Traditional Welfare State Research Articles

The impact of crime on apartment prices: evidence from stockholm, sweden

.This study uses data of about 9,000 apartment sales in Stockholm, Sweden, to assess the impact of crime on property prices. The study employs hedonic pricing modelling to estimate the impact of crime controlling for other factors (property and neighbourhood characteristics). Geographic Information System (GIS) is used to combine apartment sales by coordinates with offences, land use characteristics and demographic data of the population. The novelty of this research is threefold. First, it explores a set of land use attributes created by spatial techniques in GIS in combination with detailed geographical data in hedonic pricing modelling. Second, the effect of crime in neighbouring zones at one place can be measured by incorporating spatial lagged variables of offence rates into the model. Third, the study provides evidence of the impact of crime on housing prices in a capital city of a traditional welfare state, information otherwise lacking in the international literature. Our results indicate that apartment prices in a specific area are strongly affected by crime in its neighbouring zones, regardless of crime type. When offences were broken down by types, residential burglary, theft, vandalism, assault and robbery individually had a significant negative effect on property values. However, for residential burglary such an effect is not homogenous across space, and apartment prices in central areas are often less discounted by being exposed to crime than those in the city's outskirts.

Immigration, Globalization, and Unemployment Benefits in Developed EU States

At a time of mounting concern about how traditional welfare states will react to globalization, there has been increasing interest in specifying how global economic forces affect welfare policies in industrialized states. Building on theories from the political economy and comparative institutional literatures, we analyze the influence of an important aspect of globalization—the flow of immigration. Focusing on states in the European Union, we present a theoretical model that illustrates the interactive relationships between immigration, EU labor market integration, and domestic institutions. Our findings highlight how immigration in conjunction with domestic political institutions affects unemployment provisions, while labor market integrative forces remain in the background. The story of immigration and unemployment compensation in the EU is less about the opening of borders and the market forces of integration and more about the domestic political pressures.

Still a Distinctive Case? Understanding Pension Reform Mechanisms in Southern Europe

While Southern European countries have pursued a series of pension reforms since the early 1990s, these trajectories display important differences, ranging from path-breaking ones as in Italy in the early 1990s to more moderate ones as in Spain. Traditional welfare state approaches have convincingly pointed out the “distinctiveness” of the Southern European model of welfare and pensions; however they have been less successful in explaining the specific reform mechanisms and the variation in reform outcomes in this region. By combining concepts from the political economy and pension politics literature, I show that pension reform in this region follows a pattern that is less “distinctive” than what previous studies have acknowledged. Specifically, I focus on the concept of political replacement effect (i.e. the probability of a government being electorally punished for pursuing reform) and the changes in labour movement’s organizational structure to comparatively explain reforms in Spain and Italy since the 1990s. The comparative analysis of eight cases of reform (four in each country) shows that significant reforms are implemented in cases of low political replacement effect and/or when this is coupled with a labor movement that has undergone changes that have affected its organizational structure. On the contrary, in cases of high political replacement effect reform is harder to achieve, unless the labor movement has undergone significant organizational changes and it is therefore more willing to engage in negotiations with the government. The analysis shows that pension reform in Southern Europe follows a pattern that can be accounted by established concepts in the literature, yet combined in a specific way, and that is therefore less distinctive than what previous welfare state analyses have suggested.

Personalisation of Social Care: Benefits and Pitfalls for Users of Services and Occupational Therapists

Central government policy emphasises increasingly the importance of users of services having choice and control in health and social care. The policy, particularly in social care, is known as ‘personalisation’. The Department of Health explains this as a move away from the traditional welfare state to a consumer-type model of service provision. The policy is Janus faced. It undoubtedly has the potential to improve the quality of people's lives and to give occupational therapists the opportunity to use their skills and expertise. Equally, it comes with pitfalls carrying the potential to erode people's statutory rights to services and also to alter and possibly threaten the role of professionals.

THE LOST HISTORIES OF AMERICAN ECONOMIC RIGHTS

This article examines the concept and the discontinuous historical usage of the term ‘economic rights’ in American political discourse from the perspective of democratic political freedom. It views the idea and ideology of ‘economic rights’ as a discursive marker pointing to historically contingent relations between government, national economy and individual freedom. It focuses on the only two American presidential articulations of an Economic Bill of Rights and their conjunctures: one by Franklin Roosevelt and another by Ronald Reagan. These two articulations represent two opposing political traditions of economic rights in the United States: the neo-liberal laissez-faire free market tradition and the liberal welfare-state tradition. Both of these liberal traditions are haunted by an older democratic-republican discourse of economic rights, from which they continue to draw normative and affective energy without ever confronting its guiding premises. Contemporary popular discourses about the economic crisis demonstrate the continuation of deeply entrenched though historically outdated understandings of the promise and possibilities of individual freedom and autonomy within the folds of a society completely transformed by capitalist modernity. Present considerations of this history reveal possible resources for political struggles.

Ethnic Minority-Majority Asymmetry in National Attitudes around the World: A Multilevel Analysis

Using data from the International Social Survey Programme, this research investigated asymmetric attitudes of ethnic minorities and majorities towards their country and explored the impact of human development, ethnic diversity, and social inequality as country-level moderators of national attitudes. In line with the general hypothesis of ethnic asymmetry, we found that ethnic, linguistic, and religious majorities were more identified with the nation and more strongly endorsed nationalist ideology than minorities (H1, 33 countries). Multilevel analyses revealed that this pattern of asymmetry was moderated by country-level characteristics: the difference between minorities and majorities was greatest in ethnically diverse countries and in egalitarian, low inequality contexts. We also observed a larger positive correlation between ethnic subgroup identification and both national identification and nationalism for majorities than for minorities (H2, 20 countries). A stronger overall relationship between ethnic and national identification was observed in countries with a low level of human development. The greatest minority-majority differences in the relationship between ethnic identification and national attitudes were found in egalitarian countries with a strong welfare state tradition.

News and Views

The five Nordic countries--Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden--share a considerable part of their cultural and historical heritage. They have collaborated closely in their development of legislation during most of the 20th century and are also all traditional welfare states, but nevertheless demonstrate a surprising degree of variety in the area of health law. The Nordic Network for Research in Biomedical Law was founded in 2006, with the aim to promote intra-disciplinary collaboration and stimulate comparative Nordic research in this field of law. Exchange of information on recent legal developments has been a recurrent point on the agenda at the Network meetings.

Bildungs- und Sozialpolitik: Die zwei Seiten des Sozialstaats im internationalen Vergleich

SozW Soziale Welt , Seite 105 - 119

Globalization, Neo‐Liberalism and Community Psychology

A longitudinal analysis (1984-2005) of media language in Norway is presented, demonstrating how the current globalized capitalist market ideology is now permeating this long-established Scandinavian welfare state. This ideological shift carries powerful implications for community psychology, as traditional welfare state values of equal services based on a universalistic principle are set aside, and social and material inequalities are increasingly accepted. The methodology developed in the present study may serve as a "barometer of community changes", to borrow a metaphor used by Sarason (2000).

Changing Life Courses and New Social Risks: The Case of Old Age Pensions

Old age pensions are one of the keystones of traditional solidaristic welfare states. They are based on systematic risk assessments, starting from the assumption of the typical standardized life course. From this perspective “ageing” is a predictable income risk, and one that has been managed by the traditional welfare state in applying actuarial principles and collectively shared entitlements. In this contribution we join the expectation in the contemporary welfare state debate that the traditional solidaristic welfare state is changing fundamentally. On the one side the assumed standardized life course is changing rapidly. On the other side the existing welfare state institutions and policies are changing at the same time. Together, these lead to the new social risk of an increasing “unpredictability” of the future for many individuals and for vulnerable groups in particular. We discuss the case of old age pensions and assess the impact on future income predictability that results from the destabilization of life courses. This argument will be grounded in a detailed empirical analysis of risk biographies and their effect on the old age pension income in the Netherlands, and a comparative assessment of the way the Dutch pension system responds to the new social risk of unpredictability.

Towards Attractive and Cost-Efficient State Space: Political Geography of the Production of State Transformation in Finland

Fundamental state restructuring has taken place in Finland over the past fifteen years and this transformation is increasingly revolving around the spatial dimension of statehood. The nation-state as the primary scale of political regulation and articulation from the 1960s onwards is increasingly challenged in contemporary political action concerning the "survival of Finland." The analysis discloses a new discursive field which structures and regulates political thinking about the Finnish state and which has surfaced during the past decade. This new discursive field includes four key dimensions: 1) the national question is purely global in nature, 2) the national question is based on continuous change, 3) nations and states are competing in world markets similarly to the way corporations do, and 4) global competition between states manifests itself in the locational preferences of national and international firms and creative class. The welfare spatiality which is based on social compromise and a particular decentralized settlement structure is increasingly challenged in pro-business argumentation which emphasizes the need to create economically effective, centralized as well as internationally attractive state space. The paper therefore argues that in Finland the key dimension of the current debate on state transformation especially touches upon the issue of getting out of the Keynesian welfare state tradition that evolved during the past decades. Three conclusions follow from the empirical analysis. First, the role of state territory is increasingly re-imagined in most of the neoliberal arguments of state space. Secondly, the Keynesian spatial fixes still cause a significant inertia regarding the construction of a state that would be based on pure economic engineering. Thirdly, the discrepancy between Keynesian spatial compromise and Schumpeterian economic reasoning will most obviously lead to growing tensions in the field of regional politics and planning.

What Drives Giving in Extensive Welfare States? The Case of Germany

Considerable empirical research exists on donations in the US and their determinants, including estimations of the income and price elasticity of giving. By contrast, less is known about the determinants of countries with an extensive welfare state. We address this deficiency by studying the drivers of charitable giving in Germany, a country with a highly developed welfare state, using tax return data of the years 2001 to 2003. Our study not only expands the literature by adding another country. Moreover, it uses modern econometric methods which account for the selection process inherent in charitable contributions. Our results suggest no significant differences between donors in the US and Germany with respect to income and price elasticities indicating that the mechanisms underlying the act of giving are similar for countries with highly different welfare state traditions.

Social Welfare Reform Since the 1997 Economic Crisis in Korea: Achievement, Limits, and Future Prospects

Social welfare reform has been implemented in Korea since the 1997 financial crisis. A dominant concern of the reform was on equality and social solidarity. A major means to this end was establishing universalistic social insurance programs like those in developed welfare states. The reform efforts produced some positive results but were not greatly successful. Income polarization and the deteriorating economic status of low‐income families have become big social issues. Many low‐income families have not gained many benefits from the reformed social security system. The rapid aging of the population is creating an exploding demand for social spending, risking the fiscal sustainability of major social insurance programs. The reform experience suggests that a social welfare system based on western‐style universal social insurance may be too expensive to sustain and not very effective in protecting disadvantaged families in Korea. More attention is being paid to expenditure control and efficiency. Social insurance programs may need to be leaner than those in traditional welfare states. Targeted programs, such as the “making work pay” policy, are likely to be expanded more broadly to low‐income families. The future of the Korean welfare state may hinge on successful employment support for working families and extensive investment in their human capital.

Social Spending and Demographics: The Role of Public Policies in the Intergenerational Redistribution of Income: Empirical Evidence from Spain and Catalonia

The demographic shift underway in Southern Europe requires a revision of some of the fundamental principles of the traditional welfare state. We analyze the evolution of several aspects of welfare and social expenditure over the last two decades. We find that in the context of the present demographic changes and real estate boom current social and pension policy leads to a new distribution of benefits and burdens which is highly intergenerationally unequal. We argue for a revised definition of public policy based on Musgrave's proposition as a possible rule for an intergenerationally fair distribution.

“Upon the Limits of Rights Regimes”: Reception Conditions of Asylum Seekers in the Republic of Ireland

Only in recent years has Ireland had to deal with appreciable numbers of asylum seekers coming to her shores. The reception of asylum seekers awaiting determination of refugee claims has drastically altered in that period. From inclusion to exclusion has been the hallmark of the legal regulation of reception conditions for asylum seekers. Legal protection from the Irish courts in ensuring a degree of socio-economic protection to asylum seekers is unlikely to be forthcoming. Traditional arguments on asylees’ rights as being “different” from Irish citizens and those of other residents have been utilized to justify exclusion from the welfare state. Ensuring the reception of asylum seekers within traditional welfare state structures, where their rights and needs are considered in a similar manner to those of citizens, is the underlying argument of this paper.

The Privatisation of Social Insurance and its Effect on Social Integration

The idea that the traditional Welfare State has reached its limits and that it should be replaced by a new ‘Welfare Mix’ of private and public services is nowadays an almost universally accepted axiom. Welfare policies, under the serious external economic and social pressures from globalisation, exacerbated by the dominant neoclassical, are moving increasingly towards the goals of retrenchment and cost containment. Market principles, such as competitiveness and the maximisation of cost efficiency, are becoming more prominent across Europe contradicting those principles that have traditionally associated with social policy like equity, solidarity, social justice. This multiple ideological, political and economical process involves a new balance between public and private components of social security. This paper, which aims to offer a critical appraisal of this trend, contains two parts. The first part briefly outlines a comparative overview of privatisation reforms of social insurance systems. The second part attempts a prescriptive analysis of the impact of these reforms, from the viewpoint of a commitment to human rights.

Sport and the welfare state in Europe1

The article analyses the mutual interconnection between welfare states and sports systems in six European countries (Denmark, Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Spain). It seeks to address, on the one hand, questions such as the following: what were the underlying rationales and ideologies evident in the justification of sports policy in welfare frameworks? What cultural values, historical contexts, and political configurations were evident in the specific arrangements of a given welfare state and its governmental welfare poicy infrastructure? On the other hand it portrays the legal, institutional and organisational similarities and dissimilarities which exist in a given country between the institutional structure of the sport system and the organisation of the welfare state, and seeks to identify to what extent comparable structural elements have developed, and where dissimilarities can be found. This paper illustrates how, where sports and welfare systems in different European countries are derived from different historical roots and are based on different ideologies and organisational structures, the welfare state maintains a different position and influence on sport. To the extent that the traditional welfare states of western industrialised countries are heading towards crises in terms of increasing funding requirements and legitimation deficits, the sport system will also be affected by the immediate consequences of such developments and will be required to adjust and adapt.

New social risks in postindustrial society: Some evidence on responses to active labour market policies from Eurobarometer

One result of the complex economic and social changes currently impacting on state welfare is the emergence of what may be termed “new social risks” as part of the shift to a postindustrial society. These concern access to adequately paid employment, particularly for lower‐skilled young people, in an increasingly flexible labour market, and managing work‐life balance for women with family responsibilities engaged in full‐time careers. They coexist with the old social risks that traditional welfare states developed to meet, which typically concern retirement from or interruption to paid work, in most cases for a male “breadwinner”. New social risks offer policymakers the opportunity to transform vice into virtue by replacing costly passive benefits with policies which mobilize the workforce, arguably enhancing economic competitiveness, and reduce poverty among vulnerable groups. However, the political constituencies to support such policies are weak, since the risks affect people most strongly at particular life stages and among specific groups. This paper examines attitudes to new social risk labour market policies in four contrasting European countries. It shows that attitudes in this area are strongly embedded in overall beliefs about the appropriate scale, direction and role of state welfare interventions, so that the weakness of new social risk constituencies does not necessarily undermine the possibility of attracting support for such policies, provided they are developed in ways that do not contradict national traditions of welfare state values.

Welfare and Warfare: Contrasting Scenarios of Mobile Communication

This paper illustrates the potential of communication technologies for institutional change, which can be found in the history of warfare, but could also become important for the future of welfare. Ethical, political and economic arguments are presented to assess existing and potential developments in warfare and welfare aiming at a more convivial and supportive society. After a sketch of various modes of historical warfare which became possible by - then - new information and communication technologies the paper reflects emerging problems contemporary defence strategies face. The citizens will become reluctant to pay for the high costs of military services if no real results can be seen. From the point of view of opportunity costs the defence budget is challenged by alternative, non-military use. As a long-term solution a war-preventing strategy is proposed which also allows using more financial means for the welfare system. But in fact the situation is not that simple. Even if more financial means would be available the welfare system is entering a state of crisis. Like in warfare information and communication technologies can be used to transform institutions and organisational forms, while the main intention of the welfare system remains in place. Examples are given how to restructure specific functions of the traditional welfare state. They are based on small groups (Targeted Intelligence Networks - TINs) linked to modern communication technology. TINs could give back responsibility to the citizen the welfare state has taken away from her/him in the past, and there is hope to strengthen the bonds of solidarity and reduce societal alienation.

What is child protection? Historical and methodological issues in comparative research on lastensuojelu/child protection

This article addresses comparative research on what has come to be called, in (British) English, ‘child protection’ or, rather differently, in Finnish ‘lastensuojelu’. In developing a cross‐national research project on lastensuojelu/child protection practices in England and Finland, we found it necessary to go back a few steps, to address what might usually be considered as ‘background issues’. This article discusses the welfare state traditions in both countries, especially with respect to families and children, in order to contextualise the focus of ongoing qualitative research on micro comparisons. When comparing the mundane practices of child protection and the ways problems and clienthoods are constructed, as in this study, historical, social, cultural and linguistic issues matter. Indeed, very basic concepts such as ‘child protection’ and ‘child protection case’ become problematic in the comparison.