scholarly journals The transformation of solidarity in times of austerity: The case of Greece

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 129
Author(s):  
Andreas Feronas
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Social Problems ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Social Solidarity ◽  
Parallel Processes ◽  
Social Risks ◽  
Bail Out ◽  
Of Greece

The severe economic crisis that has surfaced in Greece over the last eight years, not only has resulted to an unprecedented social crisisbut has also challenged long established domestic patterns of solidarity. By defining social solidarity very generally as “the willingnessto share social risks” this paper aims at highlighting two parallel processes of transformation of solidarity in Greece in the contextof the ongoing crisis. First, a process of retrenchment of an already problematic formal welfare state solidarity, largely imposedby the successive bail out agreements with the Troika. Secondly, the emergence of various forms of informal solidarity, aimed at supportingthe social groups most affected by the crisis. The paper concludes that although the latter has played an important role in offeringimmediate relief to those “in need”, is far from being considered, neither as a panacea for solving social problems nor as a substituteto welfare state solidarity, at a time when the demand for social protection has increased dramatically.

scholarly journals Economic Crises and the Welfare State in Korea: Reforms and Future Challenges

2010 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 175-192
Author(s):  
Kwon Huck Ju ◽  
Dong Grami ◽  
Moon Hyun Gyung
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Economic Crises ◽  
Labor Market Reform ◽  
Social Risks ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Welfare State

"East Asian countries have been hit yet again by economic crisis, this time of a global nature, after having endured the Asian economic crisis of 1997-98. Social protection for the weak in society during the crisis poses a great policy challenge. This paper examines Korea’s social policy responses to these economic crises in the context of the evolution of the welfare state. Faced with the economic crisis of 1997-98, the welfare state was extended and strengthened in terms of coverage and benefits in order to facilitate labor market reform. In the current global economic crisis, social policies such as public assistance and unemployment benefits, together with extra job-retaining measures that the government put into place, have enabled Korea to respond much more effectively to social risks arising from the crisis than it did during the earlier Asian crisis. However, it is imperative for Korea to further strengthen the welfare state, particularly in the areas of social services for children and the elderly, in order to maintain its economic potential in the face of dramatic demographic transitions and changes in family structure that are likely to occur in the future."

scholarly journals Social innovation as a policy response to restructure the welfare state

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 269-276
Author(s):  
Doğa Başar Sariipek ◽  
Gökçe Cerev ◽  
Bora Yenihan
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Social Innovation ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
The State ◽  
Welfare Provision ◽  
Civil Society Organisations ◽  
Leading Role ◽  
Social Risks ◽  
The Welfare State

The focus of this paper is the interaction between social innovation and restructuring welfare state. Modern welfare states have been reconfiguring their welfare mixes through social innovation. This includes a productive integration of formal and informal actors with support and leading role of the state. This collaboration becomes significantly important since it means the integration of not only the actors, but also their capabilities and resources in today’s world where new social risks and new social challenges have emerged and no actor can overcome these by its own. Therefore, social innovation is a useful tool in the new role sharing within the welfare mix in order to reach higher levels of satisfaction and success in welfare provision. The main point here is that this is not a zero-sum competition; gaining more power of the actors other than the state – the market, civil society organisations and the family – does not necessarily mean that the state lost its leading role and power. This is rather a new type of cooperation among actors and their capabilities as well as their resources in welfare provision. In this sense, social innovation may contribute well to the debates over the financial crisis of the welfare state since it may lead to the more wisely use of existing resources of welfare actors. Thanks to social innovative programs, not only the NGOs, but also market forces as well as citizens are more active to access welfare provisions and social protection in the broadest sense. Thus, social innovative strategies are definitely a solid step taken towards “enabling” or “active” welfare state.

scholarly journals Is Being Employed Always Better for Mental Wellbeing Than Being Unemployed? Exploring the Role of Gender and Welfare State Regimes during the Economic Crisis

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (23) ◽  
pp. 4799
Author(s):  
Imma Cortès-Franch ◽  
Vanessa Puig-Barrachina ◽  
Hernán Vargas-Leguás ◽  
M. Marta Arcas ◽  
Lucía Artazcoz
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Poor Quality ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Mental Wellbeing ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
Logistic Regression Models ◽  
Labor Market Regulations ◽  
The Unemployed

The growth of poor jobs related to economic crisis adds to its increase since the mid-1970s as a result of new forms of flexible employment. In Europe, there is no clear evidence on whether working in a poor-quality job is better for mental wellbeing than being unemployed. The objectives of this study were to compare mental wellbeing between the unemployed and those working in jobs with different quality levels and to examine gender and welfare state differences in Europe. We selected 8324 men and 7496 women from the European Social Survey, 2010. Hierarchical multiple logistic regression models were fitted, separated by sex and country group. No significant differences in mental wellbeing were shown between unemployed-non-active, unemployed-active, and those working in low-quality jobs in either sex. Only men from Conservative countries in low-quality jobs had better mental wellbeing than unemployed (non-active) men. Only having a good-quality job reduced the likelihood of poor mental wellbeing compared with being unemployed (non-active) among men in all countries (except Social-Democratic) and among women in Eastern and Southern European countries. No differences were observed among men or women in Social-Democratic countries, while strong gender differences were found in Conservative and Liberal countries. Our study indicates the need to take job quality into account, in addition to creating jobs during economic crises. The main mechanisms to explain the strong gender and welfare state differences identified could be social protection for unemployed, labor market regulations, and family models.

Social assistance in Southern Europe: the case of Greece revisited

2000 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 68-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manos Mataganis
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Social Assistance ◽  
Relative Weight ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Southern Europe ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Poor Relation ◽  
Of Greece

Social assistance is a largely neglected part of the welfare state in Greece. Recent surveys of social assistance arrangements in developed countries from a comparative perspective tend to portray Greece as the most 'rudimentary' member of the 'rudimentary' group of countries or social assistance regimes, i.e. Southern Europe. While not entirely unfounded, this view rests on a less than complete account of social assistance in Greece, and also ignores the latest developments that further challenge this position. This article aims to 'map' social assistance benefits in Greece, describe recent developments and discuss current debates on future directions of welfare reform in the country. This review suggests that although social assistance remains a 'poor relation' within Greece's social protection system as a whole, its relative weight is much greater than previously thought. Moreover, the profile of social assistance is set to rise due to a renewed emphasis on notions of selectivity and targeting, but also in connection with the revival of the debate on the merits and practicalities of introducing a minimum guaranteed income scheme in the country. The article concludes that the search for the proper place of social assistance within a reconstructed welfare state in Greece has only just begun.

The Limits of Selectivity as a Recipe for Welfare Reform: The Case of Greece

2005 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 235-253 ◽  
Author(s):  
MANOS MATSAGANIS
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Welfare Reform ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Pension System ◽  
The Core ◽  
Policy Paradigm ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Government ◽  
Of Greece

Selectivity emerged as the core of a new social policy paradigm in Greece when a new ‘modernising’ government took office in 1996. Though it was adopted energetically, its real impact eventually proved negligible, except for an initial flutter of activity. The article argues that its failure as a recipe for welfare reform was inevitable. The nature of social protection arrangements in Greece severely constrained the scope for selectivity, while the particular version pursued was poorly designed and badly administered. Moreover, the elevation of selectivity to the status of a ‘Big Idea’ was an indirect cause of serious lateral damage: while fruitlessly puzzling over the place of selectivity in the ‘new social policy’, the government was losing the crucial battle on the reform of an unviable and inequitable pension system. The article concludes that selectivity has little relevance to the priorities for reform in a welfare state still struggling to cope with its Bismarckian, south European contradictions.

Explaining the welfare state: power resources vs. the Quality of Government

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bo Rothstein ◽  
Marcus Samanni ◽  
Jan Teorell
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Power Resources ◽  
Social Risks ◽  
Wage Earners ◽  
Power Resource Theory ◽  
The Welfare State

The hitherto most successful theory explaining why similar industrialized market economies have developed such varying systems for social protection is the Power Resource Theory (PRT), according to which the generosity of the welfare state is a function of working class mobilization. In this paper, we argue that there is an under-theorized link in the micro-foundations for PRT, namely why wage earners trying to cope with social risks and demand for redistribution would turn to the state for a solution. Our approach, the Quality of Government (QoG) theory, stresses the importance of trustworthy, impartial, and uncorrupted government institutions as a precondition for citizens’ willingness to support policies for social insurance. Drawing on data on 18 OECD countries during 1984–2000, we find (a) that QoG positively affects the size and generosity of the welfare state, and (b) that the effect of working class mobilization on welfare state generosity increases with the level of QoG.

The welfare state and the crisis: the case of Greece

2011 ◽  
Vol 21 (5) ◽  
pp. 501-512 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manos Matsaganis
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Fiscal Crisis ◽  
Safety Nets ◽  
Harsh Climate ◽  
Social Safety Nets ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Of Greece ◽  
Do So ◽  
The Welfare State

The paper examines the relationship between the severe economic crisis facing Greece and the country’s social protection system, arguing that this relationship is ambivalent. On one level, the welfare state itself has contributed in a far from trivial way to the fiscal crisis of the state, with its various failures including huge deficits in key programmes such as pensions and health. On a second level, the crisis and the measures to counter it deprive the welfare state of resources, while at the same time setting in motion sweeping changes. On a third level, social protection can help cope with the consequences of the crisis, but enhancing its capacity to do so will require considerable reconfiguration and proper funding of social safety nets. The paper concludes by discussing the prospects for a revival of welfare state building in Greece in the current harsh climate.

Pendidikan Nilai dalam Era Pluralitas

1970 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 297-311
Author(s):  
Ruslan Ibrahim
Keyword(s):  
Social Problems ◽  
Values Education ◽  
Moral Values ◽  
Social Solidarity ◽  
Cultural Conflict ◽  
Moral Training ◽  
Education Activity ◽  
Cultural Plurality

Values education is activity which help students in order that they have instruction which determine all of their actions. Values education is considered urgent in education activity. It is purposed to build social solidarity, especially in religion and cultural plurality era. The reality of social, religion, and cultural conflict, showed education functions as transfer of moral values still optimal yet. Therefore, values education include moral training must be aplicated to help students be up against social problems in their life. 

Diverging Paths

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dirk Luyten
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
National Level ◽  
Gain Control ◽  
Political Strategy ◽  
State Development ◽  
Social Reforms ◽  
Welfare State Development ◽  
The Impact

For the Netherlands and Belgium in the twentieth century, occupation is a key concept to understand the impact of the war on welfare state development. The occupation shifted the balance of power between domestic social forces: this was more decisive for welfare state development than the action of the occupier in itself. War and occupation did not result exclusively in more cooperation between social classes: some interest groups saw the war as a window of opportunity to develop strategies resulting in more social conflict. Class cooperation was often part of a political strategy to gain control over social groups or to legitimate social reforms. The world wars changed the scale of organization of social protection, from the local to the national level: after World War II social policy became a mission for the national state. For both countries, war endings had more lasting effects for welfare state development than the occupation itself.

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