Swiss Welfare State Research Articles

Deservingness and Welfare Attitudes Through Young Eyes: The Future of the Swiss Welfare State

AbstractThis article demonstrates the value of including youth in deservingness and welfare attitude research by investigating Swiss adolescents' deservingness opinions and welfare attitudes (N = 1601, mean age = 14.6). Through a survey experiment focusing on different unemployed groups and unemployment‐related policies, the study revisits prominent research results like the immigrant deservingness gap from a novel perspective, generating insights relevant within and beyond the Swiss context. First, deservingness is a vital predictor of attitudes towards social rights and obligations already in younger years. Moreover, while some patterns of adult‐centred studies are replicated (older unemployed are seen as more deserving than younger unemployed), there are also stark deviations: EU unemployed living in Switzerland are not seen as less deserving than Swiss unemployed. More research focusing on youth can enhance the social legitimacy of policies, clarify the relationship between deservingness and welfare attitudes, and potentially indicate what to expect from the future of the welfare state.

Self-help support, self-help groups and self-help friendliness in Switzerland-between subsidiary structure and national development needs

The Swiss welfare state is marked by strong federalism and subsidiarity, e. g. when it comes to social and health policies. This contribution presents findings of the first national study on self-help in Switzerland.This contribution is based on three sub-projects: 1. an oral and an online survey of the management personnel of the national organization Self-help Switzerland (Selbsthilfe Schweiz) and all regional self-help centers; 2. aquantitative-descriptive evaluation of the Self-help Switzerland's database with over 2500 self-help groups; and 3. twelve semi-structured interviews with experts from the social and health system.Little support is given at the national level to the self-help system. While Self-help Switzerland deals with topics of national importance, promotion of self-help has so far primarily been the domain of the regional self-help centers. This led to large regional differences in the dissemination and the development of self-help groups. There are also regional disparities in the cooperation between self-help groups and centers with the professionals and institutions from the social and health system.Self-help is discussed as characteristic for the federalist and subsidiary culture of the Swiss welfare state. The current self-help landscape is regionally based and locally financed. There is asubstantial need for development on the national level: alegal base is required as well as stronger funding for self-help support and initiatives for self-help friendliness.

Strategien der Existenzsicherung: Die Philanthropie in einer mixed economy of welfare im frühen 20. Jahrhundert

Since the late 19th century different social actors have played an important role in providing social security in Switzerland. Cooperatives, philanthropic organisations, social insurances, and the poor relief of the communes were all part of a “mixed economy of welfare”. This article examines how the different actors in this “mixed economy” worked together, and asks what forms of help they supplied. It raises the question of whether a dichotomy between public and private forms of relief can be tra­ced in the Swiss case. Did democratically legitimised processes of redistribu­tion shape the social security system? Or was social security rather funded by private relief programs? The author argues that in the early 20th century, a complex public-private mix structured the Swiss welfare state and the poor often depended on both public and private funding. In this system, financi­ally potent philanthropic organisations successfully contested the legal power of public actors.

Gender equality and parental leave policies in Switzerland: A discursive and feminist perspective

Taking a discursive and feminist perspective, this paper aims to understand policy changes as well as gendered outcomes in two policy areas within the Swiss welfare state: gender equality and parental leave policies. We conduct a discourse analysis from a social science perspective of policy documents and interviews from 1996 to 2011. Our results show similar discourses concerning welfare responsibility between the two case studies. Specifically, there are opposing state- and economic-oriented discourses, which reveal different gendered assumptions. However, the time period under study shows an increasing mobilisation of discourses arguing for non-state, negotiated solutions between social partners or within work organisations. We discuss the potential risks of gender and class inequalities as well as scenarios for further policy change. Our findings call for an integrative approach to discourse and gender for welfare state analysis in general.

Solidarity without the State? Business and the Shaping of the Swiss Welfare State1890–2000Leimgruber, MatthieuCambridge, Cambridge University Press (2008), 330p., ISBN 9780521875400 (hardback) and ISBN 9781107405448 (paperback)

Solidarity without the State? Business and the Shaping of the Swiss Welfare State1890–2000Leimgruber, MatthieuCambridge, Cambridge University Press (2008), 330p., ISBN 9780521875400 (hardback) and ISBN 9781107405448 (paperback)

Matthieu Leimgruber, Solidarity Without the State? Business and the Shaping of the Swiss Welfare State, 1890–2000

Matthieu Leimgruber, <i>Solidarity Without the State? Business and the Shaping of the Swiss Welfare State, 1890–2000</i>

Preventing the Retrenchment of the Welfare State: Switzerland's Competitiveness in the World Market for Protection

Most welfare state typologies still characterize Switzerland as a liberal welfare regime. However, recent research shows that its welfare state did not retrench but instead moved towards the conservative type. Nevertheless, higher social expenditure has not been accompanied by increases in taxation. Moreover, Switzerland managed to overcome the so-called trilemma of the service economy. After analyzing the shift of the Swiss welfare state from a liberal to a conservative welfare regime, we argue that the Swiss economic success story of the twentieth century is based on a favourable policy mix (tax system, labour market, financial sector) used to compete successfully in the world market for protection. We conclude that, as a political entrepreneur, Switzerland has the capability to receive taxes and investments from foreign individuals and enterprises, wealthy residents and high-skilled and well-paid immigrants to finance the welfare state and to overcome the trilemma of the service economy.

Is the Welfare State Sustainable? Experimental Evidence on Citizens' Preferences for Redistribution

The sustainability of the welfare state ultimately depends on citizens’ preferences for income redistribution. They are elicited through a Discrete Choice Experiment performed in 2008 in Switzerland. Attributes are redistribution as GDP share, its uses (the unemployed, old-age pensioners, people with ill health etc.), and nationality of beneficiary. Estimated marginal willingness to pay (WTP) is positive among those who deem benefits too low, and negative otherwise. However, even those who state that government should reduce income inequality exhibit a negative WTP on average. The major finding is that estimated average WTP is maximum at 21% of GDP, clearly below the current value of 25%. Thus, the present Swiss welfare state does not appear sustainable.

Religion, class coalitions, and welfare states

1. Religion and the Western welfare state: the theoretical context Philip Manow and Kees van Kersbergen 2. Western European party systems and the religious cleavage Thomas Ertman 3. The religious foundations of work-family policies in Western Europe Kimberly J. Morgan 4. Italy: a Christian democratic or clientist welfare state? Julia Lynch 5. Religion and the welfare state in the Netherlands Kees van Kersbergen 6. A conservative welfare state regime without Christian Democracy? The French Etat-providence, 1880-1960 Philip Manow and Bruno Palier 7. Religion and the consolidation of the Swiss welfare state, 1848-1945 Herbert Obinger 8. The church as nation? The role of religion in the development of the Swedish welfare state Karen M. Anderson 9. The religious factor in US welfare state politics Jill Quadagno and Deanna Rohlinger 10. Religious social doctrines and poor relief: a different causal pathway Sigrun Kahl.

The welfare state and trade unions in Switzerland: an historical reconstruction of the shift from a liberal to a post-liberal welfare regime

Switzerland is an extreme case that exhibits affinities to both the liberal and continental welfare state. Furthermore, trade union social policy activities mirror the development of the welfare state. While in the liberal phase of the Swiss welfare state, trade unions were sceptical of national social policy and therefore preferred union-run welfare schemes and collective bargaining. During Switzerland’s post-liberal phase, trade unions have become proponents of national social policy legislation. Switzerland’s exceptionality gives reason to explore the specific conditions under which unions change their social policy activities. Using the method of process tracing and an historical institutionalist approach, this article argues that unions’ industrial and political integration decisively affect their decision on the use of private and public welfare schemes. The article draws two conclusions: first, when viewing policies of welfare state development, the research should analyse union-run welfare schemes and social benefits based on industrial agreements. Second, it argues that the Swiss case is valuable for the welfare regime approach as it confirms the divide between liberal and continental welfare states.

Von einem liberalen zu einem post‐liberalen Wohlfahrtsstaat: der Wandel der gewerkschaftlichen Sozialpolitik in der Schweiz

The article reconstructs the development of the Swiss welfare state against the background of the transformation of trade unions' social policy activities. It detects a sequence of trade unions' activities in social policy which runs uniformly to the development of the welfare state. While in the liberal phase of the Swiss welfare state trade unions were sceptical of national social policy and preferred mutual insurance and collective bargaining, in its post‐liberal phase they have become proponents of national social policy legislation.

Social Policies in Favour of Women: Some Explanations at the Turning of the 90s

The present contribution puts forward an analysis of Swiss social policies in a gender perspective. While Swiss policies in favour of women were relatively weak until the 1990s, at the end of this decade several reforms were considered that aimed to improve the position of women within the Welfare State system. The goal of this article is to account for the change that occurred during the 1990s. Firstly, the comparative feminist approaches on gender and the Welfare State are shortly presented. These provide a theoretical framework that is then used to study the transformations of Swiss policies in favour of women and suggest an explanation of the change that occurred at the end of the 1990s. Results show that several factors played a role for the transformation of the Swiss Welfare State with respect to women. The explanation should thus be sought in the interaction between these factors.

Institutionalising the Swiss welfare state

(2001). Institutionalising the Swiss welfare state. West European Politics: Vol. 24, The Swiss Labyrinth Institutions, Outcomes and Redesign, pp. 145-168.

Federalism, Direct Democracy, and Welfare State Development in Switzerland

Inspired by the New Institutionalism in political science, the article examines the impact of political institutions on welfare state development in Switzerland. This article suggests that the strength of federalism and direct democracy have proved to be stumbling blocks for the expansion of the Swiss welfare state. Direct democracy and federalism have not only geared the path of welfare state evolution in a more liberal direction, but have also dampened social expenditures.

The Swiss Welfare State at a Turuing Point?: Ideology, Political Process, and Resources

The Swiss Welfare State at a Turuing Point?: Ideology, Political Process, and Resources