Towards a theorization of the global community welfare regime: Depicting four ideal types of the community’s role in welfare provision

This article conceptualizes the community’s role in the provision of welfare by introducing the concept of a community welfare regime that varies globally across time and space. Four global community welfare regime ideal types, effective formal, effective informal, ineffective formal, and ineffective informal, are identified based on the dual dimensions of effectiveness and formality community welfare provision. Using this conceptualization, the article presents a typology that stipulates the interplay between the four theorized types of the community welfare regime and various global welfare regimes (Gough et al., 2004). The conceptualization of the community welfare regime holds the potential for conducting meaningful comparisons between different community welfare regimes within individual countries and across multiple welfare geographies. These comparative analyses can provide policymakers with valuable insights about the (in)effectiveness of community welfare provision, allowing them to develop policies that are firmly grounded in successful practices adopted by communities to effectively support vulnerable members of society and foster improved overall welfare outcomes, and can also serve as an avenue for Global South–North learning.