Suchergebnisse

"Angesichts neo-liberaler Strömungen und schwerer wirtschaftlicher Probleme während der frühen 1990er Jahre befürchteten viele Beobachter, der schwedische Wohlfahrtsstaat würde sein umfassendes und geschlechter-gerechtes Profil verlieren. Dieser Beitrag argumentiert, dass die Veränderungen des schwedischen Wohlfahrtsstaates in den 1990er Jahren inkrementell, aber nicht fundamental waren. Tatsächlich wurden Kürzungen und Änderungen vorgenommen, diese resultieren allerdings nicht in einer radikalen Restrukturierung des Wohlfahrtsstaates. Die zentralen Sozialleistungen wurden universalistischer, nicht zuletzt dank des steigenden Anteils von Frauen am Arbeitsmarkt. Auch die öffentliche Kinderbetreuung wurde eher ausgedehnt denn eingeschränkt. Dies belegt, dass es nach wie vor Spielraum für Politikdivergenz gibt. Selbst einer kleinen offenen Wirtschaft mit dem höchsten Budgetdefizit innerhalb der OECD in den 1990er Jahren war es möglich, das nationale Budget wieder unter Kontrolle zu bringen, ohne den Wohlfahrtsstaat abzubauen." (Autorenreferat)

Calls attention to the 2006 National Center for Health Statistics report that shows record-high out-of-wedlock births & a decrease in married couple households to argue that welfare reform has not only failed to encourage marriage & two-parent families but public assistance has become a "miniature penal apparatus, replete with its own tribunals, prosecutors, police, & punishments." It is contended that current trends lend credence to the warning that welfare-state principles would eventually threaten both economic prosperity & civil freedom. Ways in which the replacement of welfare with child support has transformed welfare from public assistance into law enforcement are pointed out, along with the growth of the collection machinery for "deadbeat dads"; incidents of federal officials interfering in state ballot initiatives; & heavy-handed child support enforcement methods that violate constitutional protections. Emphasis is placed on the need to rein in the welfare state by confronting the child-support system's destruction of families & the criminalization of parents. References. J. Lindroth

The expansion of welfare-state arrangements is seen as the result of dynamic interaction between market behaviour and political behaviour, often with considerable time lags, sometimes generating either virtuous or vicious circles. Such interaction may also involve induced (endogenous) changes in social norms and political preferences. Moreover, the internationalisation process not only limits the ability of national governments to redistribute income; they also increase the political demands for international mobility of welfare-state benefits and social services. I also discuss the dynamics of reforms and retreats of welfare-state arrangements.

European welfare states face serious financial difficulties caused by persistent high levels of unemployment and demographic ageing. Serious organisational problems are accompanied by inefficiency. Fiercer international competition and closer European integration put pressure on social policy in the EU member states, and creates competition between national welfare states. Sustainable European welfare states in general and maintainable social security systems in particular require fundamental reform. In this paper a plan for a common EU-wide safety-net is presented. The current proposal differs considerably from previous proposals involving the establishment of a basic income, wage subsidies, an earned income tax credit or workfare. Simulations show that the proposal is both effective and efficient.

The traditionally, and wrongly, imagined vulnerabilities of the welfare state are economic. The true threats are demographic and political. The most frequently imagined threat is that the welfare state package reduces the level and growth of GDP. It does not, according to broad historical patterns and non-experimental panel econometrics. Large-budget welfare states achieve a host of social improvements without any clear loss of GDP. This Element elaborates on how this "free lunch" is gained in practice. Other threats to the welfare state are more real, however. One is the rise of anti-immigrant backlash. If combined with heavy refugee inflows, this could destroy future public support for universalist welfare state programs, even though they seem to remain economically sound. The other is that population aging poses a serious problem for financing old age. Pension deficits threaten to crowd out more productive social spending. Only a few countries have faced this issue well

The expansion of welfare-state arrangements is seen as the result of dynamic interaction between market behaviour and political behaviour, often with considerable time lags, sometimes generating either virtuous or vicious circles. Such interaction may also involve induced (endogenous) changes in social norms and political preferences. Moreover, the internationalisation process not only limits the ability of national governments to redistribute income; they also increase the political demands for international mobility of welfare-state benefits and social services. I also discuss the dynamics of reforms and retreats of welfare-state arrangements.

The expansion of welfare-state arrangements is seen as the result of dynamic interaction between market behaviour and political behaviour, often with considerable time lags, sometimes generating either virtuous or vicious circles. Such interaction may also involve induced (endogenous) changes in social norms and political preferences. Moreover, the internationalization process not only limits the ability of national governments to redistribute income; they also increase the political demands for international mobility of welfare-state benefits and social services. I also discuss the dynamics of reforms and retreats of welfare-state arrangements.