Globalisation and the Composition of the Welfare State

2018 ◽  
pp. 257-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irina Araújo ◽  
Marta Simões
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Capital Flows ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
Active Labour ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Social Expenditures ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Compensation Hypothesis ◽  
The Welfare State

The aim of this chapter is to examine the relationship between globalisation and the size of the welfare state taking into account the respective composition. The efficiency hypothesis argues that globalisation leads to a reduction in the size of the welfare state since this can harm international competitiveness and drive away capital flows, while the compensation hypothesis poses that globalisation induces an increase in the welfare state in order to provide citizens with wider coverage against the risks of globalisation. This relationship is analysed for 31 OECD countries over the period 1980-2010 using data on social expenditures and the KOF Index of Globalisation and their different components. The results obtained indicate that overall there is a positive association between globalisation and the size of the welfare state, more intense for spending on housing-related benefits, active labour market programs and other social policy areas, and mostly felt through political globalisation. Globalisation loses significance for the explanation of family and unemployment benefits.

scholarly journals Immigration policy and the modern welfare state, 1880–1920

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 463-477 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Kalm ◽  
Johannes Lindvall
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Immigration Policy ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Immigration Policies ◽  
German Empire ◽  
Modern Welfare State ◽  
Almost All ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Welfare State

This article puts contemporary debates about the relationship between immigration policy and the welfare state in historical perspective. Relying on new historical data, the article examines the relationship between immigration policy and social policy in Western Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when the modern welfare state emerged. Germany already had comparably strict immigration policies when the German Empire introduced the world’s first national social insurances in the 1880s. Denmark, another early social-policy adopter, also pursued restrictive immigration policies early on. Almost all other countries in Western Europe started out with more liberal immigration policies than Germany’s and Denmark’s, but then adopted more restrictive immigration policies and more generous social policies concurrently. There are two exceptions, Belgium and Italy, which are discussed in the article.

The Persistence of Poverty under Welfare States and the Prospects for its Abolition

1992 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Walker
Keyword(s):  
Economic Policy ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
New Right ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Main Factor ◽  
The Welfare State

This article examines the relationship between poverty and the welfare state and attempts to answer the question as to why poverty has persisted under all welfare states. Several major reasons for the persistence of poverty are advanced, and the author argues that the main factor underlying the failure to abolish poverty is the conflict between economic policy and social policy. The challenge to welfare states from the New Right is examined—particularly the contention that welfare states themselves create poverty and dependence—in the light of evidence of the impact of the Thatcher government's policies in Britain. Finally, the author proposes an alternative approach to the abolition of poverty, one that is based on the integration of economic and social policy.

scholarly journals The transformation of labour and social politics in neoliberalism

2014 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 129-146
Author(s):  
Primoz Krasovec
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Politics ◽  
Late Capitalism ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Welfare State

The text has three aims: first, to explain the relationship between capitalism and neoliberalism, as well as to clarify the very term ?neoliberalism?, diverging from the usual explanations; second, to trace important changes in the organization of labour in late capitalism; and three, to establish the consequences of both neoliberalism and the new organization of labour with regards to social policy, but also to describe and classify the most important forms of change in social policy. Besides these main theoretical goals, the text also debates the limits of the ?welfare state?, in the light of deeper structural regularities in capitalism.

Why the welfare state matters

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fred Powell
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Social Obligation ◽  
To Come ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Intellectual Challenge ◽  
The Welfare State ◽  
The Ideal

This chapter explores the ideal of the welfare state with particular reference to Ireland and why it matters to us as European citizens. It discusses the origins of the welfare state, the relationship between welfare and citizenship, Ireland's position within welfare state frameworks, Irish social policy, and the crisis of legitimacy in the welfare state. It is argued that in the reconstructed reality of postmodern society, the challenge of social policy is to respond reflexively to changing needs and demands. The challenge to a universalist welfare state based on social obligation, common citizenship and human rights is manifest. If populism is to be the shape of things to come, where does that leave the welfare state? Is it possible to have a welfare state in a polarised and fragmented social order? This is the great social, political and intellectual challenge of postmodernity.

Welfare State Retrenchment and the Nonprofit Sector: The Problems, Policies, and Politics of Canadian Housing

1999 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 283-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher A. Colderley
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Nonprofit Sector ◽  
Third Sector ◽  
Volunteer Activity ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
The Third ◽  
Zero Sum ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Welfare State

Throughout the 1980s, neoconservative governments—fueled by the conviction that the delivery of goods and services is more efficient when left in the hands of the nongovernmental sector, and that nonprofits are more sensitive to personal and individual needs because they are not bound by “bureaucratic” and “majoritarian” constraints—called upon volunteer activity to substitute for the state in many areas of social policy. This doctrine viewed “the relationship between government and the nonprofit sector in terms that are close to what economists would call a zero-sum game.” Advocates of this position believed that once the welfare state dissipated most social welfare activities would be (re)supplied through the expansion of the third sector. Despite the prominence of these beliefs, the evidence overwhelmingly suggests otherwise.

The New Progressive Dilemma through the Lens of Comparative Welfare State and Party Research

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis C. Spies
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Voting Behavior ◽  
Attitudinal Change ◽  
Welfare Institutions ◽  
The Us ◽  
Social Expenditures ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Cross National

The chapter summarizes the New Progressive Dilemma (NPD) debate, identifying three arguments from comparative welfare state and party research likely to be relevant to the relationship between immigration and welfare state retrenchment: public opinion, welfare institutions, and political parties. Alignment of anti-immigrant sentiments and welfare support varies considerably between countries, especially between the US and Europe, leading to different party incentives vis-à-vis welfare state retrenchment. The chapter introduces insights from comparative welfare state and party research to the debate, discussing inter alia, political parties in terms of welfare retrenchment, immigrants as a voter group, and cross-national variation of existing welfare institutions. It addresses the complex debates around attitudinal change caused by immigration, levels of welfare support, voting behavior, and social expenditures. Combining these strands of literature, a common theoretical framework is developed that is subsequently applied to both the US and Western European context.

Private Pensions and the Gender Distribution of Fiscal Welfare

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 500-516 ◽  
Author(s):  
Micheál L. Collins
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Tax Policy ◽  
Private Pensions ◽  
Gender Distribution ◽  
Member States ◽  
Current Structure ◽  
Gender Earnings Gap ◽  
Earnings Gap ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Welfare State

The provision of taxation relief to support pension savings has become a large and expensive aspect of the welfare state in many countries. Among OECD member states this exceeds $200 billion in revenue forgone each year. Previous research has consistently found this fiscal welfare to have pronounced regressive distributive outcomes. However, little is known about the gendered impact of these fiscal welfare supports, a void this article addresses. Using data for Ireland the article finds that the current structure of fiscal welfare supports notably favours males over females. Nominal contribution levels are higher among males, and males are more likely to be active contributors to pension savings. The associated tax supports are consequently skewed, with two-thirds received by men and one-third by women. This outcome suggests a continuation of the gender earnings gap into retirement and a discontinuity between longevity expectations and tax policy supports for pension provision.

scholarly journals Those were the days: welfare nostalgia and the populist radical right in the Netherlands, Austria and Sweden

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Sven Schreurs
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Radical Right ◽  
Demand Side ◽  
Populist Radical Right ◽  
The Welfare State

Abstract In academia and beyond, it has become commonplace to regard populist parties – in particular, those on the radical right – as the archetypical embodiment of politics of nostalgia. Demand-side studies suggest that nostalgic sentiments motivate populist radical-right (PRR) voting and welfare chauvinist attitudes, yet systematic analyses of the nostalgic discourse that these parties promote have not been forthcoming. This paper seeks to fill that lacuna by analysing how the Freedom Party of Austria, the Dutch Party for Freedom and the Sweden Democrats framed the historical fate of the welfare state in their electoral discourse between 2008 and 2018. It demonstrates that their commitment to welfare chauvinism finds expression in a common repertoire of “welfare nostalgia,” manifested in the different modes of “reaction,” “conservation” and “modernisation.” Giving substance to a widespread intuition about PRR nostalgia, the paper breaks ground for further research into nostalgic ideas about social policy.

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