Prospects for a European welfare state: Lessons from welfare state development in six OECD-Federations

This paper uses the findings of a very recent major international research collaboration on the impact of federal arrangements on the development of the welfare state to explore the possibilities of progress beyond Europe's present diversity of nation-state welfare standards. These findings - based on the longterm historical experience of the OECD's oldest federations - suggest that federal arrangements tend to slow down welfare state consolidation, but that much depends on the context of historical development. The emergence of bypass mechanisms circumventing federal veto-points is located as the key to welfare progress, and the role of regulation in European integration and the special role of the ECJ as well as that of "the open method of co-ordination" are tentatively identified as possible EU bypass equivalents. --

Prospects for a European welfare state : lessons from welfare state development in six OECD-Federations

This paper uses the findings of a very recent major international research collaboration on the impact of federal arrangements on the development of the welfare state to explore the possibilities of progress beyond Europe’s present diversity of nation-state welfare standards. These findings – based on the longterm historical experience of the OECD’s oldest federations – suggest that federal arrangements tend to slow down welfare state consolidation, but that much depends on the context of historical development. The emergence of bypass mechanisms circumventing federal veto-points is located as the key to welfare progress, and the role of regulation in European integration and the special role of the ECJ as well as that of ‘the open method of co-ordination’ are tentatively identified as possible EU bypass equivalents

New Keywords: Migration and Borders

“New Keywords: Migration and Borders” is a collaborative writing project aimed at developing a nexus of terms and concepts that fill-out the contemporary problematic of migration. It moves beyond traditional and critical migration studies by building on cultural studies and post-colonial analyses, and by drawing on a diverse set of longstanding author engagements with migrant movements. The paper is organized in four parts (i) Introduction, (ii) Migration, Knowledge, Politics, (iii) Bordering, and (iv) Migrant Space/Times. The keywords on which we focus are: Migration/Migration Studies; Militant Investigation; Counter-mapping; Border Spectacle; Border Regime; Politics of Protection; Externalization; Migrant Labour; Differential inclusion/exclusion; Migrant struggles; and Subjectivity

The Oxford Handbook of the Welfare State

The Oxford Handbook of the Welfare State is the authoritative and definitive guide to the contemporary welfare state. In a volume consisting of nearly fifty newly-written chapters, a broad range of the world's leading scholars offer a comprehensive account of everything one needs to know about the modern welfare state. The Handbook is divided into eight sections. It opens with three chapters that evaluate the philosophical case for (and against) the welfare state. Surveys of the welfare state's history and of the approaches taken to its study are followed by four extended sections, running to some thirty-five chapters in all, which offer a comprehensive and in-depth survey of our current state of knowledge across the whole range of issues that the welfare state embraces. The first of these sections looks at inputs and actors (including the roles of parties, unions, and employers), the impact of gender and religion, patterns of migration and a changing public opinion, the role of international organisations and the impact of globalization. The next two sections cover policy inputs (in areas such as pensions, health care, disability, care of the elderly, unemployment, and labour market activation) and their outcomes (in terms of inequality and poverty, macroeconomic performance, and retrenchment). The seventh section consists of seven chapters which survey welfare state experience around the globe (and not just within the OECD). Two final chapters consider questions about the global future of the welfare state

Introduction (The Oxford Handbook of the Welfare state)

This article discusses the book, which elucidates the philosophical justifications underlying the welfare state; the approaches, methods, and disciplinary perspectives of comparative social policy research; and the historical development and driving forces of the welfare state, its past achievements, contemporary challenges, and likely future developments. The origins of the Western welfare state date back to the last quarter of the nineteenth century and are closely associated with deep societal, economic, and political transformations taking place at that time. The most influential critique � in terms of its real-world political consequences � was that articulated by theories of neoliberalism. Structural change in the economy in combination with intensified international regime competition triggered fundamental changes in labour markets. There are many who predict the global transfer of power from the United States to China � but a transfer of that magnitude has never before been achieved peacefully

Post-War Welfare State Development – The Temporal Perspective

Nullmeier F, Kaufmann F-X. Post-War Welfare State Development – The Temporal Perspective. In: Castles FG, Leibfried S, Lewis J, Obinger H, Pierson C, eds. The Oxford Handbook of the Welfare State. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2010: 81-101