Reconciling security with flexibility: a few questions

2004 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 263-281 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierre Walthéry ◽  
Pascale Vielle
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Recent Literature ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Policy Proposals ◽  
Significant Attention ◽  
The Capability Approach ◽  
The Welfare State

A significant part of the recent literature dedicated to welfare state analysis has focused on the direction of future reforms of the welfare state. In particular, numerous authors have focused on how to reconcile flexible employment patterns with some form of security for the individual. In this regard, the transitional labour market (TLM) approach of Günther Schmid, as well as proposals put forward in the Supiot report, have attracted significant attention. The aim of this article is to introduce a few elements into the current debate on these proposals. The authors examine the potential, as well as the possible shortcomings, of the two above-mentioned approaches. They stress the need for additional clarifications regarding the possible policy proposals these approaches might result in, especially from the point of view of security for persons subjected to the possible resulting labour practices and social security provisions. The article then proposes a framework that could be used to evaluate such policy implementations while taking into account, in a longitudinal perspective, the multidimensional character of security on the labour market. Finally, based on Amartya Sen’ s theoretical framework (the capability approach), the article discusses the need for further research on the normative assumptions underlying welfare state reforms.

The Second Marriage of Justice and Efficiency

1990 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philippe van Parijs
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
Postwar Period ◽  
Basic Income ◽  
Ex Ante ◽  
Major Reform ◽  
Positive Effect ◽  
The Welfare State

ABSTRACTNo major reform of the welfare state has a chance of going through unless one can make a plausible case as to both its ‘ethical value’ and its ‘economic.value’, that is, that it would have a positive effect in terms of both justice and efficiency. In this essay, this rough conjecture is first presented, and its plausibility probed, on the background of some stylised facts about the rise of modern welfare states in the postwar period. Next, the focus is shifted to the current debate on the introduction of a basic income, a completely unconditional grant paid ex ante to all citizens. It is argued that if basic income is to have a chance of meeting the strong twofold condition stipulated in the conjecture, some major changes are required in the way one usually thinks about justice and efficiency in connection with social policy. But once these changes are made, as they arguably must be, the chance that basic income may be able to meet the challenge is greatly enhanced.

At the Origins of Neo-Liberalism: The Free Economy and the Strong State, 1930–1947

2010 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
BEN JACKSON
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
State Regulation ◽  
Free Society ◽  
Individual Liberty ◽  
Public Controversy ◽  
Strong State ◽  
Middle Way ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Market Liberalism ◽  
The Welfare State

ABSTRACTIt is often suggested that the earliest theorists of neo-liberalism first entered public controversy in the 1930s and 1940s to dispel the illusion that the welfare state represented a stable middle way between capitalism and socialism. This article argues that this is an anachronistic account of the origins of neo-liberalism, since the earliest exponents of neo-liberal doctrine focused on socialist central planning rather than the welfare state as their chief adversary and even sought to accommodate certain elements of the welfare state agenda within their market liberalism. In their early work, neo-liberal theorists were suspicious of nineteenth-century liberalism and capitalism; emphasized the value commitments that they shared with progressive liberals and socialists; and endorsed significant state regulation and redistribution as essential to the maintenance of a free society. Neo-liberals of the 1930s and 1940s therefore believed that the legitimation of the market, and the individual liberty best secured by the market, had to be accomplished via an expansion of state capacity and a clear admission that earlier market liberals had been wrong to advocate laissez-faire.

The Labour Market, the Welfare State and European Convergence

1996 ◽  
pp. 73-101
Author(s):  
Renato Brunetta ◽  
Leonello Tronti ◽  
Renzo Turatto
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
The Welfare State

6. Problems

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Garland
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
The Real ◽  
Moral Hazards ◽  
The Welfare State

The welfare state is, at its core, a problem-solving apparatus, designed to manage dysfunctions that are endemic to the economic and social life of modern nations. But welfare states also generate problems of their own—such as moral hazards, excessive bureaucracy, soaring costs, and labour market rigidities—that sometimes threaten to bring the whole enterprise into disrepute. ‘Problems’ shows that these issues are troubling and consequential, but in weighing their significance we ought always to ask: ‘what can be done?’ and ‘what are the alternatives?’ That the welfare state has its problems is undeniable. The real question is whether these problems are manageable and how they compare to those of other arrangements.

Abbau von Inflexibilitäten auf dem Arbeitsmarkt – Ist die Wirtschaftspolitik auf dem richtigen Weg?

2000 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 229-250
Author(s):  
Norbert Berthold
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Employment Protection ◽  
Economic Environment ◽  
Economic Damage ◽  
Coalition Government ◽  
The Public ◽  
Protection Legislation ◽  
Generous Welfare ◽  
The Welfare State

Abstract The situation on the German labour market is still a catastrophe. The institutional set-ups on the labour market and the welfare state obviously no longer fit the fundamentally changed economic environment. There is next to no competition on the labour market and unions and employers' associations use the generous welfare state to transfer the burden of adjustment to changes in the economic environment onto the public at large. Institutional mismatch is prevalent. The red-green coalition government has not only realized that persistently high unemployment inflicts tremendous economic damage but that it is also politically destabilizing. It has therefore announced that the performance on the labour market during its term of office shall be its own measure of success or failure. This paper discusses whether the regulatory steps taken by the red-green coalition government, like implementing stricter employment protection legislation, reintroducing full pay when sick, and changing the law concerning low-paid jobs, are suitable for reducing this institutional mismatch.

scholarly journals Waiting for Godot? Welfare Attitudes in Portugal before and after the Financial Crisis

2016 ◽  
Vol 65 (3) ◽  
pp. 535-558 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mónica Brito Vieira ◽  
Filipe Carreira da Silva ◽  
Cícero Roberto Pereira
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Attitudinal Change ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Waiting For Godot ◽  
Welfare Attitudes ◽  
The Welfare State

Do attitudes towards the welfare state change in response to economic crises? Addressing this question is sometimes difficult because of the lack of longitudinal data. This article deals with this empirical challenge using survey data from the 2008 European Social Survey and from our own follow-up survey of Spring 2013 to track welfare attitudes at the brink and at the peak of the socio-economic crisis in one of the hardest hit countries: Portugal. The literature on social policy preferences predicts an increased polarisation in opinions towards the welfare state between different groups within society – in particular between labour market insiders and outsiders. However, the prediction has scarcely been tested empirically. A notoriously dualised country, Portugal provides a critical setting in which to test this hypothesis. The results show attitudinal change, and this varies according to labour market vulnerability. However, we observe no polarisation and advance alternative explanations for why this is so.

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