Social Democratic Welfare Regimes Research Articles

Making markets with active labor market policies: the influence of political parties, welfare state regimes, and economic change on spending on different types of policies

Active labor market policies consist of a diverse set of policy tools with which to address joblessness and the degree to which governments invest in various policies as a response to rising unemployment varies widely. Fleshing out the determinants by policy type holds the promise of illuminating more clearly contestation over activation. To this end, this study analyzes the role of partisanship as well as welfare state regimes and the economy on spending patterns. We begin by detailing a theoretical framework for understanding variation in active labor market policies. Bonoli categorizes active labor market policies according to their market orientation and emphasis on human capital investment. In a study of social service reforms, Gingrich explains how all parties employ market-based reforms to empower some groups over others. These theories are then used to derive partisan hypotheses for direct job creation, training, labor market services, and employment incentives. Hypotheses for the four main types of active labor market policies are tested with regression analysis of 22 countries between 1985 and 2008. High spending on direct job creation, a non-market oriented policy type, is marginally significantly higher in the social democratic regime and by left governments prior to the activation turn. Left parties spend significantly more than other parties on training policies and after the activation turn these policies also become a distinct feature of the social democratic welfare state regime. The same trend exists for employment incentives. Center-right parties and those within the Christian democratic regime also spend marginally significantly higher on training policies before the activation turn, which is explained by results for deindustrialization. No partisan or regime effects are found for labor market services, which supports the view that all countries rely on these policies. The literature also suggests that a composite measure masks political conflict since this policy type encompasses diverse policies.

Towards a mixed economy of long-term care in Norway?

Norway has an international reputation as a representative of Scandinavian social democratic welfare regimes which strengthen their citizens’ independence of the market and family. This picture can be challenged on the basis of an analysis of current changes in Norwegian long-term care policies and practices. Taking its departure from the different public/private distinctions unpacked by Jeff Weintraub, the article analyses the different ways Norwegian public long-term care services today relate to three different private forms. One is based on the liberal economic model and consists of a private care market. A second represents a classical individual-state approach and relates rather to the new consumer directed citizenship. A third approach is feminist inspired and relates to the impact of informal help on long-term care. In general, the discussion contributes to a more complex understanding of new forms of public/private relationships in the Scandinavian part of the world.

Three worlds of educational welfare states? A comparative study of higher education systems across welfare states

Although education is generally considered to be an important part of the welfare state, it is largely absent in the comparative welfare state literature. This article tries to fill this void by applying the central concepts of welfare state analysis of decommodification and stratification, as proposed by Esping-Andersen, to the field of higher education. The article tests whether there are systematic differences in higher education policies across 19 developed western countries that are usually categorized in a social democratic, a liberal or a conservative welfare regime. Based on a secondary analysis of the available literature and cross-country statistics, we construct indices for decommodification and for stratification in higher education. The countries studied cluster in three groups that correspond roughly with the classical categorization. The countries in these clusters do not, however, meet all expectations regarding the level of decommodification and stratification. We conclude that countries belonging to the social democratic regime follow the principles of the prototypical social-democratic welfare regime well with respect to higher education. However, the higher education systems in liberal and conservative countries only share some of the characteristics of a prototypical conservative or liberal welfare state. We conclude that including higher education in comparative welfare states analysis might result in a less clear-cut categorization of welfare regimes than when the analysis is restricted to social protection and labour market policies.

Power Structures and Privatization across Integrated Rental Markets: Exploring the Cleavage between Typologies of Welfare Regimes and Housing Systems

An analysis of Esping‐Andersen’s “Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism” and Kemeny’s classification of dualist/integrated housing markets highlights the usefulness of the concept of power structures in explaining the formation of distinct welfare states and housing systems respectively; nonetheless, the authors’ empirical investigations lead to a diverging number of existing typologies. Kemeny claims that this is an “anomaly” which can be ascribed to the use of the concept of corporatism in Esping‐Andersen’s work, making the distinction between social democratic and conservative welfare regimes obsolete. This claim is challenged from two perspectives: First, the welfare state literature on the formation of distinct regimes is examined more thoroughly and confronted with Kemeny’s understanding of welfare regimes. Second, the paper explores the different privatization paths and diverging power structures in three integrated housing systems in Western Europe, which exposes the weakness of the dichotomous rental housing classification. These two aspects highlight the deficiencies of Kemeny’s approach and provide a new view on the relation between welfare‐state regimes and housing systems.

Ethnic Heterogeneity and Public Support for Welfare: Is the American Experience Replicated in Britain, Sweden and Denmark?

The link between ethnic heterogeneity and public support for welfare policy is debated. The thesis of a negative relationship is supported by much American research. Historically the race issue has blocked a number of American welfare schemes; across the United States ethnically heterogeneous states have less generous benefits, and citizens having negative attitudes towards blacks often oppose welfare. The research question is: To what extent will increased ethnic heterogeneity in European countries establish the same mechanisms? Three theoretical positions are discussed: the position that the American experience is unique; the position that it is generalisable; and a middle position of it being contingent on institutional settings. The latter position predicts that the American experience can be avoided, especially in social democratic welfare regimes where the ethnicity issue has not been politicised. Empirically the article is based on survey data from the United Kingdom, Sweden and Denmark, in which a number of American items were directly replicated. Despite indications of American uniqueness and welfare‐regime effects, the findings support the position that the in‐group/out‐group mechanisms found in the United States are being replicated in Europe.

Sex inequalities in physical and mental functioning of British, Finnish, and Japanese civil servants: Role of job demand, control and work hours

In general, women report more physical and mental symptoms than men. International comparisons of countries with different welfare state regimes may provide further understanding of the social determinants of sex inequalities in health. This study aims to evaluate (1) whether there are sex inequalities in health functioning as measured by the Short Form 36 (SF-36), and (2) whether work characteristics contribute to the sex inequalities in health among employees from Britain, Finland, and Japan, representing liberal, social democratic, and conservative welfare state regimes, respectively. The participants were 7340 (5122 men and 2218 women) British employees, 2297 (1638 men and 659 women) Japanese employees, and 8164 (1649 men and 6515 women) Finnish employees. All the participants were civil servants aged 40–60 years. We found that more women than men tended to have disadvantaged work characteristics (i.e. low employment grade, low job control, high job demands, and long work hours) but such sex differences were relatively smaller among employees from Finland, where more gender equal policies exist than Britain and Japan. The age-adjusted odds ratio (OR) of women for poor physical functioning was the largest for British women (OR = 2.08), followed by for Japanese women (OR = 1.72), and then for Finnish women (OR = 1.51). The age-adjusted OR of women for poor mental functioning was the largest for Japanese women (OR = 1.91), followed by for British women (OR = 1.45), and then for Finnish women (OR = 1.07). Thus, sex differences in physical and mental health was the smallest in the Finnish population. The larger the sex differences in work characteristics, the larger the sex differences in health and the reduction in the sex differences in health after adjustment for work characteristics. These results suggest that egalitarian and gender equal policies may contribute to smaller sex differences in health, through smaller differences in disadvantaged work characteristics between men and women.

Should governments in Europe be more aggressive in pushing for gender equality to raise fertility? The first "NO"

Abstract This paper takes the no side in the debate on the question posed in the title. The paper assumes that the dual-earner/dual-carer household model is the most likely aim of policies that push aggressively for gender equality in order to raise fertility. Five objections are discussed: the model does not necessarily lead to a fertility increase; aggressiveness will lead to an imbalance of labor supply and demand, and is likely to confront slowly changing cultural norms; similar policies will also confront the issue of innate gender differences; and country idiosyncrasies prevent the application of a unified policy approach. The paper briefly concludes that compatible gender-neutral family policies and fertility-neutral gender policies are likely to lead to an increase in fertility. 1. Introduction Many countries in Europe have considerable experience in the implementation of policies that aim to increase fertility, and of policies that seek to promote gender equality. Over the last two decades, these two policy fields have attracted interest among scientists and policy makers, particularly because gender issues are considered to be among the obstacles to having children. It is argued that the incompatibility of career and family for women is among the main reasons for contemporary low fertility. It is also argued that the effect of this incompatibility can be significantly reduced through a transition from the classical male breadwinner model to the dual-earner/dual-carer model. In this paper, I first discuss a central intersection between gender equality policies and family policies (including policies which aim to increase fertility): namely, the reconciliation of work and family roles. Next, I raise several objections to the opinion that the dual-earner/dual-carer model is a convenient solution to the dilemma, and emphasize that governmental intervention can be of low efficiency. I conclude that an efficient increase in fertility can be achieved when family policies are gender-neutral, and when gender equality policies are fertility-neutral. 2. The intersection between family policies and gender equality policies Pronatalistic family policies have dominated in the ex-socialist countries before the start of the transition (Debroy 1989). They were found to have a moderate effect on the level of fertility, in that, during the years after their implementation, births increased by around 10% (Buttner and Lutz 1990, showed this for the GDR, Philipov 1993, for Bulgaria and Stloukal 1998, for Czechoslovakia). Family policies were also implemented in other European countries. Although their main aim is to support families, they have an indirect effect on fertility, since the main instruments of a family policy, such as child allowances and parental leaves, were also the main instruments in the pronatalistic policies (see, for example, Ronsen and Skrede 2008).3 In an international comparative framework, Gauthier and Hatzius (1997) found a moderate positive effect of family policies on fertility. Policies aiming at higher fertility have been long-standing in France, and their positive effect is well-known (Pailhe, Rossier, and Toulemon 2008). Also well-known are the positive effects on fertility of family policies implemented in social democratic welfare regimes in the Nordic countries (see Bjorklund 2006, and Andersson 2008 for Sweden, and Ronsen and Skrede 2008, for the Nordic countries). In general, family policies may bring about a moderately higher fertility level (Gauthier and Philipov 2008). A major problem with the implementation of family policies is that some of the key policy instruments, such as child allowances, are expensive, and a large number of European countries cannot afford their long-term implementation at levels that are commensurate with parental spending on child care and nurture (Gauthier 2007). Gender equality has been the subject of extensive discussions about the achievement of human rights and contemporary democratic values, particularly where the rights of women are considered. …

Terrorism in the Worlds of Welfare Capitalism

This contribution argues that social policies ameliorate poor short-run and long-run socioeconomic conditions (e.g., unemployment, poverty, inequality, and dissatisfaction), thereby indirectly reducing terrorist activity. The authors empirically assess the influence of social policies (indicated by social spending and welfare regime variables) on homegrown terrorism for fifteen Western European countries during the 1980—2003 period. The authors find that higher social spending in certain fields (health, unemployment benefits, and active labor market programs) is associated with a significant reduction in homegrown terrorism, while spending in other fields (e.g., public housing) is not. Moderate evidence furthermore indicates that the different worlds of welfare capitalism differently affect homeland terrorism. Social democratic welfare regimes that create low levels of market dependence are on average less prone to domestic terrorist activity. The findings suggest that homegrown terrorism in Western Europe may also be fought by higher spending in certain fields and more generous welfare regimes.

Globalization, welfare regimes and social protection expenditures in Western and Eastern European countries

This paper analyzes the effects of globalization on social protection expenditures in European countries. The particular focus is on (a) the Eastern European countries and (b) on differences in globalization effects between welfare regimes. We find evidence in favor of the compensation hypothesis in Western Europe which is driven by the conservative welfare regime, outweighing the efficiency effect of globalization in the social-democratic welfare regime. In Eastern European countries the efficiency effect is predominant. No globalization effect is found for the liberal and the southern welfare regimes.

Social work programmes in the social democratic welfare regime

In this article we examine the emergence of social worker training in the Nordic countries and discuss the possible effects that the social democratic welfare regime has had on such training. We also discuss the development in recent decades of the academisation of the training and the establishment of social work as a subject of research and teaching. The early history of social worker education is based on archival material, national inquiries and secondary sources. Our presentation of the recent history of social work education is based on the responses to a questionnaire sent to teachers of social work in 33 Nordic social work programmes, and on a survey of course syllabi and prospectuses. It is also based on the reading lists for the social work courses in these programmes.

1989 and the Reshaping of Europe's Ideological Geography

The geo-political opening that was triggered by the anti-communist revolutions in 1989-1990 in Eastern Europe made trans-national economic and political integration a highly salient factor in ideological orientation and political mobilization. Thus, new ideological fault-lines have emerged over the past two decades in Europe, on both sides of the former iron curtain. Shaped by 'opportunity' and 'risk' attitudes to globalization and European unification, these new fault-lines are opting to replace the capital-labor dynamics of conflict that had shaped Europe’s ideological landscape over the twentieth century. This new logic and structure of political competition is one of the sources of pressure on coordinated market economies in the early 21st century. These pressures, however, lead not to transition from the coordinated to a liberal type of market economy but to a likely transformation from conservative to social-democratic welfare regime.

Does Household Composition Explain Welfare Regime Poverty Risks for Older Adults and Other Household Members?

This cross-national study examines the poverty of older adults and their household members and relates the risk of poverty to macrolevel state approaches to welfare as well as to microlevel composition of households. Data on individuals in households with older adults for 22 countries come from the Luxembourg Income Survey. Robust cluster analysis relates the risk of poverty to the type of state welfare regime; the characteristics of the household head (age, gender, marital status, and education); as well as the household's numbers of earners, older adults, and children. Persons in households with older adults are significantly less likely to be poor in countries with social democratic and conservative welfare regimes than in Taiwan, an exemplar of limited social welfare programs. Controlling for country differences in household composition increases the differences in poverty risks. Living with fewer children, more older adults, and more earners lowers the risk of poverty, as does having a married and better educated household head. Countries with more generous social welfare provisions have lower risks of poverty despite having household characteristics that are comparatively unfavorable. As Taiwan demonstrates, household composition, particularly a reliance on multigenerational households, compensates for limited state welfare programs.

Managed Flexibility

This article provides an account of the temporary staffing industry outside its two largest markets, the UK and the US. It argues that there is greater national variation in industry characteristics than has generally been acknowledged, using the example of Sweden to illustrate the importance of understanding staffing industries in relation to the regulatory context in which they are embedded. Drawing on secondary materials and interviews with senior officials in transnational and domestic temporary staffing agencies, labour unions, industry trade bodies and government departments, the article asserts that the temporary staffing industry should be understood as an active agent of labour market restructuring. It provides a detailed analysis of the Swedish industry's distinct periods of expansion, charting its legalization and subsequent growth in the context of a highly regulated labour market. In conclusion, the article makes two key points. First, the Swedish temporary staffing market is the product of a particular social democratic welfare state regime and the roles played by the different social partners which lead to the production of a managed flexibility. Second, the particularities of the Swedish system, and the need for transnational staffing agencies to adapt their activities, underline how firms both shape, and are shaped by, the economic and social characteristics and dynamics that exist in the territories in which they invest.

Transition to Adulthood in Finland and the United States

Time use choices that promote challenge, concentration, and motivation are seen as developmentally enriching, while those that involve repetitive activities with little chal lenge are seen as less developmentally advantageous (Larson 2001). Historically, cultural traditions, social mores, and macroeconomic factors have exerted considerable influence on the time-use choices of adolescents. However, as countries have become increasingly linked through technology, media, and commerce, the influence of these country-specific factors may be waning. In this article, we address the question of whether adolescents' time use experiences is uniform, by comparing and contrasting adolescent time use in Finland and the United States. Both Finland and the United States are rich developed countries. Finland belongs to the social democratic welfare regime, while the United States has adopted the liberal welfare regime (Esping-Andersen 1999). Finland is a small, generally homogeneous country, in contrast to the United States, which is ethnically, racially and culturally diverse?and with greater income inequality (Brandolini and Smeeding 2008). Do these larger national dif ferences transcend the globalization of culture and commerce? To address this question, we use time-diary data from the Finnish Time Use Survey (Niemi and P??kk?nen 2001; Statistics Finland 2007) and the American Time Use Survey (ATUS, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2007). Twenty-four hour recall (U.S.) and pro spective (Finland) time diaries were gathered using standard methods in both surveys. The

Immigration and Preferences for Redistribution: An Empirical Analysis of European Survey Data

This paper explores the relationship between perceptions of immigration and preferences for redistribution, using survey data from the European Social Survey. Some recent literature argues that hostility toward immigrants will reduce the preferred level of redistribution, primarily because people care about who they redistribute towards (the anti-solidarity hypothesis). Less attention has been paid to the possibility that immigration might be perceived as increasing the risk of income loss, something that should increase the preferred level of redistribution (the compensation hypothesis). This paper finds some evidence in favour of both hypotheses. Furthermore, the paper argues that anti-solidarity effects should be stronger in countries classified within the Social Democratic welfare state regime type and compensation effects should be stronger in countries within the Conservative welfare state regime type. There is some empirical support for this argument in the data.

Writing Women Out, Folding Gender In: The European Union "Modernises" Social Policy

Over the last fifteen years, most of the countries with liberal and social democratic welfare regimes have redesigned their social policy. This trajectory can be labeled the LEGO policy paradigm. In it, the definition of the best policy mix often targets children and youth and redeploys policy instruments to achieve goals for the future. There is a growing commitment by the European Union to this supply-side understanding of social policy. Thus, while the machinery of gender mainstreaming and equality remains in place, nonetheless, two mechanisms are at one work in the social policy field: one of writing women out of the plot and folding gender into other stories.

Mapping gender and social background differences in education and youth transitions across Europe

This paper uses data drawn from the European Union Labour Force Survey 2000 Ad Hoc Module on School to Work Transitions to explore the influence of gender and social background (measured in terms of parental education) on young people's educational and early labour market outcomes across 12 European countries. Our results show that social background is strongly related to the level of education achieved while gender is found to have a stronger effect on the field of study selected. Countries vary in the extent to which gender and social background affect young people's outcomes. Gender differentiation in labour market outcomes reflects the nature of the welfare regime, being more pronounced in familial and conservative systems. Social inequality in educational attainment and early labour market outcomes are less marked in Finland and Sweden, reflecting the combination of less differentiated educational systems, mass higher education and social–democratic welfare regimes. In contrast, social inequality is more marked in the Eastern European countries, due partly to their highly differentiated educational systems but more notably to rapid changes taking place in post-communist systems.

The Institutional Logic of Welfare Attitudes

Why are people who live in liberal welfare regimes so reluctant to support welfare policy? And why are people who live in social democratic welfare regimes so keen to support welfare policy? This article seeks to give an institutional account of these cross-national differences. Previous attempts to link institutions and welfare attitudes have not been convincing. The empirical studies have had large difficulties in finding the expected effects from regime-dependent differences in self-interest, class interest, and egalitarian values. This article develops a new theoretical macro—micro link by combining the literature on deservingness criteria and the welfare regime theory. The basic ideas are that three regime characteristics, (a) the degree of universalism in welfare policy, (b) the differences in economic resources between “the bottom” and “the majority,” and (c) the degree of job opportunities, have a profound impact on the public deservingness discussion and thereby on public support for welfare policy.

How Welfare Regimes Generate and Erode Social Capital: The Impact of Underclass Phenomena

The origins of social trust have been much discussed in recent years. This attention is understandable, as social trust is perceived to be a mechanism for overcoming the pri mary social problem highlighted by rational choice theory: how actors without mutual trust logically would choose a suboptimal solution (the prisoner's dilemma problem). Social trust is thus believed to be very important in solving collective problems, mak ing democracy work, and generating economic growth.1 In brief, everyone agrees that social trust is nice to have. However, its origins, creation, and in some countries erosion are up for discussion. Table 1 shows the empirical results of the World Values Surveys (WVS) conducted in the beginning (1990-1993) and the end (1999-2001) of the 1990s. As argued by Inglehart, economic development and religion have a huge impact. Therefore, this study is limited to the rich capitalist countries that share Christianity as a common cultural background.2 Furthermore, the countries will be categorized accord ing to Esping-Andersen's renowned distinction among liberal (Anglo-Saxon), conserva tive (continental European), and social democratic (Scandinavian) welfare regimes.3 The standard question for social trust (also labeled interpersonal or horizontal trust) has been used: Generally speaking, would you say that people can be or that you can't be too careful in dealing with people?. Table 1 reveals two major puzzles. The first is the striking level of horizontal trust in the social democratic regimes. In 1990 the share responding that most people can be trusted averaged 61 percent in these countries. In the nine conservative regimes, the average was 31 percent, whereas the average was 48 percent in the four liberal regimes. The distinctiveness of the social democratic regimes is even more remarkable in the lat est wave, where the average was 63 percent in the social democratic regimes as com pared to 29 percent in the conservative regimes and 38 percent in the liberal regimes. Regime patterns are not clearly present. At first sight, the distinction between conserva tive and liberal regimes does not appear to be of much relevance. However, one can not deny that the countries that Esping-Andersen grouped as social democratic welfare regimes distinguish themselves. The second, rather striking finding is that the dramatic erosion of social trust appears only in the countries Esping-Andersen labeled liberal welfare state regimes. The

Multiculturalism and the Erosion of Support for the Universalistic Welfare State: The Israeli Experience

This article addresses the existing tension between multiculturalism, i.e., the accommodation of different cultural, ethnic, and religious traditions, and the support for a universalistic welfare state. The universalistic welfare state and its distributional activities reflect the institutional expression of the modern state's commitment to the welfare of all its citizens and their integration into the national community. The bonds of belonging to the general national community seem, however, to be seriously weakened by the ethnic, cultural, and religious diversity nowadays dividing some modern western societies and seem thus to be inimical for the support of the universal welfare state and its integrative functions. These tensions are explored within the context of Israeli society. Many critics claim that multiculturalism has its limits. The particular claim made in this article is that the ethno-cultural diversity of Israeli society strongly affects the commitment of the population to a universalistic welfare state, weakening the support for it. This becomes of particular importance at times when the country is in the process of rapidly changing its traditional social democratic welfare regime to a mainly liberal, American, style of welfare regime.