Chapter 17 Welfare Policies

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Chapter 17Welfare Policies

• Linda Hantrais

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Welfare Policies

• Why study European welfare policies?
• Conceptualising, theorising and measuring welfare
• Differentiating national social welfare systems
• Developing European social welfare competence and
  legitimacy
• European integration, globalisation and welfare
  convergence

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Why study European welfare policies?

• Lens through which to examine European
  integration
• Key to understanding economic policy
• Part of wider relationship between national
  welfare systems and wider processes of European
  integration/globalization

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Conceptualising Welfare

• Social welfare refers to collective provision of
  resources to protect against risk/need and to
  improve living standards
• The state is key in delivering these resources
• Inter-related with economic system

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Theorising Welfare

• Social democratic perspectives emphasize
  universality of needs
• Neo-liberals promote minimal provisions
• Third way looks for alternatives to state welfare
• Feminists argue that welfare is gendered to the
  disadvantage of women

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Measuring Welfare

• Nationally-specific measurements make
  cross-national comparisons difficult
• On average, 25 of GDP in EU15
• Welfare funded differently in different countries
• Impact of welfare systems also varies across
  countries

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Differentiating national welfare systems

• Differentiated in terms of decommodification
  (Esping-Andersen)
• Social democratic welfare regimes
• Conservative/corporatist welfare regimes
• Liberal welfare regimes
• Southern European and Eastern European member
  states struggle to fit into this scheme

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EU welfare systems

• Original 6 member states corporatist welfare
  regimes
• 1970s and 1990s enlargement has shifted the EU
  towards social democratic welfare regime
• However, UK has moved towards liberal regime
• Southern European welfare states rely heavily on
  self-provision by family members
• 2004 CEECs have adopted a hybrid system

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Developing social welfare competence and
legitimacy

• EEC social policy originally intended to support
  common market
• By 1990s, social policy gaining greater
  legitimacy, but still as support for economic
  integration
• UK vetoed social policy chapter in Maastricht
  Treaty
• Governments have moved to a softer approach to
  social policy, esp. OMC

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European integration, globalization and welfare
convergence

• Economic integration has not reduced path
  dependent diversity between states
• Social integration is becoming more necessary, so
  preventing race to the bottom
• National policies/institutions mediate common
  pressures, producing divergent outcomes
• National diversity remains in place