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.

5. Varieties

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Garland
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Welfare Regime ◽  
Welfare Regimes ◽  
Developed Country ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Government Involvement ◽  
Welfare State Regimes ◽  
The Welfare State

Every developed country has a distinctive welfare state of its own. Welfare states generally rely on the same basic institutions, but these institutions can operate in different ways. Welfare state programmes are government programmes, but while public authority is necessary to establish, fund, and regulate these programmes, the nature of government involvement varies. Three worlds of welfare have been identified: social democratic; conservative; and liberal. ‘Varieties’ describes the welfare state regimes that developed in Sweden, Germany, and the USA, each of which exemplifies one of these ‘worlds’ of welfare. It goes on to consider briefly the welfare regimes beyond the ‘three worlds’ and how Britain’s welfare regime has changed over time.

‘A Re-Specification of the Welfare State’: Conceptual Issues in ‘The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism’

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 247-258 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Powell
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Theoretical Work ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Theoretical Underpinning ◽  
Welfare Capitalism ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Welfare State

In his path-breaking account of ‘The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism’, Gøsta Esping-Andersen (1990) aimed to provide a ‘re-specification of the welfare state’. This article examines the claim of Esping-Andersen that his account draws on the theoretical work of Polanyi, Marshall and Titmuss. It then explores the conceptual critique of Esping-Andersen which led to his 1999 revision, with its rather different theoretical underpinnings. It concludes that some of the theoretical underpinning of this work is unclear both in the work of Esping-Andersen and in subsequent accounts, resulting in a largely atheoretical debate. Concepts such as de-commodification do not appear to be clearly drawn from their stated ‘parent’ authors, and may not sum up the content or essence of welfare states. The ‘re-specification of the welfare state’ must be a larger part of the strategy of the welfare modelling business in the future.

scholarly journals The main factors of the recent development of European welfare states: Swedish case

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleksei Chekmazov ◽  
Vladyslav Butenko
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Main Role ◽  
Swedish Model ◽  
Main Factors ◽  
The Impact ◽  
European Welfare States ◽  
The Welfare State

This analytical essay is devoted to identifying the features of the formation and development of the Swedish model of the welfare state. The authors study the factors that played the main role in the development of the Swedish model. The authors also assess the impact of the 2008 economic crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic on the Swedish welfare state.

The Oxford Handbook of the Welfare State

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
The Future ◽  
Experienced Researcher ◽  
The Welfare State

This is the comprehensively revised second edition of a volume that was welcomed at its first appearance as ‘the most authoritative survey and critique of the welfare state yet published’. Of its fifty-one chapters, some chapters are brand new; all have been systematically revised, and they are all right up to date. The first seven sections of the book cover the themes of ethics, history, approaches, inputs and actors, policies, policy outcomes, and worlds of welfare. A final chapter is devoted to the future of welfare and well-being under the imperatives of climate change. Every chapter is written in a way that is both comprehensive and succinct, introducing the novice reader to the essentials of what is going on, while providing new insights for the more experienced researcher. Wherever appropriate, the handbook brings the very latest empirical evidence to bear. It is a book that is thoroughly comparative in every way.

scholarly journals What Makes People Worry about the Welfare State? A Three-Country Experiment

2018 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 1519-1537 ◽  
Author(s):  
Achim Goerres ◽  
Rune Karlsen ◽  
Staffan Kumlin
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Welfare Reform ◽  
Population Aging ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Financial Sustainability ◽  
State Change ◽  
Effective Pressure ◽  
New Politics ◽  
Group Population ◽  
The Welfare State

AbstractWelfare states are exposed to a host of cost-inducing ‘reform pressures’. An experiment implemented in Germany, Norway and Sweden tests how various reform pressure frames affect perceptions about the future financial sustainability of the welfare state. Such perceptions have been shown to moderate electoral punishment for welfare reform, but little is known about their origins. Hypotheses are formulated in dialogue with newer research on welfare state change, as well as with older theory expecting more stability in policy and attitudes (the ‘new politics’ framework). Research drawing on ‘deservingness theory’ is also consulted. The results suggest large variations in impact across treatments. The most influential path to effective pressure framing is to ‘zoom in’ on specific economic pressures linked to undeserving groups (above all immigration, but also to some extent low employment). Conversely, a message emphasizing pressure linked to a very deserving group (population aging) had little effect. A second conceivable path to pressure framing entails ‘zooming out’ – making messages span a diverse and more broadly threatening set of challenges. This possibility, however, received weaker support.

Immigration, the Welfare State and Working Life – the Case of Norway

2008 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 529-536 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grete Brochmann
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
National Economy ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Working Life ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Western Countries ◽  
Paradoxical Situation ◽  
European Welfare States ◽  
The Welfare State

Today Western European welfare states find themselves in a paradoxical situation: parts of working life are in need of labour that is difficult to find nationally – and internationally. While this is partly due to inflexible policies, it is also due to competition for labour among Western countries. At the same time, asylum seekers are constantly arriving, often to be joined by family members. The authorities are confronted with a mismatch between the supply of, and demand for, immigrants. The receiving countries do not get the labour they want, while many of those who actually come cannot be incorporated productively for various reasons. This situation illustrates the squeeze facing today’s welfare states – in this article exemplified with the Norwegian case – between the logic of humanitarian responsibilities and the concerns of the national economy.

scholarly journals The role of European welfare states in intergenerational money transfers: a micro-level perspective

2010 ◽  
Vol 30 (8) ◽  
pp. 1315-1342 ◽  
Author(s):  
NIELS SCHENK ◽  
PEARL DYKSTRA ◽  
INEKE MAAS
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
State Spending ◽  
Parents And Children ◽  
State Regime ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Money Transfers ◽  
To Receive ◽  
European Welfare States

ABSTRACTThis article uses a comprehensive theoretical framework to explain why parents send money to particular children, and examines whether intergenerational solidarity is shaped by spending on various welfare domains or provisions as a percentage of gross domestic product. The theoretical model at the level of parents and children distinguishes parental resources and children's needs as the factors most likely to influence intergenerational money transfers. Differences in state spending on various welfare domains are then used to hypothesise in which countries children with specific needs are most likely to receive a transfer. For parents we hypothesise in which countries parents with specific available resources are most likely to send a transfer. We use data from the first wave of the Survey of Health and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) to analyse the influence of welfare-state provisions on the likelihood of intergenerational transfers in ten European countries. The results indicate that, in line with our expectations, the likelihood of a transfer being made is the outcome of an intricate resolution of the resources (ability) of the parents and the needs of a child. Rather large differences between countries in money transfers were found. The results suggest that, at least with reference to cross-generational money transfers, no consistent differences by welfare state regime were found.

Allochthons, Colonizers, and Scroungers: Exclusionary Populism in Belgium

2006 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bambi Ceuppens
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
Democratic Tradition ◽  
Western European ◽  
Democratic Parties ◽  
European Welfare States ◽  
The Welfare State

Abstract:This article analyzes the growth of autochthony in Belgium as an example of the increasing popularity of autochthony discourses in Western Europe. Autochthony discourses, which try to reserve the benefits of the welfare state to those who are said to really belong, tend to thrive in prosperous Western European welfare states with a strong Social-Democratic tradition that refuse to accept that they have become immigrant countries. In federalized Belgium, however, autochthony has a much stronger appeal in Flanders, which historically was dominated by Christian-Democratic parties, than in Wallonia, which remains a Social-Democratic bulwark. Analyzing Western European autochthony in terms of welfare chauvinism helps explain the ways in which prosperous Flemings, unlike impoverished Walloons, can afford to buy into the neoliberal rhetoric of choice and thus create themselves as autochthons.

Is the Future American? Or, Can Left Politics Preserve European Welfare States from Erosion through Growing ‘Racial’ Diversity?

2005 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 661-672 ◽  
Author(s):  
PETER TAYLOR-GOOBY
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Political Support ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Social Spending ◽  
Open Market ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Welfare State

The welfare state is the distinctive contribution of Europe to the modern world. Other places do market capitalism better, and democracy, art and culture at least as well. However, the future of the European welfare state is in question, as a result of economic globalisation, pressures from population ageing and other social changes and the dominance of an EU primarily committed to creating an open market to rival that of the US. An important recent critique of the welfare state project argues that social cohesion and diversity are simply incompatible – with the implication, that as Europe grows more diverse, welfare states will wither. An influential variant of this argument uses statistical modelling to support the argument that greater ethnic diversity accounts for the failure of the US to develop political support for a welfare state on European lines (and implies that Europe's future is American). This article demonstrates that the model used fails to take into account the significance of left politics in European countries. The evidence is that the left substantially counteracts the impact of greater diversity on welfare states in Europe. The case that increased migration will undermine popular commitment to social spending is not proven.

Income mobility and the welfare state: an international comparison with panel data

1999 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 331-349 ◽  
Author(s):  
Holger Fabig
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
Panel Data ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Income Mobility ◽  
Transfer System ◽  
Equivalent Income ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Tax And Transfer System ◽  
The Welfare State

This article examines gross and net equivalent income mobility in the western and eastern states of Germany, in Great Britain and in the United States, using panel data of these countries from the period 1989-95. By comparing the differences between the mobility of gross and net equivalent income internationally, it analyses to what extent the welfare state reduces income mobility, thereby testing hypotheses concerning international differences in the mobility-reducing effect of the welfare state. The results show that the largest mobility-reducing effect is observed in eastern states of Germany, followed by western Germany. While the reduction of gross equivalent income mobility by the tax and transfer system is much smaller in Great Britain, this reduction cannot be observed in the USA at all. These results support the hypothesis that the mobility-reducing effect of the tax and transfer system is much stronger in conservative welfare states like Germany than in liberal welfare states like Great Britain and the USA. Résumé Cet article étudie les flux de revenus brut et net (y compris transferts) des individus dans le temps en Allemagne de l'Est et de l'Ouest, en Grande-Bretagne et aux Etats-Unis à partir de données couvrant la période 1989-95. Sur base d'une comparaison international sur les dynamiques entre revenus équivalents nets et bruts, il analyse dans quelle mesure le système de protection sociale réduit ces différences. Les résultats indiquent que l'effet de réduction le plus important s'observe en Allemagne de l'Est, suivie de l'Allemagne de l'Ouest. Si en Grande-Bretagne, cette réduction par le système de redistribution et d'imposition est nettement plus faible, aucune réduction ne s'observe aux Etats-Unis. Ces résultats soutiennent l'hypothèse selon laquelle l'effet réducteur de la mobilité des revenus par le système d'imposition et de redistribution est plus important dans les systèmes de sécurité sociale conservateurs comme l'Allemagne que dans le systèmes de protection sociale qualifié de libéraux comme la Grande-Bretagne et les Etats-Unis.

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