The Political Status of Social Assistance Benefits in European Welfare States: Lessons from Reforms to Provision for the Unemployed in France and Great Britain

2002 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 201-226 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Clegg
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
Social Assistance ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Status ◽  
The Unemployed ◽  
European Welfare States

scholarly journals Welfare States, Political Opportunities, and the Mobilization of the Unemployed: A Cross-National Analysis

2008 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 297-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Giugni
Keyword(s):  
Original Data ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Opportunity ◽  
Political Field ◽  
Political Opportunities ◽  
Political Opportunity Structures ◽  
National Analysis ◽  
The Unemployed

This article follows a revised political opportunity approach to argue that mobilization of underprivileged groups is constrained by the political opportunity structures provided by the institutional context of the country in which they act. Contrary to traditional opportunity theories, it is suggested that their mobilization also depends on a set of opportunities specific to the political or issue field most directly addressed by their claims. I propose to look for these specific opportunities in the institutional approaches to unemployment. I further maintain that such opportunities stem largely from the ways in which a given political or issue field is collectively defined. I apply a theoretical framework stressing both general and specific opportunities as well as the discursive context of claim making to original data on claim making in the unemployment political field in six European countries for the 1995-2002 period. The findings provide some support for the proposed theoretical framework, but also point to its shortcomings, especially in the lack of attention to economic factors.

scholarly journals The Making of a Work-ready Individual: The Political Economy of Time in a Workfare Program in Israel

2020 ◽  
pp. 089692052097678
Author(s):  
Sara Helman
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Labor Market ◽  
Time Management ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Social Assistance ◽  
The Political ◽  
Flexible Work ◽  
The Unemployed ◽  
Time Density

A neoliberal policy ideal, workfare, aims to transform the long-term unemployed into “work-ready” individuals. Studies of workfare examine their use of technologies of agency and coercion, but do not sufficiently delve into the political economy of time’s role in these technologies. Based on 9 months of participant observation in an Israeli workfare program, this article analyzes how it exploited time and temporality to transform social assistance benefits into a “wage.” I argue that in calculating participants’ activities through “time accountancy,” workfare prepares the unemployed for precarious unemployment at the lower rungs of the labor market. Time accountancy disciplines the unemployed through the enforcement of time regularity and punctuality, under threat of loss of benefits, yet in the absence of time density. Workfare’s apparently incongruous training in efficient “time management” and contrasting “time-filling” practices find concordance in preparing the long-term unemployed for low-wage jobs requiring docility and obedience, for precarious flexible work where new forms of digital and biometric control proliferate.

Social Assistance Dynamics in the Netherlands: Exploring the Sustainability of Independence from Social Assistance via Labour Market Inclusion

2007 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 127-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rik van Berkel
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Social Security ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Social Assistance ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Welfare Work ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Current Emphasis ◽  
Dutch City ◽  
European Welfare States

The current emphasis in European welfare states on ‘activation’ increases the relevance of insight into social assistance dynamics and work–welfare/welfare–work transitions. This article reports on a study that explored the employment, unemployment and social assistance careers of a large group of people who managed to become independent from social assistance by finding a job. Using the databases of social security agencies in the Dutch city of Rotterdam, it investigates the sustainability of social assistance independence and labour market inclusion, and identifies groups that are more or less likely to be confronted with spells of renewed social assistance dependency or unemployment.

The Politics of Welfare in Turkey

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erdem Yörük
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Assistance ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
The Political ◽  
Electoral Support ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Welfare State

This chapter examines the political dynamics that have shaped the transformation of the Turkish welfare system since the 1960s. Over the years, income-based social assistance policies have supplanted employment-based social security policies, while the welfare state has significantly expanded. To explain why and how the Turkish welfare state has expanded during neoliberalism and why social policies have shifted from social security to social assistance, the chapter focuses on the rivalries between mainstream parties and the impact of grassroots politics, as well as the political mechanisms that mediate and transform structural pressures into policies. The chapter illustrates that political efforts to contain the political radicalization of the informal proletariat and to mobilize its electoral support have driven the expansion of social assistance policies during the post-1980 neoliberal period. State authorities now see the informal proletariat as a more significant political threat and source of support than the formal proletariat whose dynamism drove the expansion of the welfare state during the pre-1980 developmentalist period. The chapter provides a historical analysis of the interaction between parliamentary processes and social movements in order to account for the transformation of welfare provision in Turkey. It concludes by locating Turkey in a larger context, in which other emerging markets develop similar welfare states as a response to similar political exigencies.

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.

scholarly journals A federalist’s dilemma: Trade-offs between social legitimacy and budget responsibility in multi-tiered welfare states

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giuliano Bonoli ◽  
Marcello Natili ◽  
Philipp Trein
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Social Assistance ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Social Legitimacy ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
The Social

In multi-tiered states, subnational policymakers face a dilemma: on one hand, they must ensure the social legitimacy of their subnational unit by owning relevant policies including their potentially negative consequences; on the other, they have to manage their budget responsibly, which limits the scope of policy development. We study this dilemma in relation to social policies, by examining how the constituent units and municipalities in Germany, Italy, Spain and Switzerland deal with it, taking social assistance as an empirical example. Our analysis suggests that the combination of the federation’s history and a multinational political context affects the incentives and the choices made by the policymakers regarding ownership and disownership of policy competencies in the field of social assistance. By analysing mechanisms that are likely to play out in multi-tiered welfare states, our article contributes to both the social policy and the political science literatures.

‘Ill Used by our Government’: The Darien Venture, King William and the Development of Opposition Politics in Scotland, 1695–1701

2019 ◽  
Vol 98 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachael E. Comunale
Keyword(s):  
Crucial Role ◽  
New World ◽  
Significant Proportion ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Movement ◽  
Political Status ◽  
The Press ◽  
Public Consciousness ◽  
Political Factions

This article examines the development of political opposition in Scotland from 1695 to 1701 in the context of the Company of Scotland Trading to Africa and the Indies. It is argued that the potency of the political movement inspired by Darien derived from the view that King William was directly implicated in the failure of the colony. Three episodes in the Company's history—the loss of subscriptions in Hamburg, the appearance of memorials in the new world prohibiting English aid to the colony and the imprisonment of Darien sailors by the Spanish authorities—are examined in detail. The ramification of these controversies was increasingly seen as the result not of English interference, but rather the crown's refusal to act on behalf of the Company. Because a significant proportion of the population was invested in the Company, and because the press helped to keep Darien in the forefront of public consciousness, these issues transformed Darien into a major political grievance that united disparate political factions in support of a single cause. Although the alliance inspired by Darien was temporary, it, nonetheless, played a crucial role in disrupting the political status quo.

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