scholarly journals The Erosion of The Institutional Pillars of the German Sozialstaat

2008 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-103
Author(s):  
Schiller Christof ◽  
Kuhnle Stein
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Family Policy ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Transformative Change ◽  
Term Care ◽  
Social Risks ◽  
Analytical Review ◽  
Path Dependent ◽  
Welfare Reforms

In scholarly literature, Germany often serves as a prime example of the conservative welfare state par excellence. Notwithstanding, a huge number of welfare reforms have been introduced since 1980, in particular during the last ten years. The article examines whether the institutional welfare elements attributed to Germany are still intact based on an analytical review of reforms in the areas of pensions, long-term care, and policies regarding families, the labor market, and health care. Have reforms been path-dependent adjustments, or are signs of transformative change evident? The conclusion is that the model conservative welfare state no longer exists, and that a new hybrid welfare state, combining elements from several types of welfare states, is developing. While we find substantial liberalization (of social risks) in most social policy areas, we also find extended state responsibility and more universalism (inspired by Scandinavian countries) in the area of family policy.

scholarly journals Collective Protection for New Social Risks: Childcare and the Dutch Welfare State

2014 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 811-828 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARA A. YERKES
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Family Policy ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Critical Discussion ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Individual Responsibility ◽  
Social Mechanisms ◽  
Social Risks ◽  
Market Driven ◽  
Childcare Policy

AbstractIssues such as caring and family policy have received increased attention within the sociological literature on the welfare state during the past decades. At the same time, there has been much debate about the protection of social risks. In particular, scholars have questioned the ability of welfare states to respond to so-called new social risks, such as reconciling work and care. The literature on new social risks assumes welfare states will have difficulty addressing these risks due to pressures for reform and assumed individual responsibility for new social risks. In contrast, the Dutch welfare state has been successful in re-orienting existing institutions to develop a semi-collectivised yet market-driven form of childcare policy. Using qualitative interview data and document analysis, this article analyses the development of Dutch childcare policy from 1995 to 2009. The development of childcare policy is attributed to three social mechanisms: a common perception among actors viewing childcare as a solution to improve women's employment; a party politics mechanism, which creates a distinct Dutch approach to childcare; and a corporatist mechanism, referring to the interaction between the state and industrial relations, which failed in the area of childcare policy. The development of childcare policy has not been wholly unproblematic, however, and therefore a critical discussion of these developments is offered. Also, an update of policy developments through to 2013 is provided.

A Social Investment Turn in East Asia?

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timo Fleckenstein ◽  
Soohyun Christine Lee
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
East Asia ◽  
Family Policy ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Low Fertility ◽  
Female Employment ◽  
Industrial Workers ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
Investment Policies ◽  
Employment Participation

The welfare states of Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan were built by conservative elites to serve the project of late industrialization, and for this reason the East Asian developmental welfare state focused its resources on those who were deemed most important for economic development (especially male industrial workers). Starting in the 1990s and increasingly since the 2000s, the developmental welfare state has experienced a far-reaching transformation, including the expansion of family policy to address the post-industrial challenges of female employment participation and low fertility. This chapter assesses social investment policies in East Asia, with a focus on family policy and on the South Korean case, where the most comprehensive rise of social investment policies were observed.

Formal and informal long term care work: policy conflict in a liberal welfare state

2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (3/4) ◽  
pp. 134-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Murphy ◽  
Thomas Turner
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Informal Care ◽  
Long Term Care ◽  
Care Work ◽  
Formal Care ◽  
Term Care ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
Informal Carers

Purpose The undervaluing of care work, whether conducted informally or formally, has long been subject to debate. While much discussion, and indeed reform has centred on childcare, there is a growing need, particularly in countries with ageing populations, to examine how long-term care (LTC) work is valued. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the way in which employment policies (female labour market participation, retirement age, and precarious work) and social policies (care entitlements and benefits/leave for carers) affect both informal carers and formal care workers in a liberal welfare state with a rapidly ageing population. Design/methodology/approach Drawing the adult worker model the authors use the existing literature on ageing care and employment to examine the approach of a liberal welfare state to care work focusing on both supports for informal carers and job quality in the formal care sector. Findings The research suggests that employment policies advocating increased labour participation, delaying retirement and treating informal care as a form of welfare are at odds with LTC strategies which encourage informal care. Furthermore, the latter policy acts to devalue formal care roles in an economic sense and potentially discourages workers from entering the formal care sector. Originality/value To date research investigating the interplay between employment and LTC policies has focused on either informal or formal care workers. In combining both aspects, we view informal and formal care workers as complementary, interdependent agents in the care process. This underlines the need to develop social policy regarding care and employment which encompasses the needs of each group concurrently.

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 THE EUROPEAN WELFARE STATE REGIMES: QUESTIONING THE TYPOLOGY DURING THE CRISIS

2015 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 577-595 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kosta JOSIFIDIS ◽  
John B. HALL ◽  
Novica SUPIC ◽  
Emilija BEKER PUCAR
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Strong Influence ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
European Welfare State ◽  
Social Risks ◽  
The Social ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Welfare State Regimes ◽  
The Eu

This paper examines the nature of changes within the EU–15 welfare states affected by the 2008 crisis. We try to answer the question of whether the differences that exist among different welfare state regimes, according to prevailing welfare state typologies, lead to different responses to the consequences of the crisis. Welfare state regimes are the result of different institutional perceptions of social risks hence it is realistic to expect specific responses to the effects of crisis among different welfare state regimes, and similar responses among the countries that belong to the same welfare state regimes. In order to recognize convergent vs. divergent processes, we perform a comparative analysis of the dynamics of the key welfare state determinants of the EU–15 countries, grouping according to welfare state regimes, in the pre-crisis and crisis periods. The results indicate that institutional rigidity and inherent inertia has remained a key factor of convergent welfare state processes in countries that belong to the Social Democratic and Corporatist welfare state regimes. Deviations from such a course are the most evident in the Mediterranean welfare state regimes, especially in Greece and Portugal where austerity measures have been formulated under the strong influence of the Troika.

scholarly journals The politics of bad policy: Why don’t governments pick win-wins?

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (Supplement_4) ◽  
Author(s):  
M Falkenbach ◽  
S L Greer
Keyword(s):  
Welfare States ◽  
Policy Feedback ◽  
Welfare Programs ◽  
Term Care ◽  
New Politics ◽  
Blame Avoidance ◽  
The Face ◽  
Credit Claiming ◽  
Median Voter Theory

Abstract Background Why, fundamentally, are the politics and public opinion of ageing and health so badly mis-aligned with facts about the costs of ageing societies? The literature has for decades characteristically divided between an old politics of expansion and the post-1990s new politics of recalibration and austerity. The problem for understanding the politcs of health and ageint is that a mix is also plausible: recalibration with an element of expansion in long term care. This mix then leads to a further thought: When do governments expand mature welfare states to deal with risks not covered in traditional male-wage-earner welfare programs? Methods A narrative review was conducted on the thin literature available attempting to answer the question as to why governments are not picking win-wins (e.g. keep people healthy so they can actually retire at their formal retirement ages, or ensure informal care is valued). Results There were a handful of hypotheses identified in the review, including: the “old politics” of welfare expansion where “credit claiming” is used for highly popular initiatives, the “new politics of the welfare state” also known as the “blame avoidance thesis” where politicians will attempt to avoid blame by making cuts less transparent, “blame buffering” and the “median voter theory” as well as “negative policy feedback”. Conclusions Mature welfare states are not expanding. In fact, the theories on the politics of ageing are focused on how welfare states are retrenching or reforming, as they call it. Blame avoidance and blame buffering are the most common explanations for decisions, often counterproductive ones, about how to recalibrate welfare states in the face of ageing.

scholarly journals The Four Worlds of ‘Welfare Reality’ – Social Risks and Outcomes in Europe

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 287-307 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emanuele Ferragina ◽  
Martin Seeleib-Kaiser ◽  
Thees Spreckelsen
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Sensitivity Analyses ◽  
Welfare Regimes ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
Social Risks ◽  
Mediterranean Countries ◽  
Democratic Regimes

After three decades of welfare state crisis, change and transformation can we still speak of welfare state regimes when looking at their outcomes? The analysis of outcomes provides a picture of ‘the real worlds of welfare’ and is of considerable importance to understanding political legitimacy across countries. We use aggregate longitudinal data for West European countries in order to map welfare outcomes and cluster countries. The cluster results are also assessed for their sensitivity to the choice of different countries, years or indicators. All European welfare states have a significant capacity for reducing poverty and inequality. However, the degree of this reduction varies considerably, especially when examining different social groups, i.e. unemployed people, children, youths or the elderly. Outcomes cluster countries largely in line with previous institutionalist literature, differentiating between conservative, liberal, Mediterranean and social-democratic regimes. As the main exception, we identify Germany, which can no longer be characterised as the proto-typical conservative welfare state. When analysing old social risks such as unemployment and old age, Europe appears to be characterised by two groups, i.e. one consisting of liberal and Mediterranean countries and a second made up of social-democratic and conservative countries. New social risks such as child and youth poverty, by contrast, replicate very closely the theoretical four-cluster typology. Our sensitivity analyses reveal that our clusters tend to be stable over time. Welfare regimes continue to serve as a useful analytical tool and relate to outcomes experienced by European citizens.

Privatisation and New Modes of State Intervention: The Long-Term Care Programme in Israel

2000 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 247-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
MIMI AJZENSTADT ◽  
ZEEV ROSENHEK
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
State Intervention ◽  
The State ◽  
State Agencies ◽  
Term Care ◽  
Care Programme ◽  
Care Services ◽  
Programme Of Care ◽  
The Welfare State

This article analyses the formulation and implementation of a relatively new statutory programme of care services for dependent elderly people in Israel, which has as a basic characteristic the supply of services by non-state agencies. The analysis serves as a basis for an exploration of the effects of privatisation and the emergence of quasi-markets upon the functioning of the welfare state both as a benefits provider and as a major employer. In contrast to the perspectives that consider privatisation as leading to the weakening of the state in the welfare domain, we argue that through the transfer of services supplied by non-state agencies the state protects itself from demands and pressures from clients, while maintaining its control and regulation capabilities. This process decreases the state's accountability towards its citizens, enhancing in turn its autonomy. Privatisation policies do not imply, therefore, the dissolution of the welfare state, but rather the emergence of a new mode of state intervention.

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