Social Inequalities in “Sickness”: Does Welfare State Regime Type Make a Difference? A Multilevel Analysis of Men and Women in 26 European Countries

2012 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 235-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kjetil A. van der Wel ◽  
Espen Dahl ◽  
Karsten Thielen
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Educational Level ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Welfare Regimes ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Limiting Longstanding Illness ◽  
The Face ◽  
State Regime

In comparative studies of health inequalities, public health researchers have usually studied only disease and illness. Recent studies have also examined the sickness dimension of health, that is, the extent to which ill health is accompanied by joblessness, and how this association varies by education within different welfare contexts. This research has used either a limited number of countries or quantitative welfare state measures in studies of many countries. In this study, the authors expand on this knowledge by investigating whether a regime approach to the welfare state produces consistent results. They analyze data from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC); health was measured by limiting longstanding illness (LLSI). Results show that for both men and women reporting LLSI in combination with low educational level, the probabilities of non-employment were particularly high in the Anglo-Saxon and Eastern welfare regimes, and lowest in the Scandinavian regime. For men, absolute and relative social inequalities in sickness were lowest in the Southern regime; for women, inequalities were lowest in the Scandinavian regime. The authors conclude that the Scandinavian welfare regime is more able than other regimes to protect against non-employment in the face of illness, especially for individuals with low educational level.

scholarly journals A MACRO-COMPARATIVE ASSESSMENT OF WELFARE STATE CONVERGENCE IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-32
Author(s):  
Ágnes OROSZ ◽  
◽  
Norbert SZIJÁRTÓ ◽  
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Comparative Assessment ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Social Spending ◽  
Welfare Regimes ◽  
The European Union ◽  
National Welfare ◽  
State Regime

In this paper, we provide a macro-comparative assessment of welfare state convergence. Using the welfare state regime approach, the paper analyses the development of main welfare state indicators within in the enlarged European Union. In this study we capitalize on descriptive statistics and a single convergence analysis based on standard deviation in order to capture alterations in national welfare models of 26 European countries and among acknowledged welfare regimes. Our fundamental aim is to seize on long-term processes (convergence, divergence, or persistence), so we cover almost a two-decade period starting at 2000. Our results, in general, suggest that convergence among welfare states (different indicator of social spending) of European countries is particularly weak, however convergence inside welfare regimes is significantly stronger apart from the Anglo-Saxon group. The pre-crisis period was characterized by a stronger convergence among European countries as a consequence of economic prosperity and intense EU intervention.

The Europeanization of the Welfare State

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Leruth
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
European Integration ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Public Support ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
European Social Policy ◽  
The Welfare State

Since the ratification of the Treaty of Rome in 1957, the European integration project has been committed to reducing inequalities between member states. However, social inequalities remain high, and public support for the welfare state varies between countries. Some experts have suggested a common European social policy. This chapter analyses recent developments and future prospects at the European Union level. After discussing the initial ambitions of social policy harmonization, it focuses on the role of the EU during the Great Recession by examining the range of policy responses advocated by Brussels in order to fight against a multi-faceted crisis. These are dominated by the tightening of austerity, but include social investment and greater labour market flexibility. The final section reflects on the future of European integration after Brexit. It argues that further common policy development is only likely through agreements restricted to a particular a number of member states in an ‘ever more differentiated Europe’.

scholarly journals Taking subnational and regional welfare states seriously: Insights from the Quebec case

2021 ◽  
pp. 095892872199665
Author(s):  
Pierre-Marc Daigneault ◽  
Lisa Birch ◽  
Daniel Béland ◽  
Samuel-David Bélanger
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Conclusive Evidence ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
The Other ◽  
Welfare Regime ◽  
Welfare Regimes ◽  
Qualitative Case Studies ◽  
State Research ◽  
State Regime ◽  
Quantitative Results

Most quantitative, comparative welfare state research assumes that subnational welfare regimes are irrelevant or identical to their national counterparts. Many qualitative case studies, on the other hand, have underlined the differences between subnational and national regimes. In this article, we attempt to build bridges between these two strands of literature by examining the case for a Quebec model, that is, a subnational welfare state regime that is distinct from its Canadian counterpart(s). We reviewed seven publications from which we extracted 188 quantitative results relevant to the distinct subnational regime hypothesis. Although not all these results are independent nor based on conclusive evidence, they generally agree that a distinct welfare regime exists in Quebec. We conclude this article by discussing the implications of the Quebec case for the study of welfare regimes at the subnational and regional levels.

The four global worlds of welfare capitalism: Institutional, neoliberal, populist and residual welfare state regimes

2022 ◽  
pp. 095892872110505
Author(s):  
Erdem Yörük ◽  
İbrahim Öker ◽  
Gabriela Ramalho Tafoya
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Welfare Policy ◽  
Emerging Market ◽  
Social Assistance ◽  
Oecd Countries ◽  
Welfare Regimes ◽  
Original Dataset ◽  
State Regime ◽  
Welfare State Regimes

What welfare state regimes are observed when the analysis is extended globally, empirically and theoretically? We introduce a novel perspective into the ‘welfare state regimes analyzes’ – a perspective that brings developed and developing countries together and, as such, broadens the geographical, empirical and theoretical scope of the ‘welfare modelling business’. The expanding welfare regimes literature has suffered from several drawbacks: (i) it is radically slanted towards organisation for economic co-operation and development (OECD) countries, (ii) the literature on non-OECD countries does not use genuine welfare policy variables and (iii) social assistance and healthcare programmes are not utilized as components of welfare state effort and generosity. To overcome these limitations, we employ advanced data reduction methods, exploit an original dataset that we assembled from several international and domestic sources covering 52 emerging markets and OECD countries and present a welfare state regime structure as of the mid-2010s. Our analysis is based on genuine welfare policy variables that are theorized to capture welfare generosity and welfare efforts across five major policy domains: old-age pensions, sickness cash benefits, unemployment insurance, social assistance and healthcare. The sample of OECD countries and emerging market economies form four distinct welfare state regime clusters: institutional, neoliberal, populist and residual. We unveil the composition and performance of welfare state components in each welfare state regime family and develop politics-based working hypotheses about the formation of these regimes. Institutional welfare state regimes perform high in social security, healthcare and social assistance, while populist regimes perform moderately in social assistance and healthcare and moderate-to-high in social security. The neoliberal regime performs moderately in social assistance and healthcare, and it performs low in social security, and the residual regime performs low in all components. We then hypothesize that the relative political strengths of formal and informal working classes are key factors that shaped these welfare state regime typologies.

End of the Era of Productivist Welfare Capitalism? Diverging Welfare Regimes in East Asia

2012 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 275-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Young Jun Choi
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
East Asian ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Welfare Regimes ◽  
Welfare Capitalism ◽  
Economic Changes ◽  
State Regime ◽  
Institutional Contexts ◽  
Welfare Politics

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to examine the nature of recent transformations in East Asian welfare regimes, applying a ‘real-typical’ perspective, based on the ‘productivist welfare capitalism’ thesis of Ian Holliday (2000). Unlike Western welfare-state regimes in which the politics of austerity has dominated, the politics of welfare expansion has been noticeable in East Asian welfare regimes. This paper will analyse whether these changes have fundamentally dismantled the productivist feature where social policy is subordinate to economic objectives. While the trajectories are different depending on different political institutional contexts, this study shows that there are two strong signs that these states are moving out of their productivist nature and also that they are in the process of establishing their own welfare states. Japan seems to still be a productivist welfare-state regime struggling to accommodate rapid socio-economic changes, whereas Korea is a welfare state regime with strong liberal characteristics via modern welfare politics. Since the needs for social policy expansion in China correspond to economic and political needs, the productivist feature has been significantly weakened. However, this study argues that these transitory welfare regimes are in critical stages of formulating their new welfare regimes and that welfare politics based on contingent events could affect the future trajectories of these regimes.

scholarly journals Education and pneumonia mortality: a trend analysis of its inequalities in Colombian adults

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. e000695
Author(s):  
Nelson J. Alvis-Zakzuk ◽  
Ivan Arroyave ◽  
Carlos Castañeda-Orjuela ◽  
Fernando De La Hoz-Restrepo ◽  
Nelson Alvis-Guzman
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Education ◽  
Primary Education ◽  
Educational Level ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Cumulative Distribution ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Relative Index ◽  
Education Group ◽  
Rate Ratios

ObjectiveTo explore the existence and trends of social inequalities related to pneumonia mortality in Colombian adults using educational level as a proxy of socioeconomic status.MethodsWe obtained individual and anonymised registries from death certificates due to pneumonia for 1998–2015. Educational level data were gathered from microdata of the Colombian Demography Health Surveys. Rate ratios (RR) were estimated by using Poisson regression models, comparing mortality of educational groups with mortality in the highest education group. Relative index of inequality (RII) was measured to assess changes in disparities, regressing mortality on the midpoint of the cumulative distribution of education, thereby considering the size of each educational group.ResultsFor adults 25+ years, the risk of dying was significantly higher among lower educated. The RRs depict increased risks of dying comparing lower and highest education level, and this tendency was stronger in woman than in men (RR for primary education=2.34 (95% CI 2.32 to 2.36), RR for secondary education=1.77 (95% CI 1.75 to 1.78) versus RR for primary education=1.83 (95% CI 1.81 to 1.85), RR for secondary education=1.51 (95% CI 1.50 to 1.53)). According to age groups, young adults (25–44 years) showed the largest inequality in terms of educational level; RRs for pneumonia mortality regarding the tertiary educated groups show increased mortality in the lower and secondary educated, and these differences decreased with ages. RII in pneumonia mortality among adult men was 2.01 (95% CI 2.00 to 2.03) and in women 2.46 (95% CI 2.43 to 2.48). The RII was greatest at young ages, for both sexes. Time trends showed steadily significant increases for RII in both men and women (estimated annual percentage change (EAPC)men=3.8; EAPCwomen=2.6).ConclusionA significant increase on the educational inequalities in mortality due to pneumonia during all period was found among men and women. Efforts to reduce pneumonia mortality in adults improving population health by raising education levels should be strengthened with policies that assure widespread access to economic and social opportunities.

Polen: Flüchtlingsnotstand – aber wo sind die Flüchtlinge?

2005 ◽  
Vol 35 (140) ◽  
pp. 379-392
Author(s):  
Helmut Dietrich
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Local Conditions ◽  
Asylum Policy ◽  
The Face ◽  
Emergency Measures

Poland accepted the alien and asylum policy of the European Union. But what does it mean, in the face of the fact that most of the refugees don´t want to sojourn a lot of time in Poland, but want to join their families or friends in Western Europe? How the transfer of policies does work, if the local conditions are quite different than in Germany or France? The answer seems to be the dramatization of the refugee situation in Poland, especially the adoption of emergency measures towards refugees of Chechnya.

Kryzys w Unii Europejskiej a tożsamość europejska

2016 ◽  
pp. 110-136
Author(s):  
Zbigniew B. Rudnicki
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Social Model ◽  
European Identity ◽  
The European Union ◽  
European Social Model ◽  
Gradual Development ◽  
Internal Relations ◽  
International Identity

The aim of this article is to show what impact the crisis in the European Union, along with the crisis in the euro zone at the forefront, had on European identity, interwoven with the identity of the European Union to such an extent that these terms are often handled as equivalent. Developments and crises situations which exert an influence on European identity were presented with respect to areas of particular importance that affect the way the European Union is identified within the community and abroad. Following issues were discussed: implications of the crisis for the European Union’s international identity, for the European social model (welfare state), for transnational identity (in internal relations) and for unity and solidarity in the European Union. In the conclusion, it is stated that the economic, political and social crises had undermined the gradual development of European / European Union identity among citizens and had an impact on its image in international relations.

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