Solidarity and Social Policy

Abstract

Although until now the nation state has been regarded as the largest known social community that allows for redistribution among its members (Offe 2003a: 270), the history of the welfare state (precisely because it is not only the history of the welfare state) as well as recent developments hint at the fact that, besides the nation state, other territorial or membership communities have been and are conceivable. Before national welfare states in Europe — today often referred to as the European Social Model (Kaelble 2004) — came into being, the need for social security was met through charity or privately organised social protection. Public provision only appeared on the scene for the poorest. Needless to say, these efforts were very narrow in scope. In the course of transnationalisation processes, the fact that the nation state has been regarded as the dominant form of collectivisation and the natural framework of social security for more than a hundred years is increasingly being questioned. Accordingly, in the field of social policy, again, one can witness some motion: On the one hand there is a new trend towards regionalisation of social policy, whilst on the other hand we can observe a tentative and unprecedented upward trend towards the European level (for both see Ferrera (2005)).