Twenty Years after German Unification: The Restructuring of the German Welfare and Employment Regime

2010 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 102-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anke Hassel
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Poor Relief ◽  
German Unification ◽  
Income Maintenance ◽  
Shifting Boundaries

German unification acted as a catalyst for the substantial transformation of the German welfare and employment regime which has taken place over the last two decades. The changes can be described as a process of a partial liberalization of the labor market within the boundaries of a coordinated industrial relations system and a conservative welfare state. This article depicts the transformation as a trend towards a more liberal welfare and employment regime by focusing on the shifting boundaries between status and income maintenance and poor relief systems.

Managing Decentralization: The Strategy of Institutional Differentiation in German Industrial Relations

1999 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 52-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolfgang Schroeder ◽  
Rainer Weinert
Keyword(s):  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Organization ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Collective Bargaining Agreement ◽  
The Political ◽  
Process Of Change ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
Institutional Differentiation ◽  
The Welfare State

The approach of the new millennium appears to signal the demiseof traditional models of social organization. The political core ofthis process of change—the restructuring of the welfare state—andthe related crisis of the industrywide collective bargaining agreementhave been subjects of much debate. For some years now inspecialist literature, this debate has been conducted between theproponents of a neo-liberal (minimally regulated) welfare state andthe supporters of a social democratic model (highly regulated). Thealternatives are variously expressed as “exit vs. voice,” “comparativeausterity vs. progressive competitiveness,” or “deregulation vs.cooperative re-regulation.”

Is social investment inimical to the poor?

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 857-880 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alain Noël
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Investment Strategy ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Minimum Income ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Active Labor ◽  
Active Labor Market Programs ◽  
Active Labor Market

Abstract In the last two decades, the social investment strategy has been the main approach to welfare state reform. Concretely, two spending programs have dominated the agenda: the expansion of active labor market programs and the development of childcare services. Many authors have suspected, however, that these social investments were realized at the expense of income protection for the poor. This article assesses this potential trade-off with time-series cross-sectional models of the determinants of active labor market policies expenditures, childcare spending and the adequacy of minimum income protection (MIP), for 18 OECD countries between 1990 and 2009. It turns out that social investments are rather akin to traditional welfare state programs, and are explained by similar institutional, political and economic factors. More importantly, they do not develop at the expense of income protection. Social investment initiatives are consistent with the usual politics of the welfare state and, overall, they are not inimical to the poor.

Race, Immigration, and the American Welfare State

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cybelle Fox
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Labor Market ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Political System ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
State Development ◽  
European Immigrants ◽  
Welfare State Development ◽  
Market Relations

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the three worlds of relief created by the intersection of labor, race, and politics in welfare state development. Blacks, Mexicans, and European immigrants inhabited three separate worlds in the first third of the twentieth century, each characterized by its own system of race and labor market relations and its own distinct political system. From these worlds—and each group's place within them—three separate perspectives emerged about each group's propensity to become dependent on relief. The distinct political systems, race and labor market relations, and ideologies about each group's proclivity to use relief, in turn, influenced the scope, reach, and character of the relief systems that emerged across American communities.

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