Ageing welfare state in transition: a fuzzy-set analysis of long-term care provision across liberal, conservative, and social-democratic regimes

This study explores the long-term care service landscape across international contexts, attempting to identify and categorise unique typologies within the global environment. It investigates how the structural, organisational, and operational aspects of welfare systems influence social service provision in five typical welfare state models. The study uses qualitative comparison analysis, specifically a fuzzy-set ideal type analysis, to identify significant welfare actors and calibration points. The findings illustrate the intricate interplay of state, market, and societal actors in generating welfare pluralism within LTC systems, which is influenced by route dependency and socio-cultural variables. The results contribute to academic discourses on long-term care system dynamics by utilising a welfare pluralism viewpoint and a fuzzy-set technique that considers the multifaceted character of long-term care service provision. It has significant implications for policymakers and academics working to improve the equity, efficiency, and responsiveness of long-term care service system across various national and subnational contexts.