Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierre Pestieau ◽  
Mathieu Lefebvre
Keyword(s):  
Social Insurance ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Main Concern ◽  
Social Programs ◽  
Main Challenge ◽  
Equity And Efficiency ◽  
Pure Altruism ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
European Welfare States

This introduction is devoted to the definition of the concepts of a welfare state, social protection, and social insurance, and to the different foundations, both normative and positive, underlying them. These foundations range from pure individualistic motivations to the Kantian norm, to pure altruism. This introduction discusses also the traditional trade-off between equity and efficiency that is the main concern when designing social programs. It also presents the issues to be covered throughout the fifteen chapters of the book. Finally, it concludes with what can be viewed as the main challenge of European welfare states, namely the mounting socio-economic divide.

The South European Countries

2021 ◽  
pp. 843-862
Author(s):  
Maurizio Ferrera
Keyword(s):  
Social Insurance ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Extended Family ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
State Building ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Labour Markets ◽  
Southern Europe ◽  
Employment Opportunities

In Southern Europe, welfare state building followed a distinct path, characterized by ‘weak Fordism’ in labour markets, a dualistic social insurance, and a faulty and fragmented safety net. The (extended) family thus played a key role as welfare and income provider for its members, penalizing women’s autonomy and employment opportunities. The 1990s and 2000s witnessed substantial efforts to modernize both labour markets and social protection schemes, by recalibrating their coverage both across risks and social groups. However, the economic crisis of the 2010s halted such recalibration and the gap with Europe’s more developed welfare states has again started to widen, especially in Italy and Greece.

scholarly journals Mapping Different Worlds of Eco-Welfare States

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 1819
Author(s):  
Katharina Zimmermann ◽  
Paolo Graziano
Keyword(s):  
Social Protection ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Social Deprivation ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Environmental Performance Index ◽  
The Social ◽  
Ecologically Sustainable ◽  
Sustainable Action ◽  
Ecological Dimension ◽  
European Welfare States

Attention towards topics such as environmental pollution, climate change, or biodiversity has strongly increased in the last years. The struggles to balance market powers and ecological sustainability somehow evoke memories of the early days of European welfare states, when social protection emerged as a means to prevent industrial capitalism from disruptive social tensions due to excessive social inequalities. In fact, social and environmental crises are inseparably intertwined, as ecological destruction is likely to be followed by social deprivation, and a lack of social security can be a crucial barrier for ecologically sustainable action. Our paper seeks to provide a step towards such an integrated perspective by studying problem pressure and public interventions in the area of green welfare, that is, in social and environmental protection. By using available data from Eurostat and Environmental Performance Index (EPI) databases, we contrast environmental and social performances to detect links between the social and the ecological dimension in these areas and unearth different configurations of green welfare among European countries. Our findings suggest that there are different “worlds of eco-welfare states” which only partially overlap with the more conventional “world of welfare states” but show how the Nordic countries are in the relatively-better performing cluster.

scholarly journals The Essence and Features of Social Protection in the Ukrainian Retrospective

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (6 (344)) ◽  
pp. 103-110
Author(s):  
Inna Syomkina ◽  
◽  
Natalia Shabaeva ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
The State ◽  
Vulnerable Groups ◽  
Scientific Article ◽  
Social Programs ◽  
Historical Aspect ◽  
The Social

The scientific article reveals the formation of the Ukrainian system of social protection (historical aspect). The main stages of development of social policy in Ukraine, from the first origins to the key principles of modern social policy are described. The desire of the Ukrainian authorities to renounce the paternalistic role and alimony is emphasized. Priorities for activities in the social sphere have been identified: guaranteeing social rights, increasing the effectiveness of social programs, assistance to vulnerable groups (large and low-income families, servicemen, people with special needs, victims of violence, etc.). The general scheme of the social protection system in Ukraine is presented, which consists of two main parts: compulsory state social insurance, which is formed through the contributions of employers and working citizens to the relevant social insurance funds; system of social support (assistance, benefits, subsidies, social services), which is mainly formed by taxation and financed from the state budget. Further ways of scientific research are outlined (content and principles of realization of the state social programs on support of vulnerable segments of the population).

scholarly journals From Social Protection to Social Investment

2021 ◽  
pp. 343-394
Author(s):  
Olaf van Vliet ◽  
Vincent Bakker ◽  
Lars van Doorn
Keyword(s):  
Technological Change ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
Investment Policies ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Eastern European Countries ◽  
European Welfare States

Globalization, technological change, and migration form three major challenges for European welfare states in the 21st century. These challenges are regarded as important sources of inequality on the labour market. Whereas the existing literature has mainly been focused on the sectors and occupations affected by globalization and technological change, the authors of this chapter argue that, via job polarization, these phenomena also affect the type of contract that workers have. They hypothesize that increased competition for low-paying jobs is associated with labour market flexibilization. Another major trend that they analyse is the free movement of labour. New data illustrate that labour migration from Central and Eastern European countries to Western European countries has grown slowly but substantially following recent enlargements of the Union. It has been considered a challenge for welfare states as it might contribute to feelings of economic insecurity and might erode solidarity, which forms the basis for the provision of social policy. Subsequently, the authors analyse how European welfare states have evolved over the past decades. They show that in spite of budgetary pressure stemming from globalization and migration, most countries have increased social expenditure. Furthermore, they analyse to what extent the focus has shifted from classical social protection to social investment policies to enable workers to adapt themselves to new labour market transformations. They contribute to the existing literature by covering years after the financial crisis for all EU member states and by demonstrating a novel way of correcting social expenditures for the number of recipients.

scholarly journals Which Roads (if any) to Social Investment? The Recalibration of EU Welfare States at the Crisis Crossroads (2000–2014)

2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 459-478 ◽  
Author(s):  
STEFANO RONCHI
Keyword(s):  
Social Protection ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Euro Crisis ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
Lisbon Strategy ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
The Social ◽  
Fiscal Space ◽  
European Welfare States ◽  
Welfare Expenditure

AbstractThe social investment approach has been advocated as a blueprint for recasting European welfare states since the years of the Lisbon Strategy. After the Euro crisis squeezed the fiscal space available for welfare recalibration, the question has been raised as to whether social investment could withstand the economic turmoil. Relying on a new welfare expenditure dataset constructed from various Eurostat sources, this article looks at the budgetary recalibration of 27 EU welfare states from the launch of the Lisbon Strategy to the aftermath of the Euro crisis (2000 to 2014). It compares the financial efforts that governments have put into social investment- and social protection-oriented policies, highlighting the different trajectories taken by EU welfare states at the crisis crossroads. Four scenarios for welfare recalibration are put forward, based on the social investment perspective and its critiques. The results show that the overall progress made by social investment in welfare budgets since 2000 came to a halt with the outbreak of the crisis. Bleaker scenarios materialised, whereas EU welfare states pursued retrenchment rather than investment, or had to face harsher budgetary trade-offs, expanding social investment to the detriment of social protection.

Globalization

2021 ◽  
pp. 432-450
Author(s):  
Duane Swank
Keyword(s):  
Social Insurance ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Social Impacts ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Domestic Institutions ◽  
Education And Health ◽  
Quantitative Studies ◽  
Political Economies ◽  
National Welfare ◽  
Political Economic

This chapter examines the theory and research on the historical and contemporary impacts of economic globalization on trajectories of national welfare states across the globe. It reviews the central contending theories that globalization’s social policy impacts are negative (the efficiency thesis) or positive (the compensation thesis). It also summarizes various contingency arguments such as the idea that globalization’s impacts are conditioned by national political economic institutions. As to extant research, it surveys comparative, quantitative studies on social impacts of the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century ‘first wave’ of globalization and of contemporary internationalization of markets in developed and developing political economies. The central findings of work on developed democracies are that during the first wave of globalization, and in the three decades after the Second World War, globalization was associated with increases in social protection against risks and transfers to losers of international competition (the compensation thesis); for recent decades, scholars lean towards the view that globalization is associated with modest retrenchments in social welfare provision. Substantial evidence also exists for the notion that these effects are contingent on domestic institutions. For developing nations, many studies show that international openness has been associated with cuts in core social insurance and welfare programmes and with increases in (or no effect on) education and health programmes. Studies also suggest that globalization’s social impacts are contingent on temporal context and domestic institutions. The chapter concludes with a discussion of promising new areas of inquiry on globalization and national welfare states in the twenty-first century.

The coming of East and South-East Asian welfare states

2000 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 162-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sven Olsson Hort ◽  
Stein Kuhnle
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
East Asian ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Asian Countries ◽  
Rapid Economic Growth ◽  
State Welfare ◽  
Recent Financial Crisis

It has long been assumed among Western commentators that rapid economic growth in East and South-east Asia has been achieved without the development of social policies. It has often been inferred that growth without social welfare is not only possible, but beneficial to further strong economic growth. The article questions these perceptions and beliefs. First, to what extent did East and South-east Asian countries delay the introduction of social insurance schemes compared to European pioneering countries, in the sense of introducing them only at a much higher level of 'modernization'? Second, to what extent was the economic miracle achieved by some of these countries based on (or accompanied by) attempts to forestall or retrench welfare state schemes? Third, to what extent has the recent financial crisis led to attempts at lowering or changing standards of social protection? The study shows that the Asian countries generally introduced social security programmes at a lower level of 'modernization' than Western European countries; that rapid and strong economic growth in the decade 1985–95 has in general been accompanied by welfare expansion; and that even after the financial crisis of 1997, expansion of state welfare responsibility is more evident than efforts to reduce or dismantle state welfare responsibility]

Contrasting approaches to old-age income protection in Korea and Taiwan

2010 ◽  
Vol 30 (7) ◽  
pp. 1135-1152 ◽  
Author(s):  
YOUNG JUN CHOI ◽  
JIN WOOK KIM
Keyword(s):  
South Korea ◽  
Older People ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Policy Reforms ◽  
Actual Performance ◽  
Income Security ◽  
Flat Rate

ABSTRACTOld-age income security has become one of the most important social policy issues in two East Asian emerging welfare states, South Korea and Taiwan, as they transform at a remarkable pace into societies with a representation of older people approaching that of western countries. During the last two decades, the two countries have developed different forms of social protection for older people. South Korea has expanded social insurance pensions with means-tested benefits, whereas Taiwan has introduced flat-rate old-age allowance programmes that exclude the rich rather than target the poor. much has been written about these programmes, but their actual performance in reducing old-age poverty has not been thoroughly examined. This paper analyses the anti-poverty effect of these programmes, firstly by describing recent developments in the two countries, and secondly by examining headcount poverty rates and the size and incidence of the ‘poverty gap’ using nationally-representative micro-household datasets. We argue that while the programmes have increasingly reduced old-age income security, the different policy choices have resulted in distinctive welfare outcomes in the two countries. In the final section of the article, we discuss the long-term implications of the recent policy reforms.

scholarly journals The Inclusiveness of Maternity Leave Rights over 120 Years and across Five Continents

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 275-287
Author(s):  
Keonhi Son ◽  
Tobias Böger
Keyword(s):  
Women Workers ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Maternity Leave ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Political Empowerment ◽  
Informal Labor ◽  
Maternity Benefits ◽  
Historical Database ◽  
Historical Accounts

Even though paid maternity leave was the earliest form of social protection specifically aimed at women workers and is fundamental in securing their economic independence vis-à-vis employers and spouses, it has received scant scholarly attention. Neither the traditional historical accounts of welfare state emergence nor the more recent gendered analyses of developed welfare states have provided comparative accounts of its beginnings and trajectories. Employing the newly created historical database of maternity leave, we provide the first global and historical perspective on paid maternity leave policies covering 157 countries from the 1880s to 2018. Focusing on eligibility rather than generosity, we construct a measure of inclusiveness of paid maternity leaves to highlight how paid maternity leave has shaped not only gender but also social inequality, which has, until recently, largely been ignored by the literature on leave policies. The analyses of coverage expansion by sector and the development of eligibility rules reveal how paid maternity leave has historically stratified women workers by occupation and labor market position but is slowly evolving into a more universal social right across a broad range of countries. Potential drivers for this development are identified using multivariate analysis, suggesting a pivotal role for the political empowerment of women in the struggle for gender and social equality. However, the prevalence of informal labor combined with insufficient or non-existing maternity benefits outside the systems of social insurance still poses significant obstacles to the protection of women workers in some countries.

scholarly journals FINANCIAL MECHANISM OF PEOPLE’S SOCIAL PROTECTION SYSTEM IN UKRAINE

2017 ◽  
pp. 62-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oleh ZHUK
Keyword(s):  
Social Insurance ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Protection System ◽  
Structural Components ◽  
Mutual Cooperation ◽  
Political Situation ◽  
Social Standards ◽  
The Social ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Financial Mechanism

Introduction. Implementation of effective and acting policy of people’s social protection demands the creation of an appropriate financial mechanism of its realization that could be able to provide a significant welfare increasing of every citizen of Ukraine. Purpose. The purpose of the article is to research theoretical, methodological, organizational and practical aspects of functioning the financial mechanism of people’s social protection system in Ukraine and to develop recommendations for its improvement in terms of transformation of the national economy, considering the current socio-economic and military-political situation in the country. Results. The views of some authors to determine the nature and structure of the financial mechanism of people’s social protection system in Ukraine are analyzed and summarized. The author suggests his own definition of the concepts of “social protection”, “financial mechanism of people’s social protection system” and “financial support of people’s social protection”. The structure of the domestic financial mechanism of people’s social protection system that includes groups of four main elements (financial and organizational forms, financial methods, financial instruments and financial levers) are presented by the author. Conclusion. Improving the financial mechanism of PSPS in Ukraine there should be achieving an effective and mutual cooperation and interaction of financial mechanisms of structural components of the social protection system: social insurance, social support, social standards and guarantees of the state to its population.

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