Can the European Union 2020 Strategy Deliver on Social Inclusion?

In 2010, amidst the financial and sovereign debt crisis, the launching of a novel European strategy for “smart, sustainable and inclusive growth” signalled a significant step in the European coordination strategies for tackling poverty and social exclusion. Crucial in this respect is the unprecedented prominence accorded to a quantified goal in poverty reduction across the EU, to be achieved by 2020, along a supranational governance process that sets the ambitious aim of bringing the social field within the framework of EU financial and economic governance. In this paper, I critically examine how this new strategy has fared so far and what the expectations are for its effectiveness in combating poverty and social exclusion within the set timeframe.publishedVersio

Solidaridad y protección social en Grecia.

Sin resume

Challenges to Healthcare Reform in Crisis-Hit Greece

This paper critically examines the health reform trajectory in Greece in the last decade. The first part provides an overview of the Greek healthcare system shortly before the crisis, with an emphasis on the incomplete development of a national health system beset by inequalities in coverage and funding. At the backdrop of the crippling debt-crisis that engulfed the country in the late 2000s, the second part of the study tracks the major healthcare reforms under the successive bailout packages. These are examined from the point of view of whether they can secure the public system’s long-term viability and promote equity, or if they contribute to its withering away instead. The third part of the article looks at the impact of the austerity-driven reforms on inequalities in healthcare, highlighting some major findings regarding health outcomes.Este artigo analisa criticamente a trajetória da reforma da saúde na Grécia na última década. A primeira parte apresenta uma visão geral do sistema de saúde grego em vésperas da crise, com ênfase no desenvolvimento incompleto de um sistema nacional de saúde marcado por desigualdades na cobertura e no financiamento. No contexto da debilitante crise de endividamento em que o país mergulhou, no final da década de 2000, a segunda parte do estudo acompanha as principais reformas dos serviços de saúde sob os sucessivos programas de resgate. Estes são examinados da perspetiva da sua eventual capacidade de garantia de viabilidade do sistema público a longo prazo, questionando ainda se promovem a equidade, ou se, em vez disso, contribuem para o seu desaparecimento. Na terceira parte do artigo, analisa-se o impacto das reformas orientadas pela austeridade sobre as desigualdades nos cuidados de saúde e destaca-se algumas das principais conclusões sobre os resultados em matéria de saúde

Rattling Europe’s ordoliberal ‘iron cage’ : the contestation of austerity in Southern Europe

This article explains the popular revolt against austerity in Southern Europe as the outcome of profound politico-economic changes that are shaped by the transformation of the European Union’s (EU’s) macro-economic governance. It comprises three parts. The first part demonstrates how ordoliberalism – the Germanic variant of (neo)liberal economic thinking – was embedded in the EU’s new macro-economic governance, in processes that constitutionalise austerity and remove democratic controls over the economy. The second part examines the impact of austerity-driven reforms on welfare and employment in the aftermath of the sovereign debt crisis. These reforms undermined the social reproduction of Southern Europe’s familistic welfare model by destabilising three key pillars of social protection: employment security for households’ primary earners; small property ownership; and pension adequacy. The third part analyses the emergence of anti-austerity social politics in Southern Europe, both parliamentary and grassroots, and assesses their effectiveness in light of the collapse of public trust in both EU and domestic political institutions. The article concludes with our reflections on the fragility of EU’s integration process under the hegemony of ordoliberalism

The impact of New Public Management on efficiency : an analysis of Madrid’s hospitals.

Madrid has recently become the site of one the most controversial cases of public healthcare reform in the European Union. Despite the fact that the introduction of New Public Management (NPM) into Madrid hospitals has been vigorous, little scholarship has been done to test whether NPM actually led to technical efficiency. This paper is one of the first attempts to do so. We deploy a bootstrapped Data Envelopment Analysis to compare efficiency scores in traditionally managed hospitals and those operating with new management formulas. We do not find evidence that NPM hospitals are more efficient than traditionally managed ones. Moreover, our results suggest that what actually matters may be the management itself, rather than the management model

Can the European Union 2020 Strategy Deliver on Social Inclusion?

In 2010, amidst the financial and sovereign debt crisis, the launching of a novel European strategy for “smart, sustainable and inclusive growth” signalled a significant step in the European coordination strategies for tackling poverty and social exclusion. Crucial in this respect is the unprecedented prominence accorded to a quantified goal in poverty reduction across the EU, to be achieved by 2020, along a supranational governance process that sets the ambitious aim of bringing the social field within the framework of EU financial and economic governance. In this paper, I critically examine how this new strategy has fared so far and what the expectations are for its effectiveness in combating poverty and social exclusion within the set timeframe