The Future of European Welfare

The Future of European Welfare
Author: Martin Rhodes
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 293
Release: 2016-07-27
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1349265438

European welfare states are currently under stress and the 'social contracts' that underpin them are being challenged. First, welfare spending has arguably 'grown to limits' in a number of countries while expanding everywhere in the 1990s in line with higher unemployment. Second, demographic change and the emergence of new patterns of family and working life are transforming the nature of 'needs'. Third, the economic context and the policy autonomy of nation states has been transformed by 'globalization'. This book considers the implications of these challenges for European welfare states at the end of the twentieth century with interdisciplinary contributions from first-rate political scientists, economists and sociologists including Paul Ormerod.

New Perspectives on the Welfare State in Europe

New Perspectives on the Welfare State in Europe
Author: Catherine Jones
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 244
Release: 2002-11
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1134912358

New Perspectives on the Welfare State offers an appraisal of comparative social policy and applies it to our current uncertainties concerning European communities and European-North American and East Asian relationships.

Ideas and Welfare State Reform in Western Europe

Ideas and Welfare State Reform in Western Europe
Author: P. Taylor-Gooby
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 195
Release: 2005-08-02
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0230286011

The new welfare settlement in Europe involves a re-direction of policy in the context of a unified market and currency system and of more stringent economic competition. Realignment of the policy assumptions and goals of the key actors is central to this process. This book reviews the main policy paradigms and analyzes the processes whereby they have changed in the most salient policy areas, and is based on recent interviews with more than two hundred and fifty senior policy actors in seven West European countries.

Resilient Welfare States in the European Union

Resilient Welfare States in the European Union
Author: Anton Hemerijck
Publisher: Comparative Political Economy
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2022
Genre: SOCIAL SCIENCE
ISBN: 9781788214865

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.

New Risks, New Welfare

New Risks, New Welfare
Author: Peter Taylor-Gooby
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 262
Release: 2004-11-11
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0191533033

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.

Europe's new state of welfare

Europe's new state of welfare
Author: Goul Andersen, Jørgen
Publisher: Policy Press
Total Pages: 309
Release: 2002-11-27
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1847425615

It is often argued that European welfare states, with regulated labour markets, relatively generous social protection and relatively high wage equality, have become counter-productive in a globalised and knowledge-intensive economy. Using in-depth, comparative and interdisciplinary analysis of employment, welfare and citizenship in a number of European countries, this book challenges this view. It provides: an overview of employment and unemployment in Europe at the beginning of the 21st century; a comprehensive critique of the idea of globalisation as a challenge to European welfare states; detailed country chapters with new and previously inaccessible information about employment and unemployment policies written by national experts. Europe's new state of welfare is essential reading for students and teachers of social policy, welfare studies, politics and economics.

The Changing Welfare State in Europe

The Changing Welfare State in Europe
Author: David G. Mayes
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 271
Release: 2013-12-27
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 178254657X

As the standard of living has increased, aspirations and financial constraints have required major rethinking. There is considerable disparity between European countries in how they approach the welfare system, with differing concern over aspects such

Social Welfare Issues in Southern Europe

Social Welfare Issues in Southern Europe
Author: Maria Brown
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 210
Release: 2022-03-10
Genre: Reference
ISBN: 0429557744

This volume is the first of its kind to discuss social welfare issues using case studies from a broad range of Southern European countries, both large and small, a decade after the financial crisis. It identifies similarities and differences in the ways in which Southern European countries engage with specific welfare issues and examines whether Southern European welfare is distinct from that of the rest of the continent. The book also engages with the impact of COVID-19 on the social welfare issues under investigation. The volume is divided into four sections, each examining in detail issues including employment, education, health, sexuality, globalization, social movements and migration. With its contributions from experts in the field, the volume is recommended for academics, researchers and students of sociology, social policy, economics, education, politics and social movements.