Globalisation, Integration and the Future of European Welfare States

This book argues that the welfare state cannot be understood purely as a set of social policy arrangements, but must be seen as a political institution, intended to achieve certain political objectives.

The political dimension of the welfare state is essential for understanding its initial emergence as well as assessing its ability to deal with contemporary challenges. Governments use welfare transfers to decrease the risk of political instability that may be politically disruptive and threaten to undermine social cohesion. The success of welfare institutions stems from their ability to foster a redistribution of resources and political consensus that has enabled long-term political stability and economic development.

The book develops a general model that looks at the interactive effects between welfare transfers, political instability and state capacity. It provides a unique theoretical contribution to the study of welfare spending in the context of globalisation and integration, analyses the key politial rationale for welfare programmes, namely their role in preserving social cohesion and governance and demonstrates clearly that welfare policies can be successfully adopted to meet new challenges and that retrenchment of the welfare state is not inevitable, using Scandinavia as a leading example of modern thinking policies.

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FILENAME GIZE000


TITLE: Globalisation, integration, and the future of the European welfare state

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AUTHOR: Theodora-Ismene Gizelis




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The success of welfare institutions stems from governments’ ability to foster a redistribution of resources and political consensus that enables long-term political stability and economic development. This study develops a general model that looks at the interactive effects between welfare transfers, political instability and state capacity. Welfare institutions face pressures from the challenges posed by a rapidly ageing European population as well as increasing economic globalisation and integration. The success of any welfare reforms to mitigate the impact of the existing demographic trends will depend on the political capacity of governments and the resources available to them. In this context, globalisation and economic integration do not just constitute a challenge, but may also provide solutions for strengthening state capacity and maintaining European welfare states.

This volume offers the compelling argument that the welfare state cannot be understood purely as a set of social policy arrangements, but must be seen as a political institution, intended to achieve certain political objectives. The political dimension of the welfare state is essential for understanding its initial emergence as well as assessing its ability to deal with contemporary challenges. Governments use welfare transfers to decrease the risk of political instability that may be politically disruptive and threaten to undermine social cohesion. This book analyses the tension between the incentives that governments face in the short term and the long term.



Lecturer at the Department of Government, Essex University and Research Associate at the Centre for the Study of Civil War, International Peace Research Institute, Oslo (PRIO).