show. This group is a very small minority of those who benefit from access to state power. Some theorists also call this group the \u201cDeep State\u201d which was first developed to explain the power structure within the modern Turkish state. They remain in power for long periods of time and are shielded from the upheavals and uncertainties of the electoral cycle.<\/p>\n

        The Political Class<\/h2>\n

        The \u201cPolitical Class\u201d more generally speaking is made up of elected politicians who sit in Congress \/ Parliament. The real power wielders in Parliament are the senior party leaders, the chairmen of the more important congressional committees which control spending and formulate legislation, and senior bureaucrats who run the main government bureaucracies (Health, Education, Welfare). Most MPs are concerned with getting re-elected and serving the vested interests in their state or district. We can add to this group some of the more wealthy and influential \u201cprivate individuals\u201d from finance, banking, think tanks, industry (especially defence and communications), and media moguls who advise the government on policy matters. Much of their influence comes from their ability to raise funds for politicians to get elected.<\/p>\n

        The Bureaucratic or Functionary Class<\/h2>\n

        The Bureaucratic or Functionary Class carry out and implement the government policies which they are given. This large group can be divided into those who run and work for the \u201cForce Wielding Institutions\u201d which have a monopoly of the use of force or violence, such as the Courts, police, prisons, and the armed forces; the main government bureaucracies of the \u201cWelfare State\u201d such as Health, Education, and Welfare; and the other bureaucracies and Commissions which administer and regulate the economy and citizen\u2019s lives (i.e. the Regulatory State)<\/p>\n

        Many bureaucrats and sate functionaries are low ranking office workers, public school teachers, and post office workers, etc, and are thus by no means members of the \u201cruling class\u201d but they are in a technical sense \u201cnet tax-receivers\u201d and have a long-term interest in voting to maintain government (or rather tax-payer) funding for the institutions which employ them and pay their retirement benefits.<\/p>\n

        The Plutocratic or \u201cCrony Capitalist\u201d Class<\/h2>\n

        The Plutocratic or Crony Capitalist Class are very wealthy and influential business owners who actively seek to get or retain special privileges from the state in the form of subsidies, contracts, monopolies, favourable legislation, favourable monetary policy, etc. This class is quite complex to understand using the crude NTP\/NTR distinction since they may still receive most of their income from the private sector (hence making them technically NTP). However they benefit enormously from their access to state by getting the entire economic system skewed in their favour.<\/p>\n

        State Privileged or Dependent Firms & their Employees<\/h2>\n

        There are several types of firms in this category. There are the \u201cState Owned Firms\u201d which are entities owned and run by the state. These include (or used to include) transport (buses, railways, ports), public utilities (water, gas, electricity), and industries considered to be of \u201cstrategic\u201d importance such as munitions and armaments work. Another category are \u201cState Privileged Firms\u201d which have been given \u201cprotection\u201d or subsidies such as the car industry or the sugar industry. A third category are \u201cState Dependent Firms\u201d who earn some of their income by selling goods and services in the market but which also seek and get government contracts in order to make profits. They are a complex mixture of sometimes being a \u201ctax receiver\u201d as well as a \u201ctax payer\u201d. Whether they are \u201cnet\u201d in one direction of the other has to be determined on a case by case study. The latter two categories are nominally private firms which receive the bulk (perhaps all) of their income from privileges granted to them by the state, such as tariff protection for the car industry, or who are largely dependent for their income on contracts made with the government (and paid by tax-payers) such as companies which specialize in building highways or military equipment.<\/p>\n

        The Dependent Class<\/h2>\n

        The Dependent Class is comprised of people who receive benefits from the state such as health, retirement, or other welfare benefits. Some were NTP when they were working (probably in the private sector) but are now NTR in their retirement. Others have always been NTR. Some others are very poor and\/or sick people who have been trapped in the cycle of poverty which has been created by the welfare state over the past 60 years. This latter group might also be categorised as \u201cvictims\u201d rather than \u201cbeneficiaries\u201d of the modern welfare state.<\/p>\n

        Net Tax Payers (NTP)<\/h2>\n

        \u201cNet Tax Payers\u201d consists of individuals and firms who pay more in taxes than they receive in state benefits. Historically, there have also been groups who have been forced to labour for little or no remuneration (slaves, serfs, conscripts). This group is a complex one because it is not immediately apparent whether they are, on net, NTP or not. There may be some clear examples of \u201cpure net tax-payers\u201d still in existence, but in this thoroughly statised and regulated world most of us would fall into the category of the \u201cgrey zone\u201d where we pay taxes but also \u201cconsume taxes\u201d in the form of using streets and getting police protection from robbers. Then there are the people who change their class status over time, people who are net tax-payers in their prime working age and then become net tax-receivers in their retirement.<\/p>\n

        For further reading on CLCA<\/h2>\n