Welfare systems and social services during the systemic crisis of cognitive capitalism

The purpose of this article is to show that, contrary to neoliberal belief, social welfare services and spending should be recognised as the driving force behind a development dynamics based on knowledge-intensive production. In the first part, we shall briefly present the relationship between public debt and private debt. In the second part, we shall present a series of stylised facts which highlight the key role played by welfare state institutions in the genesis and development of a knowledge-based economy. In the third part, these general considerations will be corroborated through an international comparison between the Nordic welfare model and the Anglo-Saxon welfare model. This comparison reveals a strong positive correlation between the level of development of welfare state institutions and that of a knowledge-based economy.