Papers by Minna Van Gerven
Policy and Society, 2019
This article analyses narrative stories used by the Chinese government to connect the problem of ... more This article analyses narrative stories used by the Chinese government to connect the problem of population ageing to welfare reform. The findings derived from semi-structural interviews and key policy documents suggest the unfolding of the narrative stories of power and stories of rising and stories of decline. The narrative stories in the developmental Chinese welfare state are diverse and stem from different processes than those for the mature European welfare states. The Narrative stories also vary for different policy areas. For inequality and health-care policies, under the master narrative of story of power, state depicts ‘stories of giving-to-give’ to support expansion in the traditional ‘old risk’ type of policies to main population, including the elderly. For long-term care, the power narrative of ’giving-to-shape’ legitimizes the expansionary reforms for a small group of deserving frail elderly. Behind this political framing of long-term care reform lies the story of decline that justifies the modest role of state provision in the organization of long-term care and leaves the responsibility for economic, social and spiritual wellbeing for the society itself. The story of decline in China also gravitates around sustainability of societies rather than around financial sustainability commonly underlining the political debate in the West.
How has the global social policy agenda evolved since the global economic crisis? To shed light o... more How has the global social policy agenda evolved since the global economic crisis? To shed light on this question, this article looks at the discourses in European Union (EU) social policy. It draws on two rival theoretical approaches from the literature on globalisation and the welfare state, the efficiency and compensation hypotheses, and links these approaches to two fundamental rationales underlying the discourse in EU social policy. Based on an analysis of key documents from two Open Methods of Coordination (OMCs), the article shows that the logic underlying the efficiency hypothesis can be extended to discourses in EU social policy. While policy debates in one OMC remained largely unchanged, the discourse significantly shifted towards the economic rationale during and after the crisis in the other OMC. This suggests that the crisis at least partly strengthened the view that social policy should be geared towards economic efficiency, growth, and the creation of jobs.
362 s. Tämä tutkimus tarkastelee hyvinvointivaltion muutosta vertailevasta näkökulmasta analysoim... more 362 s. Tämä tutkimus tarkastelee hyvinvointivaltion muutosta vertailevasta näkökulmasta analysoimalla sosiaaliturvaetuuksien (työttömyysturvan, sairauspäivärahan ja työkyvyttömyyseläkkeen sekä toimeentulotuen) saajien oikeuksien ja saamisehtojen muutoksia Isossa-Britanniassa, Alankomaissa ja Suomessa vuosien 1980 ja 2006 välisenä aikana. Tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan, 1) miten etuuksien saantiehtoja ja oikeuksia on näissä kolmessa eurooppalaisessa maassa muutettu vuodesta 1980 lähtien, 2) onko yhtäläisiä trendejä muutoksen suunnasta löydettävissä eri maiden ja järjestelmien väliltä sekä 3) mitä nämä muutokset kertovat hyvinvointivaltion muutoksen suunnasta sekä sen laajuudesta Euroopassa. Aineistona käytetään kansallisia sosiaaliturvalainsäädäntöjä ja muita kansallisia primäärilähteitä. Aineistosta löytyy neljä eurooppalaista trendiä: muutokset ovat 1) korostaneet työn merkitystä, 2) lisänneet etuudensaajien aktivointia, 3) kohdentaneet etuuksia tarkemmin tietyille tuensaajille sekä 4...
In this article, we ask whether the principles of welfare redistribution have been altered in the... more In this article, we ask whether the principles of welfare redistribution have been altered in the era of ‘permanent austerity’; when pressures to dismantle (or at least cut down the costs) of social welfare institutions due to unfavourable economic and demographic developments have been strong. The primary fi nding from a systematic analysis of disability benefi t reform in the UK, the Netherlands and Finland between 1980 and 2006 is that, regardless of the ‘irresistible forces’ (Pierson 1998) urging for reforms, the core principles of European social security provision have been preserved. Our fi ndings speak for path dependence of institutions, but also call into question the deterministic views on path dependence. It is argued in the article that path dependence does not predict that policy-makers are unable to alter the systems, rather we claim that it delimits the number of options available for the policy makers.
ABSTRACT It is now widely accepted that the interaction between the EU and its Member States is a... more ABSTRACT It is now widely accepted that the interaction between the EU and its Member States is a two-way process: European governments are not simply confronted with initiatives that emanate from Brussels, but are actively involved in their formulation. Therefore, when analysing policies that are promoted at the European level – such as policies aimed at activating unemployed people to return to work – the development of these policies should not be analysed at only the national level. This paper examines the Netherlands’ shaping of activation ideas and policies (‘uploading’ them to the EU) and its taking up of such ideas or policies (‘downloading’ them from the EU, or implementing them). Our research specifically aimed at establishing whether the Dutch have tried to upload ideas, interests or institutions to the EU agenda, and to what extent the policies originating from the EU have been implemented in the Netherlands. To this end, we analysed national documents and the literature...
Minna van Gerven: Winners and losers of social policy reforms in Europe (Sosiaalipoliittisten ref... more Minna van Gerven: Winners and losers of social policy reforms in Europe (Sosiaalipoliittisten reformien voittajat ja häviäjät Euroopassa). IN FINNISH! In the past 26 years, social security benefit recipients have generally seen a curtailing of their social rights. Across Europe, levels of cash transfers have been lowered, eligibility criteria for benefits tightened, and stricter obligations and sanctions enforced for people claiming benefit. What has often gone unnoticed, however, is that these reforms have not always affected all people in the same way. Based on detailed qualitative data on unemployment insurance benefit reforms, this article describes the reforms carried out in three European countries (UK, Netherlands and Finland) between 1980 and 2006. It goes on to explore how welfare rights have changed in different groups (e.g. young people, older age groups, and the longterm unemployed) and to see whether it is possible to identify winners and losers among unemployment benef...
[email protected] 1. Hyvinvointivaltio ristitulessa Sosiaalipoliittiset instituutiot ova... more [email protected] 1. Hyvinvointivaltio ristitulessa Sosiaalipoliittiset instituutiot ovat olleet viimeisten vuosikymmenien aikana kahden tulen välissä. Yhtäältä taloudelliset imperatiivit painostavat päättäjiä menojen leikkauksiin ja tulojen kohdistetumpaan uudelleenjakoon, kun taas toisaalta hyvinvointivaltiojärjestelmät nauttivat jatkuvaa kannatusta ja niihin kohdistuvat leikkaussuunnitelmat kohtaavat näkyvää vastustusta sekä oppositiopuolueiden, ay-järjestöjen että kansalaisten toimesta. Vaikka aikaisemmat teoreettiset näkemykset hyvinvointivaltion muutoksen mahdottomuudesta on jo lähes hylätty, institutionaalista muutosta pidetään edelleenkin epäsuosittuna ja poliittisesti uskaliaana toimenpiteenä . Politiikan tutkumuksen teorioiden mukaan poliitikot nähdään rationaalisina ja oman intressien kannalta toimivina toimijoina ja, tämän mukaisesti, politiikan muutoksen dynamiikassa keskeisenä pidetään syynvälttämisen periaatetta .
Similar challenges in the socio-economic environments of European welfare states have been blamed... more Similar challenges in the socio-economic environments of European welfare states have been blamed to necessitate convergence of the national social security benefit programmes. However, the convergence remains an ambiguous matter in social policy research, both with regards to its conceptualisation as well as to its operationalisation. In this article, we aim at contributing to this debate by revisiting the concept of convergence and analysing empirically the welfare reforms in three European countries (the UK, the Netherlands, Finland) and two benefit programmes (unemployment and disability insurance benefit programmes) for 26 years (1980-2006). Based on the data on legal changes in benefit rights and conditions, we argue for convergence: changes in European social security programme have over time moved the programmes towards common points. The reforms in the examined countries highlight 4 trends, notably, 1) increased work-relatedness in benefit rules, 2) growing activation of be...
In the recent decades, large inflows of immigrants from outside of the EU and immigration policy ... more In the recent decades, large inflows of immigrants from outside of the EU and immigration policy attempting to deal with increasing number of immigrants have become a dominant issue that figures public discussions and election campaigns in Europe. Public discussions and political discourse in the Netherlands are also highly centered on immigration policies over the last few years as the right wing parties List Pim Fortuyn (LPF) and Party for Freedom (PVV) brought the issue to front lines in their election campaigns. These developments are also echoed in scholarly research and studies on attitudes towards immigrants have gained considerable momentum. Academic understanding of attitudes toward migrants derives from two prominent streams of theories; the realistic group conflict theory and the social identity theory. Empirical accounts testing the expectations from these theories have profoundly contributed to the existing knowledge on understanding attitudes to migrants and immigratio...
Dit artikel bespreekt het Nederlandse beleid op het gebied van werk-loosheidsuitkeringen in een h... more Dit artikel bespreekt het Nederlandse beleid op het gebied van werk-loosheidsuitkeringen in een historisch en internationaal perspectief. Gebaseerd op een gedetailleerde analyse van de hervormingen op het gebied van de uitkeringsrechten en -condities tussen 1980 en 2006 in Nederland, Finland en Groot-Brittannië, behandelt dit artikel de vraag in welke mate zich in verschillende soorten verzorgingsstaten vergelijkbare hervormingsprocessen hebben voltrokken en onderzoekt wat het effect van deze hervormingen is geweest op het traditionele be-schermingselement van de sociale zekerheidsregelingen. Onze con-clusie is dat er inderdaad sprake is van convergentie. De beleidsdoe-len in de onderzochte landen gaan steeds meer op elkaar lijken. De drie onderzochte landen laten een verschuiving zien richting active-ring en verscherpte toetredingseisen. In alle drie landen is de aan-dacht voor het verhogen van de arbeidsparticipatie groot. Met het oog op de toenemende vergrijzing wordt telkens ben...
Acta Politica, 2015
Local governments, especially in decentralised states, are increasingly performing tasks previous... more Local governments, especially in decentralised states, are increasingly performing tasks previously the responsibility of national government as well as new tasks. This research studies the conditions affecting the adoption of a mandated e-government innovation -'Basic Registration Addresses and Buildings' (BAG), in Dutch municipalities (N = 429) between 2008 and 2011. In contradiction to what theory suggested, a great deal of variation in the timing of adoption was found. The results of Event History Analysis (EHA) show that early adoption of BAG was primarily the result of a municipality's command over resources. More resourceful municipalities, that is, with better past e-government performance, that are better informed, and included in more extensive policy networks were more likely to adopt this innovation relatively early. Of the motivational factors included in our study, the degree of political alignment between the municipal council and national government proved an important factor in the timing of a municipality's adoption. This is a surprising finding, as it is an uncontroversial and technical governance innovation. This research also shows that classical diffusion explanations play a role, even in the case of a mandated innovation for which the time frame, and thus the time to learn from other governments, was relatively short.
Purpose: The purpose of this article is to show how the interplay between individual women's gend... more Purpose: The purpose of this article is to show how the interplay between individual women's gender role attitudes, having young children at home, as well as the country-context characterized by gender egalitarianism and public childcare support, relates to women's working hours in 23 European countries.
Journal of European Social Policy, 2012
The European Employment Strategy (EES) has opened up new dynamics of Europeanization in the area ... more The European Employment Strategy (EES) has opened up new dynamics of Europeanization in the area of social policy. This article proposes to pay more attention to national core executives and their strategic use of the EES when considering its impact. Through core executives, the EES may not only affect domestic policy agendas, but also decision-making on reform. A comparative case study of activating employment policy reforms in the Netherlands and Germany evaluates expectations about how these agents upload and download ideas to and from the EU level. The findings indicate that uploading is facilitated by holding the EU presidency and a good fit with EES prescriptions, while downloading does not seem to depend on prior uploading and degree of fit but on other domestic factors. True strategic use of the EES by core executives following a sequence of uploading and downloading appears to be contingent on several contextual factors.
Journal of European Public Policy, 2014
This article investigates variations in the domestic impact of the European Union's largest finan... more This article investigates variations in the domestic impact of the European Union's largest financial instrument, the European Social Fund (ESF), in The Netherlands and Spain. We find that, despite the large differences between the two countries examined in terms of 'goodness of fit', the ESF had significant effects on both The Netherlands and Spain. These effects, however, occurred through rather different dynamics: intermediate variables such as leverage, learning and aid conditionality determine how the ESF actually 'hits home', in addition to the degree of institutional, political and policy (mis)fit. At the same time, we qualify our analysis by exploring the role of countries' past experiences with the ESF, their problem load, the availability of (European Union and domestic) resources and member states' uploading capacities. The 'goodness of fit' literature has suggested that these factors may be important, but they have not yet been sufficiently explored for the ESF.
Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 2014
ABSTRACT Based on a novel experimental design, the current study examines the impact of economic ... more ABSTRACT Based on a novel experimental design, the current study examines the impact of economic and cultural characteristics of potential immigrants on anti-immigrant sentiments. We investigate the extent to which individuating cues affect public support for individual immigrants in the USA and the Netherlands through a series of online survey experiments carried out by the YouGov online panel in 2010 and the Longitudinal Internet Studies for the Social Sciences Panel in 2011. Our findings demonstrate that individual immigrants elicit different levels of public support for their temporary and permanent immigration applications, and that support depends overwhelmingly on educational and occupational credentials of potential immigrants. Other individual attributes, such as presence of family dependents, country of origin and skin complexion also affect acceptance rates, but to a much lesser extent.
European Societies, 2012
ABSTRACT This article seeks to analyze the extent of welfare state tendencies towards individuali... more ABSTRACT This article seeks to analyze the extent of welfare state tendencies towards individualization of social citizenship rights from the perspective of Cosmopolitan Europe (Beck and Grande 2007, Cosmopolitan Europe). Empirical study of legislated reforms to ...
Sociaal beleid als tweerichtingsverkeer B a r t V a n h e r c k e G e r t V e r s c h r a e G e n... more Sociaal beleid als tweerichtingsverkeer B a r t V a n h e r c k e G e r t V e r s c h r a e G e n P i e r r e -P a u l V a n G e h u c h t e n Y a n n i c k V a n d e r B o r G h t ( e d s . ) SOCIÉTÉ ET AVENIR S é r i e SAMENLEVING EN TOEKOMST L'Europe en Belgique, la Belgique dans l'Europe Configuration et appropriation des politiques sociales Europa in België, België in Europa Sociaal beleid als tweerichtingsverkeer Bart Vanhercke Gert Verschraegen Pierre-Paul Van Gehuchten Yannick Vanderborght (Eds.)
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Papers by Minna Van Gerven