scholarly journals Access to general social protection for immigrants in advanced democracies

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carina Schmitt ◽  
Céline Teney
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Integration Policy ◽  
Political Issue ◽  
National Differences ◽  
National Welfare ◽  
State Models ◽  
Cross National ◽  
Advanced Democracies

Immigration has become a central socio-political issue in most advanced democracies. While research mainly focuses on immigrant-specific policies in the area of immigration, integration and citizenship, we still know very little about the incorporation of immigrants into mainstream social policies. By analysing cross-national differences in the inclusion of immigrants into general social protection across 27 rich democracies on the basis of comparative indicators from the Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX) dataset, we seek to address this gap in a quantitative study. A cross-national comparison of these indicators shows a particularly large variation in the inclusiveness of the access to social protection for immigrants across countries. By drawing on the welfare state and integration regime literature, we assess the power of two contrasting perspectives, namely, the post-national welfare state and the welfare chauvinism models, in explaining this large cross-national variation in immigrants’ access to social security and social housing. Our overall findings suggest that both the welfare chauvinist and the post-national welfare state models comprise two theoretical perspectives that turn out to be fruitful to interpret cross-national variation in immigrants’ access to social protection. According to the welfare chauvinism model, we find robust evidence that left-wing cabinets are particularly reluctant to open general social protection schemes to immigrants. By contrast and in line with expectations derived from the post-national welfare state model, countries with an overall generous welfare state and countries facing large immigration flows tend to provide immigrants with more generous access to social protection.

Cross-National Variation in Socioeconomic Status and Delinquency: A Comparative Study of Adolescents from 26 European Countries

2013 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 677-704 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jukka Savolainen ◽  
Jukka Savolainen ◽  
Lorine A. Hughes ◽  
Jukka Savolainen ◽  
Lorine A. Hughes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Stratification ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Class Differences ◽  
National Differences ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Cross National

Abstract This research examined cross-national differences in the association between social class and delinquency. The poverty hypothesis expects socioeconomic disadvantage to exert a causal influence on delinquent behavior. This expectation implies that the individual-level association between family SES and delinquent offending will be attenuated at increased levels of collective social protection. The social selection perspective also assumes a negative relationship between SES and delinquency but explains it away as a spurious consequence of intergenerational transmission of antisocial propensity. In light of comparative research on social stratification, the selection perspective suggests that the association between low parental SES and offspring criminality may be stronger in advanced welfare states due to reduced influence of ascribed characteristics on socioeconomic attainment in these countries. Survey data from 26 European countries (n=78,703) were used to evaluate the validity of these conflicting hypotheses. In support of the selection perspective, results showed that class differences in delinquent offending are larger in more advanced welfare states.

Social Expenditure and Welfare State Financing

2021 ◽  
pp. 452-472
Author(s):  
Herbert Obinger
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Spending ◽  
Social Expenditure ◽  
National Differences ◽  
Welfare State Development ◽  
State Financing ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Western Democracies ◽  
Cross National ◽  
The Welfare State

This chapter focuses on both the expenditures and the revenues of the welfare state. Using the latest data available, it depicts and analyses major developments in social spending and public revenues in twenty-one advanced Western democracies since 1980. The entry discusses measurement issues, depicts the determinants of cross-national differences in spending and revenue levels identified in the literature, and sheds light on the impact of social spending and taxation on social outcomes, such as income inequality. It is argued that spending and revenue figures, irrespective of several shortcomings, provide important indicators of both the logic and pattern of welfare state development.

scholarly journals ‘Governance transitions’ and minority nationalist parties’ pressure for welfare state change: Evidence from Welsh and Scottish elections – And the UK’s ‘Brexit’ referendum

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 279-306 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Chaney
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Central Government ◽  
State Change ◽  
Social Citizenship ◽  
Welfare Change ◽  
Welfare State Development ◽  
State Models ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Nationalist Parties

This study is concerned with welfare state development and the intersection between the twin global phenomena of sub-state nationalism and ‘governance transitions’. Specifically, how minority nationalist parties (MNPs) use discourse to exert pressure for welfare change. Accordingly, here, we explore their discourse in Scottish and Welsh elections, and the UK ‘Brexit’ referendum on European Union membership. The findings reveal how pressure for welfare change is framed using key tropes including nation-building, extending social protection and resistance to central government programmes. The wider significance to understanding global social policy lies in the following: (1) revealing the discursive processes associated with multi-level welfare state dynamics, (2) demonstrating how MNPs and governance transitions combine to pressure for welfare state change, and (3) showing how the resultant territorialisation of policy discourse advances ‘sub-state’ models of social citizenship.

An Asset Theory of Social Policy Preferences

2001 ◽  
Vol 95 (4) ◽  
pp. 875-893 ◽  
Author(s):  
Torben Iversen ◽  
David Soskice
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Job Loss ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Significant Decline ◽  
Policy Preferences ◽  
Educational Systems ◽  
National Differences ◽  
General Skills ◽  
Future Loss ◽  
Cross National

We present a theory of social policy preferences that emphasizes the composition of people's skills. The key to our argument is that individuals who have made risky investments in skills will demand insurance against the possible future loss of income from those investments. Because the transferability of skills is inversely related to their specificity, workers with specific skills face a potentially long spell of unemployment or a significant decline in income in the event of job loss. Workers deriving most of their income from specific skills therefore have strong incentives to support social policies that protect them against such uncertainty. This is not the case for general skills workers, for whom the costs of social protection weigh more prominently. We test the theory on public opinion data for eleven advanced democracies and suggest how differences in educational systems can help explain cross-national differences in the level of social protection.

Funding social protection: Mapping and explaining welfare state financing in a global perspective

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-164
Author(s):  
Carina Schmitt ◽  
Hanna Lierse ◽  
Herbert Obinger
Keyword(s):  
Social Protection ◽  
Global Perspective ◽  
Political Factors ◽  
Social Contracts ◽  
National Differences ◽  
War Experiences ◽  
State Financing ◽  
Political Differences ◽  
Social Protection Systems ◽  
Cross National

In this article, we analyze the political sources of cross-national differences in financing social protection around the world. The type of funding is not simply a technical detail but provides insights into the kinds of social contracts that underpin national social protection systems, reflecting different redistributive ambitions, conceptions of solidarity, and legitimacy among societies. Based on International Labour Organization (ILO) data, we explore to what extent past and contemporary political factors such as colonial and communist legacies as well as regime differences and war experiences account for cross-national differences in funding social protection across the globe. Our empirical evidence suggests that historically rooted political differences explain large parts of today’s highly divergent patterns in social security funding systems.

scholarly journals Theoretical Considerations in Cross-National Employment Research

10.5153/sro.9 ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
O'Reilly Jacqueline
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Systems Approach ◽  
Specific Interest ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
National Differences ◽  
National Comparison ◽  
Employment Systems ◽  
Theoretical Considerations ◽  
Cross National ◽  
The Welfare State

This article critically reviews a range of theoretical approaches to cross-national employment research in terms of universal, culturalist and intermediary perspectives. These approaches have difficulty accounting for change and the co- existence of similarity and diversity, as well as being ‘gender blind’. Debates on the welfare state or women's employment have shown more interest in gender although this tends to become an optional variable in the cross-national comparison, or where there have been attempts to make it more central, the meaning of cross-national differences becomes blurred and confused. It is argued that an employment-systems approach, coupled with the gender order perspective, can provide a useful framework of analysis which enables us to identify how comparable pressures for change have generated specific interest coalitions; these coalitions resolve conflicts by agreeing on a particular gender compromise.

scholarly journals the religious roots of modern poverty policy: catholic, lutheran, and reformed protestant traditions compared

2005 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
sigrun kahl
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Basic Principle ◽  
Poor Relief ◽  
The Poor ◽  
National Differences ◽  
Cross National ◽  
The Welfare State

this paper shows that religion is a basic principle that underlies modern poverty policy. however, it has played out in very different ways in societies according to the relative predominance of catholic, lutheran, and calvinist heritages. though religion is but one explanation for why we deal with the poor as we do today, systematically accounting for denominational differences in poor relief traditions can help to answer a series of otherwise perplexing cross-national differences in poverty policy and enrich existing explanations of the welfare state.

scholarly journals Public attitudes towards a European minimum income benefit: How (perceived) welfare state performance and expectations shape popular support

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 404-420 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon Baute ◽  
Bart Meuleman
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
Public Support ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Policy Proposal ◽  
Minimum Income ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
National Welfare

The economic crisis and the unequal degree to which it has affected European Union (EU) member states have fuelled the debate on whether the EU should take responsibility for the living standards of European citizens. The current article contributes to this debate by investigating for the first time public support for an EU-wide minimum income benefit scheme. Through an analysis of data from the European Social Survey 2016, our results reveal that diverging national experiences and expectations are crucial in understanding why Europeans are widely divided on the implementation of such a benefit scheme. The analysis shows that (1) welfare state generosity and perceived welfare state performance dampen support, (2) those expecting that ‘more Europe’ will increase social protection levels are much more supportive, (3) the stronger support for a European minimum income benefit in less generous welfare states is explained by more optimistic expectations about the EU’s domestic impact and (4) lower socioeconomic status groups are more supportive of this policy proposal. These findings can be interpreted in terms of sociotropic and egocentric self-interests, and illustrate how (perceived) performance of the national welfare state and expectations about the EU’s impact on social protection levels shape support for supranational social policymaking.

Culture and Welfare State Policies: Reflections on a Complex Interrelation

2004 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
BIRGIT PFAU-EFFINGER
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
State Policies ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
National Differences ◽  
Multi Level ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Cross National ◽  
Welfare State Policies

In comparative welfare state analyses, cross-national differences have often been explained both by the specific profiles of welfare state institutions and the constellations of social actors. However, the way in which cultural differences also contribute to the explanation is often ignored, or at least treated as a more marginal issue. The aim of this article is to reflect on the relationship between culture and welfare state policies, and consider how it might be analysed in a comparative perspective. A theoretical framework for analysis is introduced in which the relationship of culture and welfare state policies is conceptualised as a complex, multi-level relationship which is embedded in the specific context of a particular society and can develop in contradictory ways.

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