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.

The Changing Shapes of Latin American Welfare States

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evelyne Huber ◽  
Zoila Ponce de León
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Debt Crisis ◽  
Healthcare Services ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Cash Assistance ◽  
The Welfare State

Latin American welfare states have undergone major changes over the past half century. As of 1980, there were only a handful of countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, and Uruguay) with social policy regimes that covered more than half of their population with some kind of safety net to insure adequate care during their old age and that provided adequate healthcare services. With few exceptions, access to social protection and to healthcare in these countries and others was based on formal employment and contributions from employees and employers. There were very few programs, and those few were poorly funded, for those without formal sector jobs and their dependents. The debt crisis and the ensuing neoliberal reforms then damaged the welfare state in all countries, including these leading nations. Deindustrialization, shrinking of the public sector, and cuts in public expenditures reduced both coverage and quality of transfers and services. Poverty and inequality rose, and the welfare state did little to ameliorate these trends. With the turn of the century, the economic and political situation changed significantly. The commodity boom eased fiscal pressures and made resources available for an increase in public social expenditure. Democracy was more consolidated in the region and civil society had recovered from repression. Left-wing parties began to win elections and take advantage of the fiscal room which allowed for the building of redistributive social programs. The most significant innovation has been expansion of coverage to people in the informal sector and to people with insufficient histories of contributions to social insurance schemes. The overwhelming majority of Latin Americans now have the right to some kind of cash assistance at some point in their lives and to healthcare provided by their governments. In many cases, there have also been real improvements in the generosity of cash assistance, particularly in the case of non-contributory pensions, and in the quality of healthcare services. However, the least progress has been made toward equity. With very few exceptions, new non-contributory programs were added to the traditional contributory ones; severe inequalities continue to exist in the quality of services provided through the new and the traditional programs.

Appalachian Migration

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Phillip J. Obermiller
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Extended Family ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
Great Migration ◽  
Migration Flow ◽  
Flow Maps ◽  
Branch System ◽  
Migrant Families ◽  
Post War

Migration was a hallmark of the twentieth century, and those seeking better conditions took their music with them. Shuttle migration from Appalachia to the Midwest during the 1920s was replaced during the 1940-1970 Great Migration by a stem-and-branch system and extended family safety net. Wartime industry and post-war Appalachian coalfield depression drew hundreds of thousands to Cincinnati, Hamilton, Dayton, Detroit, Chicago and elsewhere, as documented by migration flow maps. Industrial wages allowed migrants to acquire instruments, radios, and recordings; frequent nightclubs; join civic and social groups; and enjoy Appalachian festivals. Ron Eller, Mike Maloney, Noah Crase, Harriet Marsh Page, Jennifer Brierly, Taylor Farley, Sherrill Jennings, Judy Jennings, and Paris Decker exemplify migrant families for whom music was important.

scholarly journals Is There Room for Targeting within Universalism? Finnish Social Assistance Recipients as Social Citizens

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 145-154
Author(s):  
Paula Saikkonen ◽  
Minna Ylikännö
Keyword(s):  
Social Services ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Social Assistance ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Social Citizenship ◽  
Flat Rate ◽  
Income Transfers ◽  
National Register Data

This article focuses on the role of means-tested social assistance in Finland, which is often considered one of the Nordic welfare states described as having a universal welfare model. The article scrutinises the capacity of the final safety net to enhance the social citizenship of social assistance recipients. The Finnish social security system combines social insurance (earnings-related benefits), universal benefits (flat-rate benefits), free or affordable public services, and social assistance as a means-tested and targeted element, and thus it is a discussion on the degree of universalism that best captures the nature of universalism in the Finnish welfare state. Because the final safety net includes public services (especially social work) and income transfers (especially social assistance), its ability to strengthen social citizenship depends on both elements—separately and as a combination—as there may be a simultaneous need for financial aid and services. Whilst national registers provide data on social assistance, there is no national register data on municipal social services, which is why a survey was conducted. In this study, the heterogenic clients supported by the final safety net were described based on an open-ended question in the survey data. Statistics were then used to evaluate the frequency of client groups (capable clients, persistent clients, invisible clients, safety net dropouts). The article concludes that universalism as a social policy principle is challenged by the diversity of the clientele.

scholarly journals BRIDGING THE GAP: THE ROLE OF MICRO-INSURANCE IN A COMPREHENSIVE SOCIALPROTECTION SYSTEM IN SOUTH AFRICA

Obiter ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Letlhokwa George Mpedi ◽  
Daleen Millard
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Private Insurance ◽  
Social Assistance ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
Social Risks ◽  
Micro Insurance ◽  
Vulnerable Persons

Access to social protection interventions, such as social assistance, social insurance and private insurance, in South Africa is limited. For that reason, plugging the holes in the safety net is undoubtedly one of the most pressing challenges facing South Africa in its quest to design a comprehensive social protection system. The point is that vulnerable persons, just like any other persons, have to contend with social risks (for example, death, poor health, invalidity, etcetera). As a result, similarly to all other persons, they require protection against these risks. It is clear that the current social protection interventions (particularly social insurance, social assistance and privateinsurance) fail to protect every person in need of such protection adequately in South Africa. Thus, the contribution sets out to investigate the prospects of micro-insurance being used as an instrument to extend social protection coverage to the excluded and marginalized persons in South Africa.

The Danish model of ‘flexicurity’: experiences and lessons

2004 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Per Kongshøj Madsen
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
The United States ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Employment Protection ◽  
Employment System ◽  
Low Level ◽  
Active Labour ◽  
Active Labour Market Programmes

The success of the Danish economy in recent years has led to claims that the Danish employment system constitutes a unique model. Danish legislation provides for a low level of employment protection, allowing employers to dismiss workers with short notice. As a result, the Danish employment system has a level of numerical flexibility that is comparable to that of liberal labour markets like those of Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United States. At the same time, through its social security system and active labour market programmes, Denmark resembles other Nordic welfare states in providing a tightly knit safety net for its citizens. The Danish model thus illustrates a possible trade-off between a very flexible employment relation and a social protection system, which, combined with active labour market programmes, defends individuals from the potential costs of a low level of employment security. The model thus represents a genuine alternative to the widespread view that it is desirable to develop a high level of individual employment protection at the company level.

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]

The Long Life of Liberal America: Law and State-Building in the U.S. and England

2006 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 179-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
William E. Forbath
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
State Building ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Law And Politics ◽  
American Liberalism ◽  
The One ◽  
The New Deal ◽  
The U.S ◽  
The Welfare State

Reports of the Strange Death of Liberal America are greatly exaggerated. James Henretta's essay of that title offers a shrewd and insightful portrait of Charles Evans Hughes. But the liberalism whose death Henretta reports did not die. And the “statist,” “centralization,” “economic planning,” and broad “social insurance” minded liberalism he reports as prevailing did not prevail. From a certain lofty altitude (and rueful attitude), all “big,” “modern” “welfare states” look the same. That is Henretta's viewpoint. His wonderfully suggestive comparative framework has as one of its premises that America and England proceeded along the administrative-and-welfare-state-building path at different paces but arrived at the same destination. For me, a comparison of the law and politics, processes and outcomes of twentieth-century state-building in the U.S. and England prompts different conclusions. There were conspicuous differences between the New Deal state that was fashioned in 1930s and '40s America and the welfare state England created in those decades. More interestingly, the ideology and institutional contours of this new American state were deeply influenced by that ambivalent (and lawyerly) brand of American liberalism Henretta rightly attributes to figures such as Hughes and Roscoe Pound—poised between “progressive” commitments to social reform, social provision, and administrative-state-building, on the one hand, and older, “classical” liberal commitments to limited (and decentralized, dual federalist) government and the primacy of courts and common law and traditional legal and constitutional niceties, on the other. My notion is that this “transitional” and “forgotten” liberalism and its champions won more important battles than they lost against their “statist” rivals. A “strange death,” indeed!

How Credit Markets Substitute for Welfare States and Influence Social Policy Preferences: Evidence from US States

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Wiedemann
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Credit Markets ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Us States ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract What is the relationship between debt and the welfare state? Recent arguments suggest that credit markets fill gaps left by limited social benefits but often rest on thin empirical grounds. This article makes two contributions to this debate by using micro-level panel data and leveraging variation in welfare state generosity across US states and over time. First, it shows that households that experience unemployment borrow significantly more in states where unemployment benefits are low compared to states where benefits are high. A 10-percentage-point decrease in unemployment replacement rates increases debt levels by about 30 per cent, or $5,300. Secondly, the article documents that rising indebtedness in the context of weak social policies has political consequences and increases support for a stronger safety net. One explanation is that voters seek social protection against downstream debt-induced economic risks. These findings suggest that welfare states can play a critical role in mitigating growing indebtedness.

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.

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