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This paper is intended to make understand that in a changing capitalist world the limits of a welfare state are by and large given by the working of a globalising economy and by the responses of national democratic states. That is to say: the political room for manoeuvre appears to be more constrained than it used to be, and at the same time macro-economic policies were considered as outdated and ineffective. This cross-national development would have been conducive to a general pattern of retrenchment and transformation of welfare state arrangements (see: Pierson, 1996; Stephens et al. ...
In fact, this ‘wave of retrenchment’ and change of social policy making is - at least empirically - less uniform across most of the established welfare states (i. ... Yet, at the same time, political scientists demonstrated that partisan politics, corporatist arrangements and institutional factors accounted for a larger cross-national variation of welfare statism (see: Van Kersbergen, 2000; Swank, 2001; Castles, 2002; Keman, 2003). ... Although most students of the welfare state agree that the ‘old’ welfare state is in a state of transformation, they however disagree about its future shape and size (see: Evans, 1997; Keman, 1998; Armingeon, 1999; Stephens et al. ... ) types of welfare states, namely: the nexus between the ‘state’ of the labour market and the ‘rate’ of decommodification (see: Esping-Andersen, 1990; Kitschelt et al. ... Yet, the actual shaping of the ‘new’ welfare state regimes at present is still by and large politically directed. In this paper I shall therefore focus on, one, the relationship between labour markets and policy responses; and two, on the relationship between partisan politics, corporatism & fiscal constraints and the patterned cross-national variation of decommodification & recommodification. For the rate of commodification labour produces at the end of the day the social risks for which the existing format of most welfare states cannot cater for (Keman, 1998; Pierson, 2001) because the ‘traditional’ welfare state cannot sustain (any more? ... In this paper I will investigate the direction and size of change in public expenditure for active and passive labour market policies from 1985-2000 in European countries. The focus is in particular on Western Europe. The reason is that we expect that exactly during the 1990s the socio-economic policies of EUropean nations have been drastically transformed. The research question is whether these changes are significant in terms of a trend towards recommodification of the labour force or not (Kvist, 2000). ...
The aim is to establish whether or not there is a connection between the level of corporatism, political composition of the party-government, and membership of the E(M)U, on the one hand, and the direction and magnitude of changes in public expenditure for active and passive labour market policies, on the other. For we assume that these changes can tell us more about the future of an essential feature of the Welfare State, namely the rate of decommodification of labour (see: Esping-Andersen, 1990; Van Kersbergen, 1995; Stephens et al. ... In my view the development from decommodification towards recommodification would indicate a reformation of the ‘traditional’ welfare state to a ‘modern’ one, which is less characterized by surplus regulations (see: Keman, 1988; Kuhnle, 2000) and more by a combination of work before welfare as well as reduced levels of transfer oriented programmes and related expenditures (Keman, 1998; Becker and Van Kersbergen, 2002). In fact, the reputed term ‘workfare’ can be considered as an example of this development: no welfare benefits without employability, and - apart from job creation by public agents - a reduction of welfare is then functional for making people (look for) work. Hence, the state of the labour market is essential to make ‘workfare’ work. A first issue to be discussed in this paper is the ‘state’ of the labour market: who are participating (or not) and how are available jobs distributed across the labour force-population (men – women – young – old).
The second step is to establish in what direction and magnitude public expenditure for both active and passive labour market policies has developed between 1985 and 2000. To that end I shall compare changes in expenditure for both active and passive labour market policies and inspect in what way and how these policies have developed.
To determine whether these changes are significant or not, in terms of detecting a trend from decommodification towards recommodification, I have developed some indicators. ... Some of these countries, especially Sweden and other Scandinavian countries, are seen as representatives of the social democratic type of welfare state that is especially characterised by its active labour market policies. Others, like Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland, are seen as representatives of the continental-corporatist type of welfare state that have a history of passive labour market policies. The southern European countries are considered as a different kind of welfare state where family allowances are typical. However useful these distinctions and types may be I shall forward another classification in which there is more attention paid to the relationship (or not) between Social Democracy and Christian Democracy as founding fathers of the welfare state in non-Scandinavian Europe (see: also: Huber & Stephens, 2001).
Recent research suggests that in the 1990s a trade-off may have occurred between a passive and an active labour market policy aimed at creating part time jobs and stimulating early retirement. That is, a trade-off between work and welfare, or between decommodification and recommodification. ... passive labour market policies are predominant. Recommodification is defined as a combination of reducing unemployment benefits with the promotion of active labour market policies for education, schooling, public employment programmes and the like. The aim of this combination is to ensure that also the long term unemployed and unskilled can participate in the labour market (see Esping-Andersen 1996; Kvist 2000; Scharpf and Schmidt 2000; and Keman 2003).
The development from decommodification to recommodification is, of course, not only a matter of calculated policy-making by technocrats but for a large part dependent on partisan politics, style of governance and transnational pressures (in this case mainly from the EU). In this paper I shall therefore examine the weight of these factors with respect to their role in the reform of the welfare state and labour market policies. ...
The data for political composition of the governments are taken from Armingeon et al (2002) and from party programmes (derived from the MRG data set (Budge et al. ... I will use the following variables: (see Table 1 below)
the variables parties of the Left, Centre and Right in Government (parties in percentage of total cabinet posts, weighted by days) as an indicator for dominance of the government by different parties (Armingeon et al 2002) and in addition the identical measure is employed for Social and Christian Democracy as well as variables regarding electoral strength of both party families;
the programmatic scores on the welfare state within the party system (Welfare) of Social Democracy and Christian democracy as an indicator for their ideas on state intervention in the economy and on the welfare state (Budge et al., 2001);
finally I shall employ some variables representing the trans- and internationalisation of politics and economics in Europe. ...
[Table 1 about here]
But first I shall briefly discuss the concepts of Decommodification and Recommodification and the development of the labour market during the 1990s. Next the relevance of corporatism, the impact of party government and role of membership of the E(M)U for possible significant directions of changes in active and passive labour market policies will be elaborated. After presenting the main results of the cross-national investigation I shall attempt to account for the changes in labour market policy formation and their direction. ... However, this unemployment benefit is linked to an active labour market policy aimed at schooling, education and training and combined with employment subsidies and programmes. The goal of this active labour market policy is to get the long term unemployed in a better position to participate on the labour market (see also Kvist 2000). The universal right of an unemployment benefit is conditional upon the participation in on of the active labour market policy’s programmes. Recommodification in this sense is at the heart of the social democratic, Scandinavian type of welfare state with its emphasis on delivering welfare to work.
Approximate Word count = 6845
Approximate Pages = 27.4
(250 words per page double spaced)
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