The collapse of social welfarism is lethal

This lecture will concentrate on the historical evolution and the current realities of the welfare state in contemporary Europe. Both as a concept and as an institution, the welfare state has interacted in space with various other catalysts such as class, gender, ethnicity and 'race'. Therefore, this lecture will also comprise an overview of the various shapes that social exclusion can acquire in contemporary Europe.

Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews, 2014

Changing Risks and the Future of the Welfare State the transformation of solidarity CHANGING WELFARE STATES Advanced welfare states seem remarkably stable at fi rst glance. Although most member states of the European Union (EU) have undertaken comprehensive welfare reform, especially since the 1990s, much comparative welfare state analysis portrays a 'frozen welfare landscape'. Social spending is stable. However, if we interpret the welfare state as more than aggregate social spending and look at long-term trends, we can see profound transformations across several policy areas, ranging from labour market policy and regulation, industrial relations, social protection, social services like child care and education, pensions, and long-term care. Th is series is about trajectories of change. Have there been path-breaking welfare innovations or simply attempts at political reconsolidation? What new policies have been added, and with what consequences for competitiveness, employment, income equality and poverty, gender relations, human capital formation, and fi scal sustainability? What is the role of the EU in shaping national welfare state reform? Are advanced welfare states moving in a similar or even convergent direction, or are they embarking on ever more divergent trajectories of change? Th ese issues raise fundamental questions about the politics of reform. If policymakers do engage in major reforms (despite the numerous institutional, political and policy obstacles), what factors enable them to do so? While the overriding objective of the series is to trace trajectories of contemporary welfare state reform, the editors also invite the submission of manuscripts which focus on theorising institutional change in the social policy arena.

With the demise of socialism in Eastern Europe, the Western welfare state is treated as the unquestionable alternative by most intellectuals. They have yet to come to terms with what Claus Offe, the German sociologist, describes as the contradictions of the welfare state and the persistent crises of crisis management. This paper critically assesses Offe's contribution in light of the recent reforms in “really existing socialism.”; The author contends that although Offe's neo‐Schumpeterian argument goes a long way toward explaining the present instability of the welfare state and the contradictions of state intervention in general, including that of the socialist‐interventionist state, Offe does not realize that his analysis casts into serious doubt the claim that the welfare state is a viable corrective to either unbridled markets or state socialism. Critical Review, 4 (2), 1990: pp. 619-632

Undoing Homogeneity in the Nordic Region

2001

The increased globalisation of the world economy and the collapse of communism as a social system have introduced new challenges facing national policy formulation. The nation-state has been weakened, as it is much less the master of its own destiny. Even in traditionally strong national policy areas such as welfare, this development can be felt and seen. In what way has the recent global economic and political changes influenced social policy making in Europe? What are the major changes in social policy in Eastern and Western Europe in the last decades? What are the future prospects of social welfare systems on our continent? These are the major questions that we aim to address in this paper. First we describe the more general context of political and economic transformation with relation to social policy. Such concepts as ‘globalisation’ and ‘welfare state’ are discussed. Hereafter, we take a closer look at the developments in three European countries with very different welfare traditions, namely Germany, Romania and Sweden. Considering the differences between these countries, we believe they can help us to see that there are similar challenges facing all countries, at the same time as they operate within their own specific context and have very different problems and responses. In the conclusion, we discuss the future potential outlook for European welfare states in general, and for Germany, Romania and Sweden in particular.

Perspectives on Politics, 2005

2013

Document Version Early version, also known as pre-print Citation for published version (APA):

2007

Introduction: the welfare state under global pressures The postwar Keynesian welfare state in Europe was sustainable as long as postwar European economies were growing and were relatively closed; however, over the years, as entitlements grew ever bigger and coverage became ever more universal, the proportion of GDP spent on public services rose considerably. With economies becoming more open, the stagnation which started in the second half of the seventies in Europe, following the oil crisis, was perhaps the first symptom that the welfare system in the form designed for one period (the postwar reconstruction of Europe) might be not be working in a different period. 1 In 1960, the average expenditure on social payments was 7.5 percent of gross domestic product in the affluent countries of Western Europe, as compared to 6 percent being spent in the United States. Already by 1980, though, the average expenditure on social payments in Europe had doubled and reached a level of 14 percent of GDP, while the United States was spending only 9.75 percent. The differencial between the USA and European countries was growing (Myles and Quadagno 2002: 34). As a result the social agenda of the eighties and nineties changed radically: after the policies of the golden age of expansion, European welfare states have been shaped by the (Paul Pierson's) "politics of austerity". Consequently, the rhetoric of a "crisis" in the welfare state has been with us since the 1970s. From the 1970s, various theorists have claimed a fiscal crisis, a crisis of government overload, a crisis of liberal democracy or, as Jürgen Habermas called it, a "crisis of legitimacy". 2 Social scientists have divergent views about the causes of the current pressures on the welfare state; they agree on a single point though; we are facing the end of the welfare state as we know it. Let me quote here three diagnoses leading in a similar direction: