The Welfare State and Post-Industrial Labour Markets

Abstract

The British and German welfare states underwent reforms in the 1990s and 2000s, defined by the Agenda 2010 (in Germany) and the “Third Way” (in the UK). There were two outcomes: firstly, an emphasis on individual over collective responsibility and thus an individualisation of welfare; the state should help its citizens to enlarge their private welfare provisions and only intervene as a welfare provider as a last resort. Secondly, individualisation is also the result of a change in the employment model underlying welfare states. The new model comprises a range of different employment forms that share a fragmentation of employment careers incompatible with the welfare systems mostly designed in the nineteenth and mid-twentieth century. While this fragmentation was part of the reforms, states answered to the challenge with a fiscal consolidation of welfare services and new pillars in the welfare system. Employee welfare has a dual position in both welfare systems: as a source of welfare (through in-work benefits) and as a source for welfare (for individual provisions). This further accelerates dualisation tendencies in welfare systems between those with employee welfare and those without it, who must thus rely on the governmental welfare system. In addition, the chapter contests that occupational welfare would be a suitable component of a new welfare system because companies would enact it based on business rather than political considerations.