Graduate Program

Political Science

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Semester of Degree Completion

Spring 2026

Thesis Director

Robert Tanner Bivens

Thesis Committee Member

Jin Hong Kim

Thesis Committee Member

Michael D. Gillespie

Abstract

The welfare state and its development across national contexts in the twentieth century signaled a marked change in the state’s relationship with its citizens. They developed in a structural crisis between two political economy organizations, moving from liberal structures to regulated ones. As the world continues the current ongoing structural crisis out of the neoliberal structure, the future of welfare policy is uncertain. My research presents a Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) using the United States and South Africa as most-different cases to explore the similarities and differences in their national contexts that shaped their welfare state development in the early twentieth century. By framing this analysis in social structure of accumulation (SSA) theory, I reveal that welfare state development occurred as a strategy of the state to mediate labor and capital in a time of increased class conflict, undertaken to minimally disrupt the existing social order. The exact variables and conditions of each case are historically contingent upon the specific economic, political, and social institutions of each and how their structures relate to capital accumulation internally. The results of this analysis can be used to build upon the understanding of welfare changes in the contemporary global political economy.

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