Suchergebnisse

The activation of social welfare recipients has been, and still is, a central issue in the development of social and employment policies in Europe. This ambitious book explores the employment effectiveness of minimum income schemes, and provides the first comprehensive examination of its dependency on how the rights and obligations of the recipients are defined. The book argues that the right to a minimum income can only be adequately justified with reference to the individual's right to personal development. Combining political theory and policy analysis, the author draws on evidence from eight different European countries to illustrate how it is possible to combine higher levels of employment effectiveness with the respect for recipients' right to personal development. Exploring the balance between fairness and effectiveness in the activation of minimum income recipients and acknowledging that individuals have both rights and obligations, this book will provide a useful reference tool to students, researchers and policy-makers with an interest in the work versus welfare nexus

The last decade of the 20th century was marked by a shift in how welfare-states deal with those at the bottom of the income ladder. This shift involved the introduction/strengthening of work-obligations as a condition for receiving minimum income benefits - which, in some countries, was complemented by efforts to help recipients return to the labour market, namely through the investment in active labour market policies (ALMP). Based on case-studies of developments in the US and eight European nations (UK, Norway, Denmark, Netherlands, Germany, France, Portugal and the Czech Republic), this boo

The cost-of-living crisis that began in the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis and the attempted Russian invasion of Ukraine has major implications for social policy. In advanced industrial countries, this is the most dramatic cost-of-living crisis since the mid-late 1970s and early 1980s. In this contribution, we explore the inflation and social policy nexus to identify the nature and sources of inflation, its redistributive and policy implications, and the specific nature of the current cost-of-living crisis compared to two other recent crises: the 2008 financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. Focusing on advanced industrial countries and drawing on the available scholarship about these topics, we offer the background necessary to understand the challenges facing welfare states in times of dramatically high inflation. As a way to provide broad context to the present themed section, our discussion stresses the economic, social, and political dynamics shaping social policy adaptation to inflationary pressures.

This text shows that reforms in Europe and the US in the early 2000's, reflect a strengthening of the role of the Market in the governance of activation, and an individualization of service delivery. More recent events point, however, to a shift of focus towards cuts in benefits and services

The sovereign debt crisis in the Eurozone and increased pressures for 'structural reform' have led to a period of intensive change in labour market policy in Southern Europe. Examining the cases of Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy, this article focuses on the security of labour market insiders, a key group in labour markets that is highly segmented. The security of labour market insiders is conceptualised as consisting of security in employment (protection against dismissals) and security in unemployment (protection against drops in income provided by unemployment insurance and assistance). Using changes in national laws, the article charts and compares labour market change along these two dimensions across these four Southern European countries. Because labour market reform has not been restricted to Southern Europe, the article also compares these developments to broader changes in the countries of the Eurozone, using OECD and MISSOC data. Having demonstrated the degree to which the security of labour market insiders has diminished, the article concludes with an agenda for research on the policy dynamics of Southern European labour market reform in the wake of the financial crisis.