The politics of the new welfare states in Western Europe

"The present paper has a twofold objective. First we discuss different possible interpretations of recent current social policy change. Western European welfare states have been characterised by (functional and normative) innovation towards cost-containment, activation, social investment, and t...

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Main Authors: Bonoli, Giuliano, Natali, David
Institution:ETUI-European Trade Union Institute
Format: TEXT
Language:English
Published: San Domenico di Fiesole 2011
EUI
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.labourline.org/KENTIKA-19177832124919950149-The-politics-of-the-new-welfar.htm
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author Bonoli, Giuliano
Natali, David
author_facet Bonoli, Giuliano
Natali, David
collection Library items
description "The present paper has a twofold objective. First we discuss different possible interpretations of recent current social policy change. Western European welfare states have been characterised by (functional and normative) innovation towards cost-containment, activation, social investment, and the flexicurity model. While the effect of recent waves of reforms is still debated, norms and cognitive elements of welfare policy have clearly changed. Second, on the basis of existing scholarship, we try to develop an explanation of the observed pattern of change with specific reference to the politics of ‘blame avoidance’ and ‘credit claiming’. The recent reform process has seen the emergence of a complex set of strategies policymakers have implemented to improve social and political consensus for innovation. The latter has consisted in the transformation of the social and employment policies inherited from the past. Third we shed light on some key aspects of the reforms’ output and outcome, with a brief summary of the main issues in need for further research. Reforms have been consistent with the ‘contingent’ convergence of national welfare states through a sequence of transformative innovations, with evident distributional effects."
format TEXT
id 19177832124919950149_d8b1f4cd3bde492eb65f68ae467078aa
institution ETUI-European Trade Union Institute
is_hierarchy_id 19177832124919950149_d8b1f4cd3bde492eb65f68ae467078aa
is_hierarchy_title The politics of the new welfare states in Western Europe
language English
physical 19 p.
Paper
Digital
publishDate 2011
publisher San Domenico di Fiesole
EUI
spellingShingle Bonoli, Giuliano
Natali, David
activation
labour market
social policy
welfare state
flexicurity
The politics of the new welfare states in Western Europe
thumbnail https://www.labourline.org/Image_prev.jpg?Archive=114594693277
title The politics of the new welfare states in Western Europe
topic activation
labour market
social policy
welfare state
flexicurity
url https://www.labourline.org/KENTIKA-19177832124919950149-The-politics-of-the-new-welfar.htm