Europeanization and welfare

A wave of reforms was introduced in Italy during the 1990s in the field of pensions and in the labour market. In many respects, these reforms have substantially redesigned the overall profile of the Italian welfare state as it had developed under the so-called First Republic (1948-92). Pension expenditure has been brought under control and the pension formula has been substantially rationalised. A clear shift from passive to active policies is visible in the labour market, which is also beginning to become more flexible. The reforms of the 1990s have been introduced via an increasingly well-articulated system of 'concertation' between the government and the social partners. The negotiated character of the reforms is largely responsible for their success. The politico-institutional transition of the domestic political system and the dynamics of European integration both explain in turn the emergence of this new style of policy making.

The marginal role of social assistance and the absence of minimum income programmes have long been thought to constitute defining characteristics of the southern European model of welfare. Nevertheless, over the 1990s significant innovations in this field have taken place. The paper aims to contribute to the analysis of recent developments by critically examining the experience of anti-poverty policies in Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain. It is argued that the “patchiness” of safety nets in southern Europe is due to a unique set of constraints, the most relevant of which are the role of families and the “softness” of state institutions. A review of national profiles reveals that new policies introduced in all four countries mark progress towards redressing some of the historical imbalances of that welfare model. In particular, fully fledged minimum income schemes now operate in Portugal and in certain Spanish regions, while an experiment involving a number of Italian municipalities is still in progress. In spite of this, the paper concludes that social safety nets in southern Europe remain frail in terms of institutional design as well as political support and legitimacy.

Membership in the EEC/EU has brought incentives for Spain to achieve economic ‘real’ convergence. Figures of economic growth are significant in this respect: in 1985 the per head income in purchasing power parity (PPP) was 70.6 percent of EU's mean; in 2007, it had already reached 103.0 percent regarding the UE-27. During the last 25 years, Spain’s welfare has converged with those more mature systems of social protection in the EU. Social spending has grown at both a quicker and higher pace as compared to other European countries. The process of Europeanization has had a great impact in Spain’s welfare development. This paper reviews social developments in Spain having as analytical reference the European welfare state in its diverse institutionalizations. Spanish welfare state appears as a via media between corporatist Continental, liberal Anglo-Saxon, and social-democratic Nordic worlds of welfare capitalism.

La Europa social se configura como el gran desafío del proceso de construcción política y económica emprendido por la Unión Europea. La reestructuración del Estado del Bienestar, invención europea pro excelencia, ha estimulado un intenso debate en el Viejo Continente. El presente volumen recoge un conjunto de análisis de académicos y expertos estructurados en tres ámbitos temáticos: (a) Mundialización y convergencia europea, (b) Mercado de trabajo y políticas de empleo, y (c) Transformaciones sectoriales de la política social.

The fortunes of the welfare state have been low in recent times. Some advocates of the neoliberal creed have even predicted its inevitable demise in the light of mounting inefficiencies faced by post-industrial economies. But the legitimacy of the welfare state is a deep-rooted value embraced by the majority of Europeans. In some countries within the Anglo-Saxon welfare regime, an increasing number of citizens have shown lukewarm support for their systems of social protection. As a consequence, political manifestos and 'third-way' governments have put forward new ideas to go further down the path towards privatization and cost containment in social spending.

A comprehensive research programme on citizens’ attitudes towards welfare policies across European countries. Focus on the interactions between individual welfare attitudes and behaviour, institutional contexts and structural variables. Input to the interdisciplinary field of comparative studies of welfare state attitudes. Critical insights for the public legitimacy of welfare state reform.

La intención manifestada por el autor con la publicación de este volumen es la de ofrecer una guía útil a estudiantes e investigadores respecto al estudio de un conjunto de derechos fundamentales en la Unión Europea, con el propósito también de hacer entender las complejidades de las fuentes legales comunitarias, tanto primarias como secundarias, la difícil distribución de competencias entre las instituciones centrales de la UE y los Estados miembros en lo que afecta a la política social, así como del funcionamiento complejo de la panoplia legal europea.

Una largamente esperada recopilación del trabajo de Rokkan ha visto finalmente la luz pública. La tarea asumida por los editores del libro no ha sido fácil. Rokkan fue un prolífico autor y publicó cientos de textos, a veces con pequeñas modificaciones y mejoras. Sin embargo, y hasta la fecha, no se había intentado la compilación sistemática de sus conceptos, ideas y modelos. La tarea llevada a cabo por Peter Flora, con la colaboración de Stein Kuhnle y Derek Urwin, debe celebrarse por varias razones. Entre todas ellas destaca la presentación ordenada de las aportaciones centrales de Rokkan; es decir, el intento de desarrollar una macromodelo del desarrollo político europeo. Este modelo no era otro que el de los procesos de formación estatal (state formation), de construcción nacional (nation-building) y de políticas de masas (mass politics), tal y como se indica en el título del libro.

The rationale implicit in the European principle of subsidiarity favours the participation of sub-state layers of government in accordancewith democratic accountability. This chapter concludes that in order to build up a macro community of trust in the 'Old Continent' more attention shoudl be paid to the increasing role of medium-size layers of government.

This article examines two processes: the adaptation of national systems of social protection to operate within a European framework and the decentralisation of ‘safety net’ policies at the meso-level in order to favour territorial subsidiarity and democratic accountability. It reviews the concepts and assumptions involved in welfare state research before moving on to reflect upon the so-called ‘European social model’. Decentralisation and a greater regional say in areas of policy making closer to citizens' perceptions, such as the creation of ‘safety nets‘, have often been linked to cultural or identity considerations. However, demands are also based on claims for policy innovation and more effective management, as illustrated by Spain's devolution of welfare powers to the regions. This article concludes that in order to build up a macro-community based on trust in the ‘Old Continent’, more attention should be paid to the increasing role of medium-size layers of government.

The unfolding of structures of governance at a supranational European level is taking place by means of formalising interactions between the members of the European Union. These interactions affect mainly to actors and policy networks traditionally confined to operate in nation-state arenas. An emerging EU new layer of supra-national government and an inter-national and infra-national political concurrence are processes well under way. As a political framework, the European Union is a compound of policy processes, and Europeanization implies that national, regional and local policies are to be shaped by considerations beyond the mere centrality of the member states. However, multi-level governance in Europe is often under criticism as it is not centralised and vertically hierarchical.

The process of Europeanisation implies convergence across EU member states. This is to be achieved mainly through structural economic harmonisation and institutional system-building. This chapter deals with contemporary welfare developments in the European social model. We identify the major changes affecting European countries both functionally (in terms of policy integration), and territorially (as regard multi-level governance), and go on to consider EU initiatives in social policy-making. New policies aimed at co-ordinating employment and social policies at the European level seek to bridge the dichotomies between the economic and the social and between the national and the European. Hence, while a paradigm shift in macro-economic policies has enabled monetary centralisation and a growing convergence of EU internal ‘open’ markets, the decentralisation of welfare programmes has also aimed at meeting demands for territorial subsidiarity. Reforms related to the emergence of what may be termed new social risks may provide EU institutions with opportunities to make social policy reforms consistent with the new economic policy orientations, while respecting national diversity. In the concluding section we discuss the extent of convergence in social policy paradigms across European countries.

Spain’s welfare has come close to European medium figures in socioeconomic indicators in parallel with a general convergence of social spending in all EU countries. Since 1986, and according to Eurostat time-series data, public social spending—the simplest economic indicator—has grown at a faster pace than in any other EU member state. As in other European countries, the effects of the 2007 global financial crisis have cast doubts on whether Spain can sustain its previous expansion of welfare expenditure. The broadening of social entitlements as a result of welfare policy innovation in the 2000s seems to have stopped. Shifts in the general direction of the country’s political economy concerning the regulation of the labour market and the ‘pay-as-you-go’ pension system follow similar patterns of reforms as in other matured European welfare systems. All these developments seem to foretell a phase of further welfare recasting in line with a closer coordination and economic fine-tuning with other EU member states.

The Norwegian Stein Rokkan (1921-79) was one of the leading social scientists after the Second World War. A hyperactive scholar, he was committed to international social science and greatly contributed to the expansion of academic organizations such as the ISA (International Sociological Association), the IPSA (International Political Science Association), and the ECPR (European Consortium of Political Research). A much-needed compilation of Rokkan's prolific work has finally seen the 'public light'. The task undertaken by the editors has by no means been effortless. Rokkan was a prolific writer and had his works published by the hundreds. But, up until now, no systematic review of his concepts, ideas and models had been attempted. The endeavour carried out by Peter Flora, with the assistance of Stein Kuhnle and Derek Urwin, is to be commended for many reasons. Among these, the systematic presentation of the very core of Rokkan's academic work is to be underlined, i.e. the attempt to develop a 'macro-model of European political development'. This model was none other than that of state formation, nation-building, and mass politics, as indicated in the title of the book.

En este artículo se analiza la relación entre la distribución de valores en la ciudadanía de los países europeos, y los equilibrios institucionales de los sistemas de protección social de los diferentes países según lo conceptualizado por las tipologías de los regímenes de bienestar más comúnmente utilizadas. Tras analizar la distribución de los valores en Europa, y medir su efecto sobre las actitudes hacia el bienestar en los diferentes regímenes de bienestar, se comprueba que dichos valores no se distribuyen siguiendo los límites de la tipología básica de estos regímenes. El estudio de las actitudes favorables a la intervención del Estado en el ámbito de las políticas de protección social a través de un modelo de regresión multinivel muestra, sin embargo, la existencia de características diferenciales en el apoyo a dichos regímenes de bienestar en cada país, dando lugar a la agregación de determinados valores específi cos en cada uno de dichos regímenes.

This article seeks to re-open the consensus concerning the interrelationship between family values and public support for government versus private family provision. We offer new results from analyses of 2001 data from the International Social Survey Programme for a wide range of countries and world regions. Refining conventional scholarly wisdom, Southern European publics' have high levels of traditional family values, but mainly in contrast to other European countries; familism is also notably strong in Eastern Europe and several of the English-speaking democracies. Even more surprising, family values support is strongly and positively associated with support for public child care provision. We discuss implications of results for understanding the nature of public attitudes and familism in cross-national perspective, and the limits of theorizing identifying family values as the primary cause of welfare state development in Southern Europe.

This books presents the results of a study (PhDdissertation) carried out within the general analytical context of territoriality and welfare. The main normative thrust of this book is that more attention ought to be paid to citizens’ attachments and attitudes toward European system-building, as compared to the ever-growing analyses focused on the creation of EUinstitutions. Indeed, social sciences in Europe have been greatly influenced by neo-functionalist prescriptions which generally hold the view that universal progress requires a kind of integration that is made equal to cultural assimilation and single identity formation, along the lines of the American ‘melting-pot’ experience. This approach is often coupled with the view that ‘command-and-control’ policy provision is quintessential for securing organized solidarity and the maintenance of redistributive welfare. Alternatively, researchers such as Linda Berg envisage that European rules can be achieved and successfully accommodated only by taking into account both history and cultural diversity within the mosaic of peoples in the Old Continent.

The unfolding of structures of governance at a supranational European level is taking place through interactions between the 27 members of the European Union. These interactions mainly affect actors and policy networks whose operations have traditionally been confined to national arenas. As a political framework, the European Union is a compound of policy processes, and Europeanisation implies that national, regional and local policies are to be shaped by considerations beyond the mere centrality of the member states. However, multi-level governance in Europe is often criticised as it is not centralised and vertically hierarchical.

Europeanization can be regarded as a process that finds expression in the gradual redefinition of state sovereignty and the development of supranational common institutions (e.g. Agreement of Schengen, Court of Justice, Euro currency). In parallel, territorial subsidiarity seeks to provide for a greater sub-state say in areas of social policy making, often linked to cultural or identity considerations. This article deals with welfare development in the European social model in contemporary times. While a paradigm shift in macro-economic policies has allowed for monetary centralization and a growing matching of EU internal ‘open’ markets, the quest for the decentralization of welfare programmes has also aimed at meeting demands for policy innovation and a more effective management. Allegedly, welfare provision by sub-state diversity may affect collective solidarity and redistribution. The emergence of new social risks and the role played by the mesogovernments in welfare reform in Europe are also subject to analysis and discussion in this article.

Las instituciones europeas ocupan un lugar importante en los procesos de reforzamiento de la dimensión social de las economías europeas. Este artículo analiza algunas de las potencialidades, pero también las limitaciones del proceso de europeización de la cuestión social que promueve el Modelo Social Europeo (MSE). Se realiza una evaluación formativa de carácter institucional de la europeización con el fin de tomar el pulso al proceso de supra-nacionalización, y a los avances y frenos que conlleva. Se presta especial atención al carácter dual y ambivalente del Modelo Social Europeo integrador de crecimiento económico y cohesión social, y que se sustenta en un sistema axiológico que valora lo social en igual medida –cuando menos– que lo económico.

El proceso de europeización implica una confluencia de recursos, representaciones sociales y acciones entre los países de la Unión Europea. Ello es resultado, principalmente, de la difusión de ideas y valores compartidos, de los procesos de armonización estructural económica y de la construcción de un sistema institucional transnacional. Este artículo se ocupa de los últimos desarrollos del bienestar asociados al �Modelo Social Europeo� (MSE). Éste y otros conceptos afines, así como otras premisas conceptuales, son analizados en la introducción. En la segunda sección... (Leer más) se examina el desarrollo de los distintos regímenes de bienestar en el proceso de europeización. La activación es el nuevo paradigma asumido, en diversos grados e interpretaciones, por todos los países europeos. Cabe identificar, sin embargo, distintas perspectivas del nuevo paradigma activador, tarea en el que se concentran la tercera y cuarta secciones. El �Método Abierto de Coordinación� (MAC) sirve de principal elemento de referencia y contraste. Entre otros comentarios finales, cabe argüir que el proceso general de europeización está condicionado por un ambivalente entendimiento de la activación bien como potenciador

The aspirations of regions to foster welfare development are based on arguments of accountability, legitimacy, optimality, partnership and recalibration. The emergence of “new social risks” (NSR) provides sub-state political communities with “window” opportunities to expand citizens’ social rights concerning primarily activation, social assistance, care services and the policy closure of safety nets. Solidarity, regional autonomy and the re-distribution of resources among territories within larger units are crucial elements to articulate in the consolidation of social citizenship. To achieve this end, the virtuous circle of emulation may be encouraged among and within member states in wider institutional settings, such as that of the European Union (benchmarking, best practices, “soft” regulation). This article reviews theoretically and comparatively those claims that social policy-making can be expanded at EU’s meso level. Concepts, ideas and notions are discussed concerning both strands of literature concerning territorial politics and welfare policies.

Has the *nancial crisis fundamentally weakened Europe’s welfare states? This chapter assesses the development of welfare states in Europe in the post-war period. During such a period three distinct “ages” of welfare can be identi*ed: a “Golden Age” which ended in the mid-1970s, a “Silver Age” which ran from the 1970s until the *nancial crisis, and a “Bronze Age” in the period after the crisis. It is argued that in each “age” the stability of welfare states has been challenged. Doubts raised now on how to ensure that the welfare states of the future can meet their commitments of the past. The chapter elaborates of the feeling that the current Bronze Age of welfare may just be the prelude to the return of prehistoric social Europe.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to reflect on those “meeting points” and “encountering places” where the action of individuals, families, corporations, NGOs and public policies can optimize the advancement of social citizenship within the European context. Design/methodology/approach An analysis of the worlds of welfare capitalism is contrasted with a corporate social responsibility (CSR) typology of policy governance. It serves the purpose of highlighting not only institutional arrangements and operational welfare rationales, but also value‐systems and cultural tenets shaping commonalities and diversities in public policy governance in the European Union. Findings Considerations are made on the impacts that both the global order and the “new social risks” (NSR) have for the promotion of CSR and the advancement of social citizenship. The case of the reconciliation of work and family life illustrates how CSR might induce a greater role for businesses in welfare development. Research limitations/implications Further research is needed to establish the linkages between the welfare regime approach and the models of public policy supports for CSR. Originality/value The paper is original in its theoretical linking of welfare mix, CSR and social citizenship with regard to the improvement of citizens’ living conditions.

Europeanization processes are polymorphic and vary greatly from country to country. In Spain, the study of Europeanization processes is particularly important. After many decades of international isolation and ideological and economic autarchy, which led the Spanish people to believe that complete modernity was unattainable, becoming a fully fledged European country was viewed as a necessary condition for political and institutional modernization. In contemporary times, Europe has been perceived as everything that Spain was not. It was the ‘point of arrival’ the country needed to aim for. Europe became a ‘master symbol’ (Turner 1997), together with the semiotic meanings of ‘civilization’ and ‘modernization’. This Europeanization of Spain has been a many-sided process, and the purpose of this chapter is to describe some of its dimensions, focusing mainly on employment policies designed, and eventually carried out, during recent decades. These policies have had important consequences for Spain’s welfare arrangements.