Towards inclusive service delivery through social investment in Flanders. An analysis of five sectors, with a particular focus on water provision
Is Belgium (and Flanders in particular) a 'social investment state'? Belgium is a solid welfare state, with moderate income inequality and generous social expenditure. Nevertheless, due to the 'conservative-corporatist' tradition, many services of general interest are actually provided either by local authorities, or by private (mainly not-for-profit) stakeholders, with government subsidies. This has probably led to a better match between the quality of services and the needs of consumers, but also to cream-skimming (e.g. in childcare), exclusion of households that are unable to pay (e.g. in financial services or water provision), shortages (e.g. in housing), and Matthew effects (mainly in housing, but actually in nearly all services). Government intervention has definitely ironed out the worst inequalities (e.g. in water provision or health care) but has never been very proactive in guaranteeing citizens' rights (e.g. through social minimum standards) by law. In the past decades, the redistributive capacity of social protection has come under serious strain since the 1980s: social security benefits have been lagging behind the general welfare trend, resulting in an increasing gap between working and non-working households. Furthermore, since the crisis of 2008, cutbacks have been imposed in nearly all sectors of public expenditure (including the five sectors examined in this report). As one of the most prosperous regions of Europe - and one of the least affected by the crisis, Flanders has been able to continue investing in the last decade (e.g. in water purification, extension of childcare provision and to some extent also social housing). However, the emphasis was put on economic motives (for childcare) and environmental sustainability (housing and water) rather than equity, as the investments went hand in hand with price increases and cutbacks in social tariffs. In addition to the reduced volume of social investment, the latest (right-wing) government is also systematically re-introducing (quasi-)market ...