Globalization, the European welfare state, and protection of the poor
In: Citizenship and identity in the welfare state, S. 37-50
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In: Citizenship and identity in the welfare state, S. 37-50
In: Journal of European social policy, Band 20, Heft 1, S. 19-31
ISSN: 0958-9287
World Affairs Online
In: Benefits: A Journal of Poverty and Social Justice, Band 15, Heft 3, S. 247-255
ISSN: 1759-8281
The early retirement of older workers, and their low labour participation, was not seen as a major problem by the Dutch government during the years of recession in the 1980s and early 1990s. However, with the upswing of the economy and the rapid ageing of the population, the government's perspective changed drastically and related policy measures were taken. After a general introduction that sketches the shift in the government's perspective, we give an account of the various pathways to early exit that are used by older workers, and how these have been restricted by policy measures.
In: Transfer: the European review of labour and research ; quarterly review of the European Trade Union Institute, Band 10, Heft 2, S. 208-225
ISSN: 1996-7284
Increasing the flexibility of work and working life has been high on the agenda of Dutch public debate for at least 15 years. Resulting policies have been guided by the aspiration of combining flexibility and security, or of achieving adequate 'flexicurity', as the combination of these goals has come to be known. This article describes and analyses Dutch flexicurity policies of recent years, as they have been adopted in the fields of part-time work, social security, labour law and the work-care combination. It shows that the government has made it easier for employers and employees to choose part-time work as a strategy for increasing flexibility. In the field of social security there are numerous problems, especially for 'flex' -workers (not for part-time workers as such), but little substantial improvements have been implemented. In labour law important flexibility and security measures have been adopted, but here government has been rather slow in taking the lead. As regards the work-care combination, new policies have improved conditions, but the Netherlands still lags behind other European countries.
In: Transfer: European review of labour and research ; quarterly review of the ETUI Research Department, Band 10, Heft 2, S. 208-225
ISSN: 1024-2589
"Seit mindestens 15 Jahren steht die Erhöhung der Flexibilität der Arbeit und des Arbeitslebens in den Niederlanden im Mittelpunkt der öffentlichen Debatte. Die daraus resultierenden Maßnahmen wurden von dem Streben geleitet, Flexibilität und Sicherheit miteinander zu verknüpfen, oder zu einer angemessenen 'Flexicurity', wie diese Verknüpfung der beiden Ziele bezeichnet wird, zu gelangen. Dieser Beitrag beschreibt und analysiert die niederländischen Maßnahmen, die in den letzten Jahren in den Bereichen Teilzeitarbeit, soziale Sicherheit, Arbeitsrecht und Vereinbarkeit von Arbeit und Betreuungspflichten ergriffen wurden, um das Ziel der Flexicurity zu erreichen. Der Beitrag zeigt, dass die Regierung es aus strategischen Gründen Arbeitgebern und Arbeitnehmern leichter macht, sich für Teilzeitarbeit zu entscheiden, um die Flexibilität zu erhöhen. Im Bereich der sozialen Sicherheit gibt es zahlreiche Probleme, besonders für 'Flex'-Arbeitnehmer (nicht für Teilzeitbeschäftigte an sich), aber hier wurden nur geringe substanzielle Verbesserungen erzielt. Im Arbeitsrecht wurden zwar bedeutende Maßnahmen zur Förderung der Flexibilität und der Sicherheit ergriffen, aber die Regierung hat in diesem Bereich nur mit Verzögerung die Initiative ergriffen. Was die Vereinbarkeit von Arbeit und Betreuungspflichten angeht, haben sich die Bedingungen zwar aufgrund neuer Maßnahmen verbessert, aber die Niederlande bleiben dennoch nach wie vor hinter anderen europäischen Ländern zurück." (Autorenreferat)
In: WSI-Mitteilungen: Zeitschrift des Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftlichen Instituts der Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, Band 53, Heft 5, S. 330-334
ISSN: 0342-300X
"Der Beitrag untersucht die wesentlichen Entwicklungen, die sich während der letzten 20 Jahre in den Niederlanden in den Bereichen der Sozialen Sicherung, des Arbeitsmarktes und der Flexibilisierung der Arbeit ergeben haben. Bei der Analyse möglicher Gründe für die positive Arbeitsmarktentwicklung kommt der Autor zu dem Ergebnis, dass die Lohnmäßigung zur Verbesserung der Beschäftigungslage deutlich beigetragen habe. Die Aktivierungsmaßnahmen, wie die Verstärkung von Arbeitspflicht, -beratung und -vermittlung, haben dagegen faktisch nur einen marginalen Beitrag geliefert; sie dienten eher der Legitimation von Einschränkungen im Bereich der sozialen Sicherung. Wie der Vergleich mit Deutschland zeigt, ist die Flexibilisierung der Arbeitsverhältnisse in den Niederlanden sehr viel weiter fortgeschritten. Mehrere neue Gesetze zielen explizit auf die Erleichterung der Einrichtung flexibler Arbeitsverhältnisse bei gleichzeitiger Stärkung der Position von flexibel Beschäftigten ab. Ein weiterer Gesetzentwurf bezieht sich auf die Absicherung diskontinuierlicher Lebensläufe. Die erste Analyse von Auswirkungen der bereits eingeführten Gesetze zeigt zwiespältige Ergebnisse sowohl für die Arbeitnehmer als auch für die Arbeitgeber. Trotz der aktiven Förderung von 'Flexicurity' scheint der Anteil flexibler Beschäftigungsverhältnisse in den Niederlanden zur Zeit nicht weiter zuzunehmen." (Autorenreferat)
In: Policy & politics: advancing knowledge in public and social policy, Band 28, Heft 1, S. 33-48
ISSN: 0305-5736
In: Policy & politics, Band 28, Heft 1, S. 33-48
ISSN: 1470-8442
English
With the recent reconstruction of welfare states the social protection of citizens has become more conditional and selective - the basic welfare question of 'who should get what, and why' has come to the fore again. To understand the societal legitimation for the new conditionality of welfare it is important to know which deservingness criteria are acknowledged by the public and their relative importance; whether people differ in the degree to which their solidarity with others is conditional, and which groups in society tend to be most or least conditional in their views; and factors that might explain differences in people's views. Conclusion are drawn through the analysis of existing literature and a public opinion survey carried out in The Netherlands in 1995. The survey responses reveal some clear deservingness criteria and differences in conditionality, which can be linked to three different sets of explanatory variables: socioeconomic and demographic characteristics; opinions on and perceptions of social security and the welfare state; and basic values and attitudes.
In: Empirical poverty research in a comparative perspective, S. 101-132
In: Europe Asia studies, Band 71, Heft 3, S. 345-364
ISSN: 0966-8136
World Affairs Online
In: The Strains of Commitment, S. 177-198
In: Samenleving en politiek: Sampol ; tijdschrift voor en democratisch socialisme, Band 20, Heft 8, S. 4-12
ISSN: 1372-0740
In: Work, employment and society: a journal of the British Sociological Association, Band 26, Heft 3, S. 379-395
ISSN: 1469-8722
In the aftermath of the global financial crisis of 2008, youth unemployment has risen worldwide. In cross-national perspective, research on youth employment has thus far paid attention to the transition from school to work, but underemphasized the importance of the social psychology of labour market entrance. In this article, European young adults' perceptions of the first-job opportunities in their country are analysed. The result of a multilevel regression analysis on the 2008 wave of the European Social Survey (ESS) shows that differences across countries can mainly be explained by the public's perceptions of levels of unemployment, and public spending on education. At the individual level, youth in a precarious socioeconomic situation have a rather pessimistic view on these opportunities. Moreover, women perceive the opportunities as less positive than men while young people of foreign origin have, contrary to the expectations, a more positive outlook on the chances for young people.
In: Journal of European social policy, Band 21, Heft 4, S. 287-301
ISSN: 1461-7269
In reaction to the recent financial crisis, the European Commission re-stated its view that the balance between flexibility and security is the key to success for the future of the European social economy, as well as its belief in the power of institutional arrangements it deems necessary for this balance. However, do powerful institutions actually counter market forces where flexicurity is concerned? In this paper we address this question by analysing the impact of institutional configurations and market factors on perceived employment insecurity among workers in Europe. We use the 4th wave of the European Social Survey for 2008/2009, which covers 22 countries, and implement a multi-level approach where contextual effects are taken into account and individuals are considered to be embedded within a country. We find that policies that secure one's income and employability skills, such as passive and active labour market policies, are more important for providing employment security for individuals than institutions that secure one's current job, such as employment protection. Of the economic and labour market factors, general market conditions (measured as employment rate average) and the strength of the financial crisis (measured as gross domestic product growth rate from 2008 to 2009) are both similarly influential in explaining cross-national variance in the employment insecurity perception of individuals. More generally, and most interestingly, we find that institutional factors lose their significance when market factors are taken into account. Thus, it seems that differences in economic and labour market conditions between countries better explain why workers feel insecure about their employment, than the differences in employment and income policies. Although this result could be influenced by the time period under investigation, which is characterized by a financial crisis, results from previous studies using data from different periods suggest that it is not period-specific.
In: Benefits: A Journal of Poverty and Social Justice, Band 15, Heft 3, S. 219
ISSN: 1759-8281