IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/streco/v51y2019icp35-41.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Retrenching, recalibrating, pre-distributing. The welfare state facing old and new inequalities

Author

Listed:
  • Saraceno, Chiara

Abstract

The paper discusses two of the main ideational frameworks - social investment and transitional labor markets - that have been developed to counter both the neo-liberal critique of the welfare state and the weakening of its historical bases, focusing in particular on whether and how they address the issue of socially structured inequalities. It argues that they address only marginally the issue of growing inequality and its causes and that this limitation is partly due to their theoretical approach, partly to the fact that inequality must be tackled not only ex post, through redistribution, but ex ante, intervening at the sources of its formation and reproduction, thus at the pre-distributive level. This perspective, however, needs overcoming national boundaries that have been already weakened by market globalization and migration movements, which have partly undermined individual countries’ ability to circumscribe and fund their welfare state.

Suggested Citation

  • Saraceno, Chiara, 2019. "Retrenching, recalibrating, pre-distributing. The welfare state facing old and new inequalities," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 35-41.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:streco:v:51:y:2019:i:c:p:35-41
    DOI: 10.1016/j.strueco.2019.07.010
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0954349X19301511
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.strueco.2019.07.010?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Davide Furceri & Prakash Loungani & Jonathan D. Ostry, 2019. "The Aggregate and Distributional Effects of Financial Globalization: Evidence from Macro and Sectoral Data," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 51(S1), pages 163-198, December.
    2. Barr, Nicholas, 2001. "The Welfare State as Piggy Bank: Information, Risk, Uncertainty, and the Role of the State," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199246595.
    3. Castles, Francis G., 2004. "The Future of the Welfare State: Crisis Myths and Crisis Realities," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199273928.
    4. Willem Adema & Pauline Fron & Maxime Ladaique, 2014. "How much do OECD countries spend on social protection and how redistributive are their tax/benefit systems?," International Social Security Review, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 67(1), pages 1-25, January.
    5. Gunther Schmid, 2003. "Activating labour market policy: 'flexicurity' through transitional labout markets," Chapters, in: Jean-Philippe Touffut (ed.), Institutions, Innovation and Growth, chapter 3, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    6. Salverda, Wiemer & Nolan, Brian & Checchi, Daniele & Marx, Ive & McKnight, Abigail & Toth, Istvan Gy (ed.), 2014. "Changing Inequalities in Rich Countries: Analytical and Comparative Perspectives," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199687435.
    7. Philipp Doerrenberg & Andreas Peichl, 2014. "The impact of redistributive policies on inequality in OECD countries," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(17), pages 2066-2086, June.
    8. Orsetta Causa & Mikkel Hermansen, 2017. "Income redistribution through taxes and transfers across OECD countries," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 1453, OECD Publishing.
    9. Crepaz, Markus M. L., 2002. "Duane Swank, Global Capital, Political Institutions, and Policy Change in Developed Welfare States. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2002," Journal of Public Policy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 22(01), pages 101-106, January.
    10. Swank,Duane, 2002. "Global Capital, Political Institutions, and Policy Change in Developed Welfare States," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521806688, October.
    11. Salverda, Wiemer & Nolan, Brian & Smeeding, Timothy M. (ed.), 2011. "The Oxford Handbook of Economic Inequality," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199606061.
    12. Swank,Duane, 2002. "Global Capital, Political Institutions, and Policy Change in Developed Welfare States," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521001441, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Buendía, Luis & Barredo, Juan & Balay, Juan, 2022. "Foreign sector and welfare state in Sweden: From complementarity to tensions," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 310-319.
    2. Xincheng Zhu & Yulin Liu & Xin Fang, 2022. "Revisiting the Sustainable Economic Welfare Growth in China: Provincial Assessment Based on the ISEW," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 162(1), pages 279-306, July.
    3. Della Porta, Donatella & Galbraith, James & Pianta, Mario, 2022. "Introduction to the special issue ‘The political consequences of inequality’," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 389-390.
    4. Porta, Donatella Della & Portos, Martín, 2020. "Social movements in times of inequalities: Struggling against austerity in Europe," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 116-126.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jon Olaskoaga-Larrauri & Ricardo Aláez-Aller & Pablo Díaz-de-Basurto, 2010. "Retrenchment or Resilience? New Evidence on Relative Social Expenditure Trends," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 28(5), pages 923-942, October.
    2. Vincent Mahler, 2006. "Electoral Turnout and Income Redistribution by the State: A Cross-National Analysis of the Developed Democracies," LIS Working papers 455, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    3. Bergh, Andreas, 2006. "Explaining Welfare State Survival: The Role of Economic Freedom and Globalization," Ratio Working Papers 101, The Ratio Institute.
    4. Obinger, Herbert & Leibfried, Stephan & Bogedan, Claudia & Gindulis, Edith & Moser, Julia, 2004. "Beyond resilience: Welfare state changes in Austria, Denmark, New Zealand and Switzerland," TranState Working Papers 5, University of Bremen, Collaborative Research Center 597: Transformations of the State.
    5. Brady, David & Lee, Hang Young, 2014. "The rise and fall of government spending in affluent democracies, 1971-2008," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 24(1), pages 56-79.
    6. Castles, Francis G., 2006. "The growth of the post-war public expenditure state: long-term trajectories and recent trends," TranState Working Papers 35, University of Bremen, Collaborative Research Center 597: Transformations of the State.
    7. Mathew Y. H. Wong, 2013. "Median Voter and Power Resources Revisited: A Composite Model of Inequality," LIS Working papers 584, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    8. Jon Olaskoaga-Larrauri & Ricardo Aláez-Aller & Pablo Díaz-de-Basurto, 2010. "Measuring is Believing! Improving Conventional Indicators of Welfare State Development," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 96(1), pages 113-131, March.
    9. Starke, Peter, 2005. "Resilient or residual? From the wage earners' welfare state to market conformity in New Zealand," TranState Working Papers 22, University of Bremen, Collaborative Research Center 597: Transformations of the State.
    10. Molinder, Jakob & Karlsson, Tobias & Enflo, Kerstin, 2022. "Social democracy and the decline of strikes," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    11. Niamh Hardiman, 2007. "Governing the Economy," Working Papers 200739, Geary Institute, University College Dublin.
    12. Georgieva, Daniela & Georgieva, Teodora, 2020. "A study of social policies based on the example of the Bulgarian hotels on the Black Sea coast," MPRA Paper 105291, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2020.
    13. Thibault Darcillon, 2013. "What Causes Labor-Market Volatility? The Role of Finance and Welfare State Institutions," Post-Print halshs-00881198, HAL.
    14. Francois Nielsen & David Bradley & John D. Stephens & Evelyne Huber & Stephanie Moller, 2001. "The Welfare State and Gender Equality," LIS Working papers 279, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    15. Enflo, Kerstin & Molinder, Jakob & Karlsson, Tobias, 2018. "The Power Resource Theory Revisited: What Explains the Decline in Industrial Conflicts in Sweden?," CEPR Discussion Papers 13130, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    16. Alber, Jens, 2010. "What - if anything - is undermining the European Social Model?," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Inequality and Social Integration SP I 2010-202, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    17. Rixen, Thomas, 2008. "Politicization and institutional (non-) change in international taxation [Politisierung und institutioneller (Nicht-)Wandel des internationalen Steuerregimes]," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Global Governance SP IV 2008-306, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    18. Ewald Engelen, 2007. "‘Amsterdamned’? The Uncertain Future of a Financial Centre," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 39(6), pages 1306-1324, June.
    19. Duane Swank, 2015. "The Political Foundations of Redistribution in Post-industrial Democracies," LIS Working papers 653, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    20. Molana, Hassan & Montagna, Catia, 2006. "Aggregate scale economies, market integration, and optimal welfare state policy," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(2), pages 321-340, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:streco:v:51:y:2019:i:c:p:35-41. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/525148 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.