scholarly journals Measuring and Comparing the Regulatory Welfare State: Social Objectives in Public Procurement

2020 ◽  
Vol 691 (1) ◽  
pp. 68-83
Author(s):  
Miriam Hartlapp
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Public Procurement ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Social Regulation ◽  
Qualitative Assessment ◽  
Economic Regulation ◽  
Policy Documents ◽  
Potential Impact ◽  
The Welfare State

This article constructs an index that translates the substance of policy documents into numeric values across three dimensions of regulation—a qualitative assessment of policy substance, its potential impact, and enforcement of regulation—which aims to capture the strength of social objectives in the economy. It draws on theories of economic regulation and literature on the welfare state to develop a general understanding of social objectives. The use of the index is illustrated through public procurement regulation in two European countries (France and Germany) and shows an overall increase in the strength of social objectives. It also highlights systematic differences in country priorities in the regulation of their economy. The index demonstrates that social regulation can be measured and compared in a meaningful way within and across countries.

scholarly journals Union économique et monétaire et État-Providence : la subsidiarité en question (Note)

2005 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadine Richez-Battesti
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Norms ◽  
Monetary Union ◽  
Fiscal Federalism ◽  
Social Regulation ◽  
Economic And Monetary Union ◽  
European Welfare State ◽  
The Social ◽  
Different Levels ◽  
The Welfare State

This article seeks to analyze the social impacts of the Economic and Monetary Union and to reflect on the new modalities for producing social norms within this new context. First, after pointing out limits to the nominal convergence that the treaty stipulates for the interim phase, we mil present the new forms of adjustment pursuant to the EMU and their impacts on the welfare state. We will then turn to the responses of some economists to the introduction of a single currency and coordination of budgetary policies, including fiscal federalism. We will try to show the desirability of a European welfare state that would introduce some coherence between the different levels (local, national, Europe-wide) and forms (legislative and union-management) of social regulation ; in essence, a reworking of the idea of social subsidiarity.

The influence of the welfare state on the number of young old persons

2009 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 609-624 ◽  
Author(s):  
KATHRIN KOMP ◽  
THEO VAN TILBURG ◽  
MARJOLEIN BROESE VAN GROENOU
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Legal Responsibility ◽  
Retirement Age ◽  
Old People ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Country Differences ◽  
Southern European Countries ◽  
Young Old ◽  
The Welfare State

ABSTRACTMany current discussions of welfare state reforms focus on the ‘young old’, a group now generally perceived as healthy people past retirement age without a legal responsibility for dependent persons in need of care. For the welfare state, they constitute a resource whose activities are hard to steer. This article focuses on the influence of the welfare state on the number of ‘young old’ people. It describes different ways in which the welfare state influences the number of young old persons, and investigates whether variations in the regulations for the ages of normal, early and late retirement are the prime cause. The paper also estimates the share of the young old among those aged 50–90 years in 10 European countries in 2004 using comparable survey data. These shares ranged between 36 and 49 per cent for men and between 35 and 52 per cent for women. High shares were found in continental European countries, and low shares in Scandinavian countries and the United Kingdom. The shares in southern European countries varied among the countries and by gender. To explain the variations in the share, country differences in retirement regulations proved helpful but insufficient. When the overall influence of the welfare state on the share of young old persons in the population was analysed, a country-characteristic pattern emerged.

The Invisible Welfare State: Women's Work at Home

1978 ◽  
Vol 21 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. 193-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kari Wærness
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Women's Work ◽  
Unpaid Work ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Women's Equality ◽  
Work At Home ◽  
Women's Welfare ◽  
The Welfare State ◽  
The Invisible ◽  
At Home

Analysing welfare in terms of Allardt's three dimensions – Having, Loving, and Being – women's unpaid work at home seems particularly important for securing the welfare of the children, the sick, and the old on the Loving dimension. Increasing employment outside the home is necessary for increasing women's welfare on the Being dimension and their independence on the Having dimension. This cannot be realized without reducing the amount of women's unpaid work in the home. A dilemma of the welfare state is how women's equality on the Having and Being dimensions can be realized without the dependent population becoming worse off on the Loving dimension.

Challenges in the Guardianship of Unaccompanied Minors Seeking Asylum

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 489-509
Author(s):  
Daniel Hedlund ◽  
Lisa Salmonsson
Keyword(s):  
Child Care ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Unaccompanied Minors ◽  
Best Interest ◽  
Policy Documents ◽  
Comprehensive Search ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Welfare State

In this paper we explore the research literature relating to the guardianship of unaccompanied minors seeking asylum. In particular, we seek to find out what type of dilemmas have been identified by research concerning the guardianship of unaccompanied minors, and the focus that the literature has therefore taken. A comprehensive search of identified databases was conducted. Ultimately, 38 publications were selected for analysis. The review was qualitative and inductive. The results of the review suggest that research has identified and focused on challenges in the form of diverging policy such as gaps and inconsistencies in guardianship institutions, as well as challenges in balancing different objectives concerning the guardianship role, such as conflicting interest in the guardianship assignment or between different actors involved in protecting the child’s interest.The conclusion is that different configurations of guardianship institutions, as well as the identified challenges for practice, appear to be related to the welfare state model. Therefore, future research concerning guardianship for unaccompanied minors needs to move beyond legal sources and policy documents by focusing on empirically informed research on the relationship between child care/protection, principles of assessing the best interest of the child and the welfare state systems.

scholarly journals Unemployment and Income Protection: How do Better-Earning Households Expect to Manage Financially?

2013 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 587-603 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOCHEN CLASEN ◽  
ALISON KOSLOWSKI
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Strategic Planning ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Limited Extent ◽  
Average Income ◽  
Income Security ◽  
Working Age ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Welfare State

AbstractApart from health care and education, it could be argued that working-age households with above-average income in the UK have never relied as much on the welfare state as their counterparts in many other European countries. How then do better-earning households expect to cope financially with the risk of unemployment, and to what extent do they plan ahead for a possible loss of earnings? Based on sixty-one interviews with couples, the article discusses various sources of income protection that these households envisage drawing upon in the event of unemployment. State benefits figure only marginally, private insurances to a limited extent and savings slightly more. However, there is little evidence of strategic planning. By contrast, many perceive their current job and personal employability as providing some security and regard the prospect of occupational redundancy pay as a major source of income protection. This finding contrasts sharply with a paucity of systematic information about the actual scope, quality and development of employer-based income security.

Gender, Metaphor and the State

1996 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 118-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marian Sawer
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
The State ◽  
Social Regulation ◽  
Private Sphere ◽  
The Public ◽  
Self Reliance ◽  
Social Liberalism ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The Welfare State

The neo-liberal upsurge of the last twenty years and the neo-liberal case against the welfare state has gained much of its emotional force from a sub-text which is highly gendered. Whereas social liberalism had contained the promise of more autonomy within the private sphere and more caring values in the public sphere, neo-liberalism depicts the results of social liberalism as a loss of self reliance – through ‘over-protection’ by the state in the public sphere and usurpation of male roles in the private sphere. The identification of the welfare state as female (the ‘nanny state’) helps fuel resentment on the part of those already confused by rapidly changing gender roles. This paper tracks the sex change which took place in the image of the liberal state as it evolved out of the night watchman state – the link between the women's suffrage movement and social regulation, maternal principles of distribution and demands for the public organization of caring. It examines the neo-liberal rejection of the breast and neo-liberal claims that the maternal state is incompatible with ‘self-reliance’ and a barrier to competitiveness in the world market.

From welfare state to participation society: austerity, ideology or rhetoric?

2019 ◽  
pp. 101-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Menno Fenger ◽  
Babs Broekema
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Budget Deficit ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
European Countries ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Policies ◽  
Do So ◽  
The Welfare State

In his first annual speech to parliament in 2013, Dutch King Willem-Alexander announced the end of the era of the welfare state and proclaimed the Participation Society. He stated that the process of individualization, combined with the need to reduce the government's budget deficit leads “to a slow transition of the classical welfare state into a participation society. Everyone who is able to do so, is asked to take responsibility for his or her own life and environment”. This shift towards a participation society is not unique for the Netherlands. Many European countries have experience reforms of their welfare states that limit the responsibility of the state and increases the responsibility of individual citizens. This chapter discusses the backgrounds of Dutch Participation Society in the political discourse, and analyses how and to what extent the ideas of the Participation Society have actually been translated into the content of social policies, their implementation and their consequences.

Performance and Efficiency of the Welfare State

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierre Pestieau ◽  
Mathieu Lefebvre
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Social Spending ◽  
Private Firms ◽  
Administrative Cost ◽  
Public Provider ◽  
The Welfare State

One of the most widespread critiques levelled against the welfare state is its inefficiency. In this chapter we try to tackle the question of definition and measurement of the efficiency and the performance of the welfare state. We show that there exist clear inefficiencies in the distribution of services. Because of administrative complexity or fear of stigmatization, the neediest people can fall outside the protection of the welfare state. As far as the administrative cost of social insurance, a single public provider tends to be cheaper than a multiplicity of private firms. In the production of some services, there are clear efficiency slacks, but these do not depend on ownership—public or private. What seems to matter is competition and autonomy. Finally, we study the performance of the welfare state as a whole, abstracting from social spending. The results indicate a clear process of convergence among European countries.

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