[PDF] Resilient Welfare States In The European Union eBook

Author : Anton Hemerijck
Publisher :
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 50,7 MB
Release : 2022
Category : POLITICAL SCIENCE
ISBN : 9781788214872

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The European welfare systems, established after the Second World War, have been under sustained attack since the late 1970s from the neoliberal drive towards a small state and the market as the tool for efficient allocation of resources. Indeed, after the 2008 crash, Europe's overprotective welfare provision of high tax, generous pensions and benefits, despite playing a critical welfare role, were blamed for its economic inefficiency and political decline. However, the EU's initial failures in tackling the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic has reframed the role of welfare systems and the need for institutional and collective action to guarantee basic security and needs and economic activity became glaringly obvious.In this important contribution, Anton Hemerijck and Robin Huguenot-No︠l examine the nature of European welfare provision and the untruths that surround it. They examine the impact of the austerity measures that followed the Great Recession, and consider its future design to equip European societies to face social change, global competition and external shocks.

Author : Anton Hemerijck
Publisher : Comparative Political Economy
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 13,93 MB
Release : 2022
Category : SOCIAL SCIENCE
ISBN : 9781788214865

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The European welfare systems, established after the Second World War, have been under sustained attack since the late 1970s from the neoliberal drive towards a small state and from the market as the foremost instrument for the efficient allocation of scarce resources. After the 2008 financial crash, Europe's high tax and generous benefits welfare states were, once again, blamed for economic stagnation and political immobilism. If anything, on the contrary, the long decade of the Great Recession proved that the welfare state remained a fundamental asset in hard times, stabilizing the economy, protecting households and individuals from poverty, reconciling gendered work and family life, while improving the skills and competences needed in Europe's knowledge economy and ageing society. Finally, the Covid-19 pandemic has, unsuprisingly, brought back into the limelight the productive role of welfare systems in guaranteeing basic security, human capabilities, economic opportunities and democratic freedoms. In this important contribution, Anton Hemerijck and Robin Huguenot-Noel examine the nature of European welfare provision and the untruths that surround it. They evaluate the impact of the austerity measures that followed the Great Recession, and consider its future design to better equip European societies to face social change, from global competition to accelerated demographic ageing, the digitization of work and climate change. Book jacket.

Author : Peter Taylor-Gooby
Publisher : OUP Oxford
Page : 262 pages
File Size : 34,16 MB
Release : 2004-11-11
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 0191533033

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This book introduces the concept of new social risks in welfare state studies and explains their relevance to the comparative understanding of social policy in Europe. New social risks arise from shifts in the balance of work and family life as a direct result of the declining importance of the male breadwinner family, changes in the labour market, and the impact of globalization on national policy-making. They differ from the old social risks of the standard industrial life-course, which were concerned primarily with interruptions to income from sickness, unemployment, retirement, and similar issues. New social risks pose new challenges for the welfare policies of European countries, such as the care of children and the elderly, more equal opportunities, the activation of labour markets and the management of needs that arise from welfare state reform, and new opportunities for the coordination of policies at the EU level. The book includes detailed and up-to-date case studies of policy development across these areas in the major European countries. These studies, written by leading experts, are organized in a comparative framework which is followed throughout the book. They highlight the way in which national welfare state regimes and institutional arrangements shape policy-making to meet new social risks. A major feature of this volume is the analysis of developments at the EU level and their interaction with national policies. The EU has been largely unsuccessful in its interventions in old social risk policy, but appears to have more success in its attempts to coordinate policy for new social risks. Experience here may provide lessons for future developments in EU policy-making. The comparative framework of the book seeks to inform an understanding of the development of new social risks in Europe and of the particular political opportunities and challenges that result. It provides an original analysis of pressing issues at the forefront of European welfare policy debate and locates it at the heart of current theoretical debates.

Author : Pierre Pestieau
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
Page : 180 pages
File Size : 20,81 MB
Release : 2006
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 0199261016

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This book offers an account of the performance of the welfare state in the European Union, and explores its future prospects in an ever evolving setting. The objectives of the welfare state are twofold: to relieve poverty and to provide a sense of security for everyone. It can be shown that over the last four decades the welfare state has been quite successful in achieving these objectives, more visibly in the Nordic countries than in the Southern or the Anglo-Saxon ones. But todaythe welfare state is at a crossroad. It is facing a variety of challenges that include demographic aging, the changing role of families, increased opportunism, economic integration and declining job security. All these challenges call for a drastic reform of the welfare state, one that requires morecontrol of abuses and more accountability. The authors that it is crucial that all the components of the welfare state be made as efficient as possible, and that if a choice has to be made between alleviating poverty and protecting individuals against lifetime risks, priority should be given to the first objective. This book devotes a chapter to each of the main social protection programs: health care, unemployment insurance, pensions and child policies. In addition, special consideration isgiven throughout to the necessary interdependence among the State, the market and the family.

Author : Ali Hajighasemi
Publisher : Edward Elgar Publishing
Page : 417 pages
File Size : 43,40 MB
Release : 2019
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 1789905567

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This timely book assesses how Europe’s welfare states have dealt with the challenges of globalisation and the financial crisis. It asks whether the European Union has adopted a general strategy for dealing with four major threats to the sustainable development of European societies: the employability of a growing number of redundant workers, an aging population, low birth rates and the persistent problem of gender inequality. The book will be an important read for social policy scholars, particularly those focusing on European welfare states, how they differ and lessons to be learnt from them. It also highlights key lessons from a broad range of case studies to help policymakers in understanding how and where improvements may be made in the future.

Author : Theodore Pelagidis
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 262 pages
File Size : 37,38 MB
Release : 2018-02-06
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 135178840X

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This title was first published in 2001. Investigating the consequences of restrictive austerity policies and the downsizing of the welfare state this edited collection reflects on possible ways out by analyzing economic developments, social conflicts, legal forms and the prevailing directions of economic policy. According to official figures, around 9.5 per cent of the working population of the European Union is unemployed. Fifteen million European citizens are officially looking for work. In other countries such as the US, the increasing wage inequality has marginalized large parts of the population. The precipitous rise in unemployment (mainly in Europe) and income inequality (mainly in the USA) as well as the weakening of democratic and welfare institutions in almost every developed nation have caused huge social and political problems in recent years.

Author : Peter Taylor-Gooby
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 240 pages
File Size : 13,15 MB
Release : 2017-08-04
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 0192507435

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European welfare states are undergoing profound change, driven by globalization, technical changes, and population ageing. More immediately, the aftermath of the Great Recession and unprecedented levels of immigration have imposed additional pressures. This book examines welfare state transformations across a representative range of European countries and at the EU level, and considers likely new directions in social policy. It reviews the dominant neo-liberal austerity response and discusses social investment, fightback, welfare chauvinism, and protectionism. It argues that the class solidarities and cleavages that shaped the development of welfare states are no longer powerful. Tensions surrounding divisions between old and young, women and men, immigrants and denizens, and between the winners in a new, more competitive, world and those who feel left behind are becoming steadily more important. European countries have entered a period of political instability and this is reflected in policy directions. Austerity predominates nearly everywhere, but patterns of social investment, protectionism, neo-Keynesian intervention, and fightback vary between countries. The volume identify areas of convergence and difference in European welfare state futures in this up-to-date study - essential reading to grasp the pace and directions of change.

Author : Sonja Blum
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 699 pages
File Size : 22,95 MB
Release : 2009-12-16
Category : Health & Fitness
ISBN : 113401550X

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This book provides the first comprehensive information and detailed data on the welfare systems of all twenty-seven EU member states and offers the reader an invaluable introduction and basis for comparative welfare research. The introductory chapter summarizes the actual debate about welfare states and welfare (state) regimes, gives an overview on current welfare (state) research and analyses the main recent developments necessitating a new focus on European Welfare Systems. The twenty-seven chapters on the welfare systems of the member states are written on the basis of a common structure by experts from the individual states. An additional chapter analyses the current social and welfare policies of the EU and focuses on the interplay and limits between European and national social policies. Two concluding chapters provide (a) a first comparative analysis on the basis of all twenty-seven European Welfare Systems and (b) a theoretical reflection both arguing for and venturing the idea of politically limited pluralism in European welfare politics.