1: Welfare state and social policy
Welfare state as safety net since development, it's always been this way → but: no longer functioning like it did
The welfare state
- Welfare state: as society, nation state, people inside should have some reasonable standard of living, eg. food,
roof, education, health → having social citizenship rights
- The welfare state embodies the formulation of a social guarantee: society, organized as a nation state,
guarantees all citizens a reasonable standard of living.
- Based on idea of social (citizenship) rights (Marshall, 1949): the rights of individuals as recognized members of
a nation state, including social rights was quite broad, encompassing a wide array of rights and benefits, e.g.,
work (full employment), income protection, housing, education and health care
- Eg. having dutch passport gives you certain rights form that nation state, social rights → reasonable
standard of living → government is responsible
- In essence: social rights ensure a minimum standard of living. Spicker (2023: 139): “A welfare state offers a
guarantee of standards, and ultimately it bears that responsibility whenever no one else does.”
- But: what does this minimal standard look like? eg. US is welfare state and has very different views on
minimal standard
- Welfare state: housing, education, housing, health, poor aid
The welfare state (2)
- One of the most powerful institutions of the 20th century and beyond
- which other institution guarantees standard of living? not church, ngo's or others
- The result of a long historical development: most studies on 20th century but can trace back to 16th century
(Spicker, 2023)
- most of welfare state comes about in 20th century
- Includes social security, health care, education, social housing, social welfare
The welfare state: Key differences
- Historical trajectories and objectives
- Some commonalities in trajectories, but generally, countries go through the development different,
depending on these factors
- Timing, pace, mode of industrialization
- Political/institutional settings
- not actually the government, but also other actors when talking about welfare state
- Financing (e.g., general taxes vs. contributions)
- some pay through general taxes, other focus on contributions, ie. taxes your employer pays for
unemployment etc.
- Eligibility for welfare state benefits (e.g., workers; residents; targeted groups)
- eg. subsidies, tuition for school, pensions, who can get (eg.) money for what?
- Benefit levels (flat-rate vs. earnings-related)
- flat-rate = everybody gets the same thing
- earnings-related = better (eg.) work is better earning (eg. belastingschalen)
Bismarck (vs Beveridge)
- Bismarck: German chancellor mid-late 19th century; policies for blue collar workers in 1880’s in Germany forms a
basis for welfare states
- "we need to come up with policies to cover blue collar workers" → ie. maintain their income when
something happens to them, they are the breadwinner
- Objective: Bismarckian welfare state policies are aimed at income maintenance
- you need to pay into the system to get something out of it → sets the stage for welfare state favoring
people who work (the longest, the most)
- Bismarckian policies are defined by:
- a focus on social insurance
- providing earnings-related benefits for employees
- in general, entitlements are conditional (based on a satisfactory contribution record)
- financing is usually a contributory scheme (employers/employees)
Beveridge (vs Bismarck)
, - British Lord Beveridge: Beveridge plan (1942); used post-WWII to help protect peace and security; became a
blueprint for many welfare states
- Objective: Beveridgean welfare state policies are aimed at preventing poverty
- Five long-term goals:
1. Security for people who lose their job or otherwise are unable to take part in the labour market (elderly,
the sick, pregnant women)
2. Medical care
3. Housing
4. Sufficient education
5. Sufficient employment, or the avoidance of unemployment
- Eventually UK made welfare state with very minimal intervention, government only interfering when you are very
low in minimal living quality
Understand to give as example, not
knowing by heart → what is that
minimal standard?
Golden Age
- +/-1945-1975
- many jobs, little unemployment, because of this low risk → many protections for job loss → there was
enough money and not low unemployment anyway
- after WWII, period with much economic development and many jobs and government with new
opportunities to protect the workforce
- Expansion of welfare state programmes
- Centred on male breadwinner
- if they lose their job → entire family is at risk of poverty
- High employment, low unemployment
- High economic growth
- And then: oil crises; unemployment; stagflation
- many unemployed, economic growth goes down + inflation = stagflation → problem: welfare states needs
to pay many people
- Expansion focused on ‘striking a balance’ in social justice terms: liberty vs. equality, expanding individuals’ social
rights (Hemerijck, 2022)
- liberty ie. own autonomy of individuals
Crisis and/or transformation
- Crisis: 1975 - ? Transformation: 1980s - ?
- Austerity / retrenchment: lowering expenditures
- austerity ie. spending less money, but: not enough to cover depths → so also lower subsidies for
unemployment → ie. refocus who is eligible (= retrenchment)
- Redistribution of state responsibility & decentralization
- welfare state asks themselves why are we responsible for this? → lets hand it over to local governments
(ie. decentralizations) → redistribute who is responsible → from safety net to trampoline → not catch
people, but bounce them back
- Shift from a safety net to a trampoline
- welfare state is born with idea to catch people when they can't work → shift to also individuals
responsible 'we want you to work, if you don't, that's also your problem, not just ours' - welfare state
, The welfare state (6): modern transformations
- despite who is responsible, still common believe welfare state is there to help, a lot of belief in the welfare state
- 2000s - onwards
- Clash between push for retrenchment and high welfare state popularity
- Continued adjustment of ‘old’ social risks; pressure of ‘new’ social risks
- eg. not having enough education to go from job to job, combining job with care, being zzp and having
more risks
- Shift towards increasingly selective policies
- instead of everyone, only have policy for some people (eg. for more ... for women to support them)
- Changed socio-cultural and economic circumstances
- paid work is best way forward for welfare state and for individuals
- Social investment: policy idea since early 2000s
Summing up welfare state development
Policies and interventions for addressing social challenges
- policies are a way to intervene → what came first: policies or interventions? debate
- eg. if we want parents to take time off when having baby → policy for paid parental leave
- eg. heterosexual parents share parenting 50/50 → policy to incentivize fathers to take leave
What is social policy?
- Social policy: How societies globally meet human needs, e.g., for security, education, work, health and wellbeing
- welfare state is bigger institution, social policy can occur in welfare state
- Concerns state (government) and societal responses to societal challenges (e.g., social, demographic and/or
economic change).
- many NGO's act as mediators, that is a social policy non-governmental
- Multiple actors are involved: governments (supranational, national, regional, local), families, civil society, the
market.
- market, ie. market matters for the costs of certain things
- eg. unions for workforce → childcare debate between unions and employers → then government got
involved to make policies
- These actors work to provide services and support to individuals, families and groups throughout their lives.
- ‘…an institutionalized response to social and economic problems’.
- Social policy 2.0: how welfare states “attempt to identify and address social inequalities as well as social risks
that have societal consequences.”
- not getting involved is still an active choice by government
- Spicker (2023): distinction between public policy (e.g., policing, roads, sanitation) and social policy (e.g.,
education, health care, social security, housing, child protection, social care)
- Policies for society vs social policy? (difference is not really relevant)
- Affecting social relationships
- With government setting a framework and basic standards
- Note: policies (including examples provided by Spicker (2023)) driven by normative ideas of human
behaviour
- eg. in US there is this idea that some people are just lazy and unwilling to work vs. eg. idea that
some people are unlucky and unable to work
Welfare state as safety net since development, it's always been this way → but: no longer functioning like it did
The welfare state
- Welfare state: as society, nation state, people inside should have some reasonable standard of living, eg. food,
roof, education, health → having social citizenship rights
- The welfare state embodies the formulation of a social guarantee: society, organized as a nation state,
guarantees all citizens a reasonable standard of living.
- Based on idea of social (citizenship) rights (Marshall, 1949): the rights of individuals as recognized members of
a nation state, including social rights was quite broad, encompassing a wide array of rights and benefits, e.g.,
work (full employment), income protection, housing, education and health care
- Eg. having dutch passport gives you certain rights form that nation state, social rights → reasonable
standard of living → government is responsible
- In essence: social rights ensure a minimum standard of living. Spicker (2023: 139): “A welfare state offers a
guarantee of standards, and ultimately it bears that responsibility whenever no one else does.”
- But: what does this minimal standard look like? eg. US is welfare state and has very different views on
minimal standard
- Welfare state: housing, education, housing, health, poor aid
The welfare state (2)
- One of the most powerful institutions of the 20th century and beyond
- which other institution guarantees standard of living? not church, ngo's or others
- The result of a long historical development: most studies on 20th century but can trace back to 16th century
(Spicker, 2023)
- most of welfare state comes about in 20th century
- Includes social security, health care, education, social housing, social welfare
The welfare state: Key differences
- Historical trajectories and objectives
- Some commonalities in trajectories, but generally, countries go through the development different,
depending on these factors
- Timing, pace, mode of industrialization
- Political/institutional settings
- not actually the government, but also other actors when talking about welfare state
- Financing (e.g., general taxes vs. contributions)
- some pay through general taxes, other focus on contributions, ie. taxes your employer pays for
unemployment etc.
- Eligibility for welfare state benefits (e.g., workers; residents; targeted groups)
- eg. subsidies, tuition for school, pensions, who can get (eg.) money for what?
- Benefit levels (flat-rate vs. earnings-related)
- flat-rate = everybody gets the same thing
- earnings-related = better (eg.) work is better earning (eg. belastingschalen)
Bismarck (vs Beveridge)
- Bismarck: German chancellor mid-late 19th century; policies for blue collar workers in 1880’s in Germany forms a
basis for welfare states
- "we need to come up with policies to cover blue collar workers" → ie. maintain their income when
something happens to them, they are the breadwinner
- Objective: Bismarckian welfare state policies are aimed at income maintenance
- you need to pay into the system to get something out of it → sets the stage for welfare state favoring
people who work (the longest, the most)
- Bismarckian policies are defined by:
- a focus on social insurance
- providing earnings-related benefits for employees
- in general, entitlements are conditional (based on a satisfactory contribution record)
- financing is usually a contributory scheme (employers/employees)
Beveridge (vs Bismarck)
, - British Lord Beveridge: Beveridge plan (1942); used post-WWII to help protect peace and security; became a
blueprint for many welfare states
- Objective: Beveridgean welfare state policies are aimed at preventing poverty
- Five long-term goals:
1. Security for people who lose their job or otherwise are unable to take part in the labour market (elderly,
the sick, pregnant women)
2. Medical care
3. Housing
4. Sufficient education
5. Sufficient employment, or the avoidance of unemployment
- Eventually UK made welfare state with very minimal intervention, government only interfering when you are very
low in minimal living quality
Understand to give as example, not
knowing by heart → what is that
minimal standard?
Golden Age
- +/-1945-1975
- many jobs, little unemployment, because of this low risk → many protections for job loss → there was
enough money and not low unemployment anyway
- after WWII, period with much economic development and many jobs and government with new
opportunities to protect the workforce
- Expansion of welfare state programmes
- Centred on male breadwinner
- if they lose their job → entire family is at risk of poverty
- High employment, low unemployment
- High economic growth
- And then: oil crises; unemployment; stagflation
- many unemployed, economic growth goes down + inflation = stagflation → problem: welfare states needs
to pay many people
- Expansion focused on ‘striking a balance’ in social justice terms: liberty vs. equality, expanding individuals’ social
rights (Hemerijck, 2022)
- liberty ie. own autonomy of individuals
Crisis and/or transformation
- Crisis: 1975 - ? Transformation: 1980s - ?
- Austerity / retrenchment: lowering expenditures
- austerity ie. spending less money, but: not enough to cover depths → so also lower subsidies for
unemployment → ie. refocus who is eligible (= retrenchment)
- Redistribution of state responsibility & decentralization
- welfare state asks themselves why are we responsible for this? → lets hand it over to local governments
(ie. decentralizations) → redistribute who is responsible → from safety net to trampoline → not catch
people, but bounce them back
- Shift from a safety net to a trampoline
- welfare state is born with idea to catch people when they can't work → shift to also individuals
responsible 'we want you to work, if you don't, that's also your problem, not just ours' - welfare state
, The welfare state (6): modern transformations
- despite who is responsible, still common believe welfare state is there to help, a lot of belief in the welfare state
- 2000s - onwards
- Clash between push for retrenchment and high welfare state popularity
- Continued adjustment of ‘old’ social risks; pressure of ‘new’ social risks
- eg. not having enough education to go from job to job, combining job with care, being zzp and having
more risks
- Shift towards increasingly selective policies
- instead of everyone, only have policy for some people (eg. for more ... for women to support them)
- Changed socio-cultural and economic circumstances
- paid work is best way forward for welfare state and for individuals
- Social investment: policy idea since early 2000s
Summing up welfare state development
Policies and interventions for addressing social challenges
- policies are a way to intervene → what came first: policies or interventions? debate
- eg. if we want parents to take time off when having baby → policy for paid parental leave
- eg. heterosexual parents share parenting 50/50 → policy to incentivize fathers to take leave
What is social policy?
- Social policy: How societies globally meet human needs, e.g., for security, education, work, health and wellbeing
- welfare state is bigger institution, social policy can occur in welfare state
- Concerns state (government) and societal responses to societal challenges (e.g., social, demographic and/or
economic change).
- many NGO's act as mediators, that is a social policy non-governmental
- Multiple actors are involved: governments (supranational, national, regional, local), families, civil society, the
market.
- market, ie. market matters for the costs of certain things
- eg. unions for workforce → childcare debate between unions and employers → then government got
involved to make policies
- These actors work to provide services and support to individuals, families and groups throughout their lives.
- ‘…an institutionalized response to social and economic problems’.
- Social policy 2.0: how welfare states “attempt to identify and address social inequalities as well as social risks
that have societal consequences.”
- not getting involved is still an active choice by government
- Spicker (2023): distinction between public policy (e.g., policing, roads, sanitation) and social policy (e.g.,
education, health care, social security, housing, child protection, social care)
- Policies for society vs social policy? (difference is not really relevant)
- Affecting social relationships
- With government setting a framework and basic standards
- Note: policies (including examples provided by Spicker (2023)) driven by normative ideas of human
behaviour
- eg. in US there is this idea that some people are just lazy and unwilling to work vs. eg. idea that
some people are unlucky and unable to work
