Social Service Provision in the US and Germany: Convergence or Path Dependency?

With a special focus on social services, the article discusses the topic of convergence versus path dependency of state welfare arrangements in the US and Germany. In both countries, social services cover a broad spectrum of activities. In the US as well as in Germany, these services are to a large extent provided by non-profit organisations, although the two countries belong to very different welfare regimes. With a special eye on social services, the article provides an overview of the history of the two welfare states; it refers to current developments, of which the shift towards private commercial social service provision is most prominent. Against this background, the article comes to the conclusion that there is no simple answer to the question of path-dependency versus convergence. Indeed, in both countries commercial provision of social services is on the increase; however, current developments in Germany and the US do not reflect thoroughly the path-dependent or the convergence approach of depicting change.     

Two Steps Forward,One Step Back: Merkel's CDU/CSU and the Politics of Welfare State Reform

Given its traditional support for conservative welfare state policies, the Christian Democratic Union's embrace of major reform measures in late 2003 seemingly marked a significant shift in the party's direction. The extent of its commitment to this new course became a key question in German politics during the election of 2005 and the early phase of Angela Merkel's Grand Coalition. This article examines the factors that contributed to her CDU's embrace of welfare state retrenchment in light of the literature on the politics of social policy reform. It argues that this shift in party policy was driven mainly by calculations of perceived partisan opportunity and organisational latitude. When the latter appeared to change, the consensus on major reform within the CDU crumbled, which in turn affected the party's 2005 campaign and its role in the Grand Coalition government.     

The welfare systems of the Baltic states following the recent financial crisis of 2008–2010: expansion or retrenchment?

ABSTRACT

This article aims to uncover major social security system reforms that were implemented following the recent financial and economic crisis of 2008–2010 and the post crisis period. Additionally, it explores the dynamics of the socioeconomic situation during the last 10 years, looking at how Baltic states compare with each other and how they compare with other central and eastern European countries in the EU. The findings show that retrenchment is difficult even during times of crisis. Although the Baltic states were affected by the crisis, especially Latvia and Lithuania, their social security institutions did not experience any structural shift.     

Postretrenchment Politics: Policy Feedback in Chile's Health and Pension Reforms

Through a comparison of three periods of health and pension reform in Chile, this article develops an explanation for the incremental form of social policy change that some Latin American nations have witnessed in recent years, despite the dramatic rise of left governments. It describes “postretrenchment politics,” which constitutes a realignment in the way politics plays out in countries that have undergone social policy retrenchment. In postretrenchment politics, the strengthened position of private business interests, combined with political learning legacies and lock‐in effects generated by reforms, results in incremental political change, despite renewed efforts by left parties to address inequality. Global capital also plays an important contextual role, and may influence postretrenchment politics. In postretrenchment politics, newly reformed systems may achieve greater equity, but they do so in fragmented form.     

Youth welfare policy in Turkey in comparative perspective: a case of ‘Denied Youth Citizenship’

This article explores the main characteristics of social and economic policies for young people in Turkey. Inspired by Tom Chevalier’s typology of youth welfare citizenship designed for Western European countries, the article situates Turkey’s youth welfare citizenship model within a comparative perspective and contributes to the extension of Chevalier’s typology to a non-Western European country context. Relying upon the systematic analysis of findings of a nationwide survey on young people that was conducted in 2013, comparative youth statistics, official youth statistics, public expenditures data and existing policy frameworks, the article suggests that Turkey fits well with the denied youth citizenship type in Chevalier’s typology. Two conclusions are drawn with respect to Turkey’s youth welfare citizenship model. First, with respect to the social citizenship dimension, the article finds that social and youth policy structure in Turkey has a familialization effect on young people’s access to income. In terms of economic citizenship, the article suggests that Turkey implements a selective strategy that results in unequal distribution of labour market skills among young people.     

Democracy and Social Welfare in Uruguay and Paraguay

This article aims to assess how democracy affects social welfare by analyzing Uruguay and Paraguay, one country with a vibrant democratic history and a progressive political landscape, the other with a generally authoritarian past and a conservative dominant party. The article maintains that welfare systems in these countries have been critically shaped by the impact of democracy, or by its absence, and by the strategies adopted by major social and political actors, especially parties; these strategies have been determined, in turn, by parties' ideologies and by the workings of electoral competition. The article also emphasizes that the impact of democracy on social welfare is critically mediated by the role of previous welfare legacies, the presence of welfare constituencies defending acquired rights and privileges, and social and economic variables, such as overall wealth levels, the formal or informal nature of labor markets, and the political organization of domestic economies.     

Welfare States Facing HIV/AIDS. Organizational Responses in Western Europe (1981–91)

In this article the author analyzes comparatively several organizational models which were introduced in a dozen West European countries to address the problem of HIV/AIDS. Analyzing some aspects of the organizational design, the logic of intervention (sectorial or global), the type of actors (public or private) and the type of relations between actors, she elaborates a typology of responses. Three types are identified, presenting unexpected variants in respect to general typologies of the western welfare state. The author also notes that a form of social regulation based on private actors has been adopted in all countries under consideration. These results lead her to the hypothesis that the factors of innovation or modernization in administrations facing the management of such problems are grounded in new forms of collaboration between actors of different legal status.     

Organised Labour,Dualisation and Labour Market Reform: Korean Trade Union Strategies in Economic and Social Crisis

Labour markets across industrialised countries have seen an increasing polarisation between insiders and outsiders as a result of labour market deregulation and welfare retrenchment, with governments responding to rising pressure from employers. But where are trade unions in this process of labour market deregulation and dualisation? Insider/outsider as well as producer coalition approaches portray organised labour as a structurally conservative force that is ready to prioritise the interests of insiders at the expense of those at the margins of the labour market. Rather than protecting the entire working class, unions are seen as being “complicit” in labour market dualisation that leaves an ever greater number of workers vulnerable. Our examination of the Korean case, though commonly perceived as an example of unions pursuing particularistic interests, does not comply with this image, but shows greater union inclusiveness in the face of socio-economic and socio-political challenges. Understanding the change in Korean trade union strategies, we highlight the critical importance of union identities shifting towards social movement unionism, in addition to the perceived imperative to revitalise the movement in order to remain a meaningful social force.     

Social Classes and the Neo-Liberal Poverty Regime in Turkey, 2002–2011

The Justice and Development Party (or AKP) era in Turkey has witnessed the emergence of a new welfare regime resting on voluntary public and private transfers. This system has been replacing the former welfare system in which the right to social welfare benefits was constitutionally guaranteed. The new welfare system has tended to distribute transfers on a selective and unequal basis. This article analyses the size and effects of this system using a social class-based analytical framework. In explaining class structure in Turkey, we use the official Household Budget Survey database. The results indicate a massive process of proletarianisation has taken place. Our results indicate that the working classes have constituted the majority of the poor. In this environment, the shares of voluntary public and private transfers in the incomes of households have been rising. For some classes, like rural unemployed, urban unemployed and agricultural labourers, these transfers have captured a very high share of the incomes. These transfers have also been distributed very unequally. Their share in the central budget has also been rising. All these point to the emergence of a new neo-liberal welfare (poverty) regime as part of a new labour control regime.     

The Italian Welfare State in the Crisis: Learning to Adjust?

Abstract

After a decade of inertia, that left it unprepared to withstand the blow of the great recession, the Italian welfare state has witnessed significant changes since 2012. Externally driven consolidation in the wake of the sovereign debt crisis spurred yet another wave of social policy reforms after that of the 1990s. These reforms did not however invariably entail retrenchment. Both the Monti and the Renzi governments combined liberalisation with expansion of social rights, particularly in income support. As a result, the Italian welfare state looks more comprehensive than it was before the crisis. At the same time, there was no overall strategy of welfare modernisation based on coordinated social investment measures. The changes in Italian social policy since the outburst of the great recession highlight the importance of domestic politics interacting with external drivers of change. They also facilitate an assessment of the opportunity structures for further reforms in a political system that appears to be veering again towards consensus democracy.     

谁在反对公共养老金改革:利益还是制度?——评《阶级分化与代际分裂:欧洲福利国家养老金政治的比较分析》

This essay is a short comment on the newly published book by Dr. Liu Ji,Class versus Generation Cleavages:A Comparative Analysis of the Politics of Pension Reform in European Welfare States,one of the monographs thoroughly exploring the welfare crisis in west European countries since the 1990s. The author focuses on the roles of the various social coalitions with veto powers during the retrenchment process of public pensions in 5 European countries. He finds out the causal relationship between the intensity...     

Etat,violence politique et interactions

In this article, we look at the issue of convergence in social policymaking within EU member-states. Proponents of the convergence thesis argue that since European welfare states are facing similar socioeconomic challenges, they are likely to develop common response strategies. Our analysis, based on a survey carried out among policymakers, looks at political debates on the future of social protection in four EU member states. The main focus is on the different institutional structures which characterise European welfare states, and on their impact on political debates in terms of coalition formation. The analysis shows that the influence of socio-economic change on political debates is important, but that it is significantly mediated by the different institutional arrangements which distinguish European welfare states. We conclude that the presence of common socio-economic problems does not necessarily imply a convergence in policy-making.     

Von einem liberalen zu einem post‐liberalen Wohlfahrtsstaat: der Wandel der gewerkschaftlichen Sozialpolitik in der Schweiz

The article reconstructs the development of the Swiss welfare state against the background of the transformation of trade unions' social policy activities. It detects a sequence of trade unions' activities in social policy which runs uniformly to the development of the welfare state. While in the liberal phase of the Swiss welfare state trade unions were sceptical of national social policy and preferred mutual insurance and collective bargaining, in its post‐liberal phase they have become proponents of national social policy legislation.     

Financialisation, Financial Literacy and Asset-Based Welfare

This article examines New Labour's policies of asset-based welfare in the broader context of financialisation. It argues that these are indicative of a mode of government concerned to alter individual outlooks and aspirations, and that asset-based welfare, as developed by New Labour, is primarily a strategy for enhancing financial literacy. Exploring and identifying the general contours of New Labour's reform of welfare provision (particularly the rise of conditionality and personalisation), the article presents a case study of the Child Trust Fund, its development and marketing. The article closes with reflections on the fate of such policies after the sub-prime mortgage crisis.     

Wohlfahrtsstaatlicher Wandel zwischen „Arbeitszwang“ und „Befähigung“

The concepts of “workfare”, an “enabling” or a “social investment state”, respectively of an “activating welfare state”, share the idea of a paradigm shift of welfare state policies resetting the classic tension between decommodification and (re-)commodification. In this article, a comparative analysis of activating labor market policies in Denmark, Germany and the UK is giving evidence that in all countries recommodification has become a major goal, put into practice by both an increase of workfare and enabling policies. Different reform paths, however, can be identified as the emphasis on enforcing and enabling instruments as well as the particular mix of the instruments varies due to the country-specific background. Hence, the difference of reform policies is supposed to lead to a path dependent implementation of the paradigm shift of welfare state policies.     

Social Welfare in Post-Soviet Armenia: From Socialist to Liberal and Informal?

A drastic shift from strong social citizenship rights to a liberal, privatized, informal welfare model took place in post-Soviet Armenia. Drawing on the Armenian National Statistical Service's 2005 Integrated Living Conditions Survey and research conducted by the Armenian government and international agencies, this article evaluates the system of social welfare in post-Soviet Armenia. It identifies the direction of social policy reform during the transition, considering welfare institutions, levels of social provision, and outcomes. The roles of the labor market, the state, and the informal sector in delivering social welfare are discussed. The Armenian welfare system is classified in terms of current conceptual frameworks for welfare systems.     

Can the Welfare State as We Know It Survive? A View from the Crisis-Ridden South European Periphery

South European countries have been hit hardest and longest by the post-2008 economic crisis. This has brought their welfare states under acute strain. Unmet need has sharply increased while significant welfare reforms and (more or less) deep cuts and changes in social spending have been prominent in the repertoire of the crisis management solutions implemented by the governments (under European Union constraints and the strict rescue-deal requirements for Greece and Portugal). This introduction briefly reviews reform trends prior to and during the crisis in order to highlight convergent and divergent paths among the four countries and outline the major questions addressed by the contributions to this volume.     

Authoritarian Statism and the New Right in Asia’s Conservative Democracies

ABSTRACT

Across Asia there has been a shift to the right in important democratic polities. This article argues that this conservative or authoritarian shift reflects the emergence of a new form of political regime that Nicos Poulantzas characterised as authoritarian statism. This article presents a theoretical framework – with illustrative case studies of Japan and Korea – to understand the emergence of a distinctive brand of Asian authoritarian statism. These new trajectories of political regimes reflect interconnected political and economic crises of conservative capitalist democracies. These crises are the result of the fracturing of modes and mechanisms of political incorporation due to the transnationalisation of capital. It is argued that the inability of current modes of state intervention or political incorporation to manage these economic and political crises or secure political legitimacy for political projects to deepen market reform has led to a “crisis of crisis management” and the further weakening of the Japanese and Korean states.     

A Reversal of Political Fortune: The Transitional Dynamics of Conservative Rule in the Brazilian Northeast

This study explains the erosion of conservative rule and the rise of leftist opposition at the subnational level in the Northeast of Brazil in recent electoral cycles. Compared with explanations based on economic modernization, social spending, and fiscal reform, the data best support the hypothesis that the organizational and spatial dimensions of leftist mobilization in these states have shifted to the detriment of conservative machines. Specifically, urban mobilization of leftist supporters has determined the electoral success of these oppositions. The study also explains where conservatives maintain a floor of support based on the continuation of clientele networks.     

明治日本所得税法立法过程考论

明治中期开始,日本政府为实现其富国强兵政策,采取了一系列增强财政收入的措施,当时的大藏省在相继进行地税改革以及试图恢复关税自主权之后,仍然没有扭转财政入不敷出的状况。在此情况下,以松方正义等为首的大藏省官员效仿欧美国家,开始将新的税制引入日本。通过对当时欧美各国税制进行反复研究,决定引进当时只在英国等极少数国家实行的所得税制。近代日本为何引进所得税?又是如何完成对所得税法的立法程序?在此过程中如何处理外来制度与本国传统及实际的矛盾?文章试图解答这些问题。