Social Policy in Europe in the Twentieth Century

1993 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-201
Author(s):  
Paul Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
National Income ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Welfare Benefits ◽  
State Expenditure ◽  
Post War ◽  
Economic Growth Rates ◽  
European Welfare States

The 1980s proved to be a tough decade for European welfare states. The post-war ‘welfare consensus’, which perhaps had never been quite so strong or coherent as many contemporary historians and commentators had assumed, was finally laid to rest. The five great spectres identified by Beveridge want, disease, ignorance, squalor and idleness had not been humbled by public welfare provision despite its ever growing scale and cost. At the beginning of the 1980s the OECD published a report on The Welfare State in Crisis which pointed out that as welfare state expenditure had roughly doubled as a percentage of national income in most west European countries since the late 1950s, so economic growth rates had plummeted. The European welfare states appeared to produce few positive welfare benefits, and this minimal achievement was produced at enormous cost which was to the detriment of overall economic growth and societal well-being.

Germany’s Economic Growth In 1950–60 and the Problem of the Country’s Balance of Payments Sustainability

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-60
Author(s):  
Zbigniew Klimiuk
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
German Economy ◽  
National Income ◽  
Balance Of Payments ◽  
West Germany ◽  
West German Economy ◽  
Investment Activity ◽  
Gdp Growth Rate ◽  
State Expenditure ◽  
Post War

The 1950s in Germany, especially the period 1953–1958, were later recognised as the ‘golden years of the post-war period’. By the end of this period, most of the war damage had been removed and the economy was in a state of dynamic growth. In the period 1949–59, the average real GDP growth rate was about 7.4% with an average investment rate of 24.2% (in current prices). In the years (1950–53), a massive housing construction programme was carried out that was financed almost in half from public funds. Germany’s economic growth in 1950–60 mainly influenced by investment activities and the growth of exports. During this period, state expenditure did not play a major role in the growth of the West German economy (its share in national income steadily declined during the period in question). A the same time, the share of exports in national income was very high and showed a continuously increasing trend. A long-term growth of exports — affecting constantly the expansion of demand — became an important factor stimulating investment activity, which is the main lever of economic growth. At the same time, unusually strong export activity improved the balance of payments, which showed systematic surpluses. It should also be stressed that private consumption was not a factor driving economic prosperity in West Germany in this period. The share of consumption in Germany’s national income showed a declining trend in favour of investment.

Well-being and Economic Growth: Critical Perspectives

2021 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-16
Author(s):  
Catherine Audard
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Standard Of Living ◽  
American University ◽  
Financial Capitalism ◽  
Critical Democracy ◽  
The Welfare State

In Democracy in America (1840) , Tocqueville treats the passion for well-being as the consequence of equality. He does not forget to warn of the threats to democratic societies that could arise from the simple pursuit of “small and vulgar pleasures”, but he concludes that no government can be stable unless it satisfies this democratic passion for the “greatest well-being of all” (II, 4, 8). Tocqueville’s vision proved prophetic, and well-being did indeed become a matter of statecraft, with the welfare state emerging in the twentieth century as the indispensable mode of governance to regulate economic growth, protect the citizens and secure their standard of living against the ceaseless crises of capitalism and the vagaries of life. But this consensus on the nature and value of well-being and the economic growth that makes it possible is being increasingly challenged by the unprecedented crisis that we are experiencing, a crisis that simultaneously encompasses representative democracies, financial capitalism and the inequalities it engenders, welfare states and the threats to the environment posed by the race to consume and live well. In these circumstances, the colloquium presented in this introduction revisited the very notion of well-being and took stock of its different conflicting conceptions. Organized by The Tocqueville Society/La Société Tocqueville and The Center for Critical Democracy Studies at The American University of Paris, it was held by videoconference on 21 and 22 October 2020. All the papers in this dossier were presented at the colloquium.

The Family in Minimum Income Benefits in Europe: An Institutional Analysis

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 615-642
Author(s):  
Patricia Frericks ◽  
Ralf Och ◽  
Julia Höppner
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
General Trend ◽  
Institutional Analysis ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Minimum Income ◽  
Welfare Benefits ◽  
The Family ◽  
Pension Age ◽  
The Unemployed ◽  
European Welfare States

Abstract Whether and to what extent the means of family members and familial care activities are relevant in the calculation of welfare benefits is often neglected in welfare state analysis. By quantifying qualitative institutional data, we analyze this aspect and how it has changed in regard to minimum-income benefits for persons of pension age and unemployed persons in ten European welfare states. We find no general trend toward individualization of entitlements but a decreasing relevance of family for the entitlements of persons of pension age, and increasing relevance for the unemployed. The evidence underlines significant differences between countries and family-related dimensions.

What's Globalization Got to Do with It? Economic Interdependence and the Future of European Welfare States

2006 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Hay
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Welfare Reform ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Social Models ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Usa ◽  
State Regime ◽  
European Welfare States ◽  
The Welfare State

AbstractThe appeal to globalization as a non-negotiable external economic constraint plays an increasingly significant role in the linked politics of expectation suppression and welfare reform in contemporary Europe. Yet, although it threatens to become something of a self- fulfilling prophecy, the thesis that globalization entails welfare retrenchment and convergence is empirically suspect. In this paper it is argued that there is little evidence of convergence amongst European social models and that, although common trajectories can be identified, these have tended to be implemented more or less enthusiastically and at different paces to produce, to date, divergent outcomes. Second, I suggest that it is difficult to see globalization as the principal agent determining the path on which European social models are embarked since the empirical evidence points if anything to de-globalization rather than globalization. The implications of this for the future of the welfare state in Europe and for the USA as a model welfare state regime are explored.

scholarly journals The Bias of American Federalism: The Limits of Welfare-State Development in the Progressive Era

1989 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 261-291 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Brian Robertson
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Progressive Era ◽  
The United States ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Welfare State Development ◽  
Socialist Movement ◽  
State Programs ◽  
American Federalism ◽  
European Welfare States

Welfare state programs developed later in the United States than in other nations. Today, American programs are less widely accessible, less uniform, and often less generous than programs abroad. Explanations for this relative conservatism usually focus on the lack of a socialist movement or a socialist ideological tradition in the United States. Yet during the Progressive Era, when the gap between the American and European welfare states widened significantly enough for contemporaries to acknowledge it, the forces for social reform had never been stronger in the United States. In many ways these forces resembled those in England, which at the time was laying the foundations for a model welfare state.

The Power of Citizens and Professionals in Welfare Encounters

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nanna Mik-Meyer
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Crucial Issue ◽  
Sociology Of Professions ◽  
Market Values ◽  
Modern Welfare State ◽  
Welfare Workers ◽  
Micro Structures ◽  
European Welfare States

This book addresses the crucial issue of the interrelation between macro and micro structures within citizen-professional encounters of the modern welfare state. Since the 1990s, European welfare states have moved towards a so-called governance approach; a bottom-up approach that emphasises the activeness, engagement, coproduction, and cooperation of citizens. This framing of the encounter means that citizens are no longer best described as the passive clients of the bureaucracy and welfare workers are no longer automatically the powerful party of the encounter. However, the welfare encounter is structured by other powerful factors as well; factors such as market values and bureaucratic principles which often pull in different directions than the governance approach to citizens. This book sets out to explore how these various factors in combination affects the client-professional encounter. Aside from chapters on the sociology of professions, symbolic interactionism, power in welfare encounters, bureaucratic principles, market values, norms from psychology, the book includes a double-length chapter that qualifies the conclusions through empirical analyses of encounters between citizens and doctors, caseworkers and social workers. The book is aimed for academics, post-graduates, and undergraduates within sociology, anthropology and political science.

The Material Consequences of Welfare States

2006 ◽  
Vol 39 (7) ◽  
pp. 880-904 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lyle Scruggs ◽  
James P. Allan
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Absolute Poverty ◽  
Economic Equality ◽  
Relative Poverty ◽  
Industrial Democracies ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Poverty Levels

Several recent studies have focused attention on the relationship between welfare states and poverty, looking primarily at relative poverty and employing concepts of welfare state generosity that are problematic. This has made it difficult to evaluate claims that equality has come at the expense of economic growth. In this article, the authors examine more directly the relationship between welfare state generosity in three social insurance programs— unemployment, sickness, and pensions—and poverty levels in advanced industrial democracies in the past quarter of the 20th century. The results strongly suggest that more generous entitlements to key social insurance programs are associated not only with lower relative poverty but also with lower absolute poverty. This supports the contention that promoting relative economic equality can improve the absolute material well-being of the poor. However, no evidence suggests that relatively more generous unemployment benefits systematically reduce poverty.

scholarly journals Typology of welfare states: quality criteria for governance and ecology

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 235-245 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor Koziuk ◽  
Oleksandr Dluhopolskyi ◽  
Yurij Hayda ◽  
Oksana Shymanska
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Clustering Methods ◽  
Governance System ◽  
Government Efficiency ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Welfare State

In the 21st century, in addition to the generally well-known indicators of material well-being, in the modern paradigm of the welfare state, the quality of the ecological environment is gaining an ever-increasing role. Besides that, the modern definition of welfare state takes into account not only environmental dimension, but also the quality of institutions through the governance system that affects the supply of environmental goods. The study provides the classification of countries according to indicators that can ensure the identification of welfare states and the assessment of the classification role of the criteria for environmental state.The strong direct correlation between environmental state and government efficiency has been established. The results of the classification of the studied countries obtained by k-means clustering methods indicate the possibility of using the Environmental Performance Index (EPI), Government Effectiveness Index (GEI) and government expenditures indicators as complementary attributes to the classical criteria for the welfare state.The level of country EPI can be regarded as an important complementary criterion for the welfare state. The country environmental state is much more determined by the government efficiency, the quality of state institutions and their activities, rather than by an extensive increase in the funding of such institutions and environmental measures.

scholarly journals Reformy uniwersytetów europejskich. Państwo dobrobytu jako brakujący kontekst badań i polityki publicznej

1970 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
pp. 165-196
Author(s):  
Marek Kwiek
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Public Funding ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Higher Education Reforms ◽  
Research Areas ◽  
European Universities ◽  
Neoliberal Ideology ◽  
Aging Societies ◽  
European Welfare States

This paper is focused on the links between reform agendas and their rationales in higher education and in welfare state services across Europe. Lessons learnt from past and ongoing welfare state reforms can be useful in understanding ongoing and future higher education reforms. Research on reforming European welfare states is a missing context in research on reforming European universities. We intend to fill this gap and briefly explore possible links between these two largely isolated policy and research areas. European universities and European welfare states are closely linked today because they are heavily dependent on public funding – and the competition for public funding between the different claimants to it is on the rise. Reforms of both sectors are also closely linked to increasing intergenerational conflicts over public resources in aging societies, and pressures on both sectors are linked to the shrinking tax base, the power of the neoliberal ideology, and changing social attitudes to both welfare and universities. Problems of both sectors and solutions to them are increasingly being defined at a global level through transnational reform discourses.

4. The welfare state 1.0

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Garland
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Economic Governance ◽  
Publicly Funded ◽  
Employment Contracts ◽  
Poor Laws ◽  
Welfare Benefits ◽  
The Welfare State

The newly-emergent welfare states shared a distinctive set of features that set them apart both from the old poor laws and from state socialism. ‘The Welfare State 1.0’ identifies these defining features and describes how welfare states are structured. Welfare states generally have five institutional sectors: social insurance; social assistance; publicly funded social services; social work and personal social services; and economic governance. The WS 1.0 forms that predominated from the 1940s until the 1980s are described. Another feature of the welfare state landscape is sometimes called the ‘hidden welfare state’; it consists of welfare benefits that are channelled through the tax system or through private employment contracts.

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