Challenges to European Welfare Systems

Challenges to European Welfare Systems PDF Author: Klaus Schubert
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319076809
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 854

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Book Description
This book provides the first comprehensive analyses of the challenges all European welfare systems have been facing since 2007, combining in-depth country-based studies and comparative chapters. It focuses on: 1) the economic and financial crisis, 2) demographic change, and 3) the balance between avoiding risks and opening up opportunities in social policy. The results show that European welfare systems tend to face the same challenges in different ways and that also their responses to those challenges differ considerably. Although the EU also plays a part in shaping national welfare systems, it becomes evident that European welfare systems are by no means converging: in terms of social policy, national diversity within Europe is still a major factor that will shape future developments in European welfare systems.

Challenges to European Welfare Systems

Challenges to European Welfare Systems PDF Author: Klaus Schubert
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319076809
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 854

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book provides the first comprehensive analyses of the challenges all European welfare systems have been facing since 2007, combining in-depth country-based studies and comparative chapters. It focuses on: 1) the economic and financial crisis, 2) demographic change, and 3) the balance between avoiding risks and opening up opportunities in social policy. The results show that European welfare systems tend to face the same challenges in different ways and that also their responses to those challenges differ considerably. Although the EU also plays a part in shaping national welfare systems, it becomes evident that European welfare systems are by no means converging: in terms of social policy, national diversity within Europe is still a major factor that will shape future developments in European welfare systems.

Perspectives for Digital Social Innovation to Reshape the European Welfare Systems

Perspectives for Digital Social Innovation to Reshape the European Welfare Systems PDF Author: F. Davide
Publisher: IOS Press
ISBN: 1643681575
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 358

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Book Description
Social welfare is riddled with ingrained problems that have already defeated all standard approaches, and reform calls for counterintuitive action. Digital Social Innovation (DSI) is primarily about promoting grassroots initiatives to address localized societal problems, and is not normally talked about in relation to welfare reform, but perhaps social innovation initiatives, with their localized and case-based approach, could help to solve the enormous structural problems faced by our welfare democracies today. This book addresses the potential and implications of DSI for the reform of the European welfare state. The 14 papers collected here focus on key issues, such as the nature of social innovation and its effects; scaling up to address structural problems and make systemic change; new social risks and challenges; the role of digital thinking and emerging technologies; public governance approaches; tolerance of institutions; integrating innovation in the welfare system; and the empowerment of marginalized citizens. These topics are examined from an integrated and multi-disciplinary perspective, taking into consideration not only current EU debate on policy trends for social protection, but also the nature of digital transformation and its effects on social change. The book also highlights barriers to adoption, as well as the potential limitations and failures of this emerging approach. Digital social innovation is an emerging discipline that deserves more attention from policy makers and more resources from government. Drawing on welfare studies, political science, sociology, psychology, law and computer science, this book will be of interest to researchers, practitioners and policy makers alike.

The Future of European Welfare

The Future of European Welfare PDF Author: Martin Rhodes
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1349265438
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 293

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Book Description
European welfare states are currently under stress and the 'social contracts' that underpin them are being challenged. First, welfare spending has arguably 'grown to limits' in a number of countries while expanding everywhere in the 1990s in line with higher unemployment. Second, demographic change and the emergence of new patterns of family and working life are transforming the nature of 'needs'. Third, the economic context and the policy autonomy of nation states has been transformed by 'globalization'. This book considers the implications of these challenges for European welfare states at the end of the twentieth century with interdisciplinary contributions from first-rate political scientists, economists and sociologists including Paul Ormerod.

Challenges to the Welfare State

Challenges to the Welfare State PDF Author: Jolanta Aidukaite
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 9781839106101
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
This comprehensive and innovative book demonstrates the dynamics of welfare policies in different socioeconomic settings by providing comparative analyses of the Baltic and Nordic welfare state systems. The book contributes to finding and reflecting upon innovative solutions to common challenges in European welfare states. Challenging conventional welfare state research, the authors compare the Nordic countries with the welfare states of the market-oriented democracies of the Baltic area, discussing welfare state theories, family policy regimes and welfare state models. Top international contributors provide a better understanding of the complex inequalities that families and individuals are facing in the 21st Century, and cover important topics such as poverty, social insurance and family policy in the Nordic and Baltic areas. Challenges to the Welfare State will be of great interest to social policy scholars and policy makers, particularly those with an interest in the Baltic and Nordic countries. It will also be a welcome addition to the literature for students interested in family policy and pension protection reforms, and those with a general interest in the contemporary welfare state studies in Europe.

Social policy in challenging times

Social policy in challenging times PDF Author: Farnsworth, Kevin
Publisher: Policy Press
ISBN: 1847428290
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Book Description
There is no precedent to the current economic crisis which looks set to redefine social policy debate throughout the globe. But its effects are not uniform across nations. Bringing together a range of expert contributions, the key lesson to emerge from this book is that 'the crisis' is better understood as a variety of crises, each mediated by national context. Consequently, there is an array of potential trajectories for welfare systems, from those where social policy is regarded as incompatible with the post-crisis economy to those where it is considered essential to future economic growth and security.

Routledge Handbook of European Welfare Systems

Routledge Handbook of European Welfare Systems PDF Author: Taylor & Francis Group
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 9781032176338
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 620

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Book Description
Published ten years after the first edition, this new Handbook offers topical, and comprehensive information on the welfare systems of all 28 EU member states and their recent reforms, giving the reader an invaluable introduction and basis for comparative welfare research. Additional chapters provide detailed information on EU social policy, as well as comparative analyses of European welfare systems and their reform pathways. For this second edition, all chapters have been updated and substantially revised, and Croatia additionally included. The second edition of this Handbook is most timely, given the often-fundamental welfare state transformations against the background of the financial and economic crises, transforming social policy ideas, as well as political shifts in a number of European countries. The book sets out to analyse these new developments when it comes to social policy. In the first part, all country chapters provide systematic and comparable information on the foundations of the different national welfare systems and their characteristics. In the second part, using a joint conceptual foundation, they focus on policy changes (especially of the last two decades) in different social policy areas, including old-age, labour market, family, healthcare, and social assistance policies. As the comparative chapters conclude, European welfare system landscapes have been in constant motion in the last two decades. While austerity is not to be seen on the aggregate level, the in-depth country studies show that all policy sectors have been characterised by different reform directions and ideas. The findings not only reveal both change and continuity, but also policy reversal as a distinct type that characterises social policy reform. The book provides a rich resource to the international welfare state research community, and is also useful for social policy teaching.

Attitudes, Aspirations and Welfare

Attitudes, Aspirations and Welfare PDF Author: Peter Taylor-Gooby
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319757830
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 327

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Book Description
This edited collection uses democratic forums to study what people want from the welfare state in five European countries. The forum method yields new insights into how people frame social issues, their priorities and acceptable solutions. This is the first time democratic forums have been used as a research tool in this field. The contributors’ research show that most people recognize growing inequality, population ageing, paying for health care and pensions, social care and immigration as areas where the welfare state faces real challenges. The most striking findings are the high level of support across all countries for social investment, and the way justifications for this vary between welfare state regimes. The authors also explore key areas such as immigration and intergenerational differences. Attitudes, Aspirations and Welfare will be of interest to students and scholars across a range of disciplines including politics, social policy and sociology, as well as policy-makers.

European Welfare Policy

European Welfare Policy PDF Author: Vic George
Publisher: Palgrave
ISBN: 9780333609170
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 234

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Book Description
This broad and accessible text examines one of the most crucial issues facing western governments today: how to raise sufficient funds to meet the rising aspirations of their electorate for more and better welfare services. Looking at seven European countries representing different policy traditions, government ideologies and levels of economic affluence, it discusses health, social security, housing, personal social services and education policies against a background of economic, demographic and familial change.

The Welfare State Revisited

The Welfare State Revisited PDF Author: José Antonio Ocampo
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231546165
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 380

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Book Description
The welfare state has been under attack for decades, but now more than ever there is a need for strong social protection systems—the best tools we have to combat inequality, support social justice, and even improve economic performance. In this book, José Antonio Ocampo and Joseph E. Stiglitz bring together distinguished contributors to examine the global variations of social programs and make the case for a redesigned twenty-first-century welfare state. The Welfare State Revisited takes on major debates about social well-being, considering the merits of universal versus targeted policies; responses to market failures; integrating welfare and economic development; and how welfare states around the world have changed since the neoliberal turn. Contributors offer prescriptions for how to respond to the demands generated by demographic changes, the changing role of the family, new features of labor markets, the challenges of aging societies, and technological change. They consider how strengthening or weakening social protection programs affects inequality, suggesting ways to facilitate the spread of effective welfare states throughout the world, especially in developing countries. Presenting new insights into the functions the welfare state can fulfill and how to design a more efficient and more equitable system, The Welfare State Revisited is essential reading on the most discussed issues in social welfare today.

Developments in West European Politics

Developments in West European Politics PDF Author: Martin Rhodes
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780333651285
Category : Europe
Languages : en
Pages : 363

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Book Description
Developments in West European Politics brings together specially commissioned chapters by leading authorities to provide a tightly integrated assessment of politics, government and policy set in a broad economic and social context. It focuses throughout on the impact of globalisation, West European integration and intra-European relations and the extent to which a new system of multi-level governance is emerging. Like other Developments titles it will be essential reading for students and specialists alike. Contributors include: Colin Crouch, Renaud Dehousse, Piero Ignazi, Herbert Kitschelt, Joni Lovenduski, Yves Meny, Loukas Tsoukalis