From a Caring State to an Investing State. Stages of a Changing Welfare Model in Labour Market Policy

Judit Csoba

doi:10.2478/cejpp-2021-0009

Abstract

Abstract In this paper, we investigate the changing model of social security. The analyses are focusing on changes in labour market policies which have taken place in the countries of the European Union. With the critical review of scientific literature of welfare changes, we try to answer the next questions. What circumstances led to the shift from the welfare state focusing on welfare benefits and services to the generally accepted model of the activating? What reforms and what stages lead to the transformation of the welfare model especially in the area of labour market policies? How the earlier integration efforts, which had mainly focused on entitlement, was replaced with a market-based approach like social investment? The most important result of the critical analysis is the presentation of the policy model transfer between the states of the European Union and the steps of the reform process, which jeopardise the enforcement of the citizen's social rights. The first part of the study presents the theoretical framework for the transformation of the labour market policies, the key pillars of the welfare state and the term “activation state” and “investing state”. The second part examines the key features of five stages of changing model.

Highlights

By the end of the twentieth century, welfare states – that had been established after World War II – were forced to introduce reforms that had an impact on the very foundations of the welfare system
The first signs of this reform process – which critics regard as the dismantling of the welfare state – already appeared in the second half of the seventies, but it only really started in the nineties and continues to this day
The present study focuses on only one aspect of this transformation process: how reform of the welfare state that fundamentally altered social rights was realised in the realm of labour market policy

Summary

Introduction

By the end of the twentieth century, welfare states – that had been established after World War II – were forced to introduce reforms that had an impact on the very foundations of the welfare system. The first signs of this reform process – which critics regard as the dismantling of the welfare state – already appeared in the second half of the seventies, but it only really started in the nineties and continues to this day. The model of unconditional welfare provision was replaced with a market-based approach like social investment and conditional welfare. The present study focuses on only one aspect of this transformation process: how reform of the welfare state that fundamentally altered social rights was realised in the realm of labour market policy. What conditions and circumstances reinforced the generally accepted model of the activating and what reforms and what stages have led to the work-related welfare

Objectives

Methods

Findings

Conclusion