The Cold War and the Development of Social Policy in East and West

Студената война и развитието на социалната политика в Източния и Западния блок

Исторически преглед, 82 (2026) No. 3, pp. 78-119 (ISSN 0323-9748)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.71069/IPR3.26.POMIP04

Klaus Petersen, Herbert Obinger, Michele Mioni, Maria Ignatova-Pfarr / Клаус Петерсен, Херберт Обингер, Микеле Миони, Мария Игнатова-Пфар

Prof. Dr. Klaus Petersen - University of Southern Denmark ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0261-2118 е-mail: klaus.petersen@sdu.dk
Prof. Dr. Herbert Obinger - University of Bremen, Germany ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2502-1038 е-mail: herbert.obinger@uni-bremen.de
Dr. Michele Mioni - University of Venice, Italy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4455-346X е-mail: michele.mioni@unive.it
Dr. Maria Ignatova-Pfarr - University of Bremen, Germany ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0684-2378 mail: ignatova@uni-bremen.de

Abstract: This article examines the influence of the Cold War on the development of social policy and the underlying causal mechanisms. The analysis highlights systemic competition and the associated contest for legitimacy, the fiscal trade-off between military and social spending, and policy innovation and diffusion as key factors shaping welfare-state development in the two opposing blocs. It also addresses blocspecific dynamics, including the role of communist parties in Western democracies and the effects of Cold War confrontation on processes of political coalition-building. The article concludes by showing how Cold War dynamics shaped the trajectories of welfare states in both blocs, thereby contributing to a deeper understanding of the interplay between international politics and domestic policy-making in the second half of the twentieth century.

Keywords: Cold War, welfare state, causal mechanisms, policy diffusion, guns-and-butter, social policy expansion.

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