The re-politicization of the welfare state after the global financial crisis

Abstract

In the aftermath of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the challenges facing welfare states today are unprecedented. While government leaders and European Union officials were in broad agreement that the severity of recession called for decisive actions and strong social policy responses to limit the social costs of the crisis, national responses have differed significantly. In order to understand why states have pursued such varied crisis management responses, it is vital to identify how the political and institutional factors driving social spending have been altered by this event. This dissertation therefore seeks to answer the critical question: How has the global economic crisis changed the politics of social spending across advanced capitalist economies? While recent comparative welfare state literature has begun to provide explanations for the factors which shape domestic social spending, little research has been dedicated to these effects in the post-crisis period. The lack of research focused on this time-frame is highly problematic as I argue that the global economic crisis has had profound cross-national effects which must be understood in order to explain post-crisis welfare reform trajectories and develop effective crisis management policies. This research examines whether the variables that explain social spending pre-crisis continue to do so in the post-crisis period. In doing so, it will provide key knowledge about the ways in which acute financial crises affect the politics of welfare states and address an important gap in the literature on social protection systems.