The State of the Welfare State

Books reviewed in this article:
J.M Wildeboer Schut, J.C Vrooman and P.T de Beer, On Worlds of Welfare: Institutions and their Effects in Eleven Welfare States
Jørgen Goul Andersen and Per H Jensen, Changing Labour Markets, Welfare Policies and Citizenship     

丹麦的福利政策

丹麦的福利政策已经成为与市场经济、技术和社会可能协调发展的一个范例 ,与此同时 ,这一政策能够确保社会成员的高度平等 ,也使得社会福利政策能更好地关注儿童、老年人及卫生事业。这一政策同时能够确保丹麦人享有较高的生活水平 ,也能够确保丹麦经济的持续发展。《丹麦福利政策的历史》一文阐释了形成这一政策的关键原因是核心人物在制定这一政策方面所表现出的高度一致 ,即初期主要是工人、农民的意愿 ,但随后各主要党派对创造平等的生活水平作为目标都形成了政治共识。因此 ,与其它国家相比 ,丹麦的福利政策能够将占GDP比重较高的税…     

Welfare State and Welfare Society

This paper updates and extends my earlier work on how the middle class fares throughout the world based on the microdata sets that comprise the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS). Wave #6 LIS data, recently released and centered around 2004, provides an opportunity to assess what has happened to the size of the middle class around the world in the early 2000s. In contrast to the 1980s and 1990s, there was no noticeable decline in the middle class during the early 2000s. The paper provides further evidence that the size of the middle class in each nation depends mainly on government tax and spending policies. In particular, it shows the key role played by family allowances and paid family leave in supporting a national middle class.     

The Globalization–Welfare State Nexus Reconsidered

Two hypotheses relate to the globalization–welfare state nexus: the efficiency hypothesis predicts that globalization reduces government sector size and governments' capacity to finance the welfare state. The compensation hypothesis, in contrast, predicts that globalization induces a higher demand for social insurance which results in an extended welfare state. Empirical evidence on the globalization–welfare state nexus is mixed. The evidence is re‐examined by investigating a yearly panel dataset of 186 countries for the 1970–2004 period. This paper uses data compiled by the Penn World Tables on government sector size and employs the Konjunkturforschungsstelle (KOF—Swiss Economic Institute) index of globalization. The results show that globalization increased government sectors around the world. Social globalization especially had a positive influence. Globalization‐induced effects were stronger in Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development (OECD) countries. Overall globalization and economic globalization reduced the relative price of government expenditures. These findings suggest that globalization does not jeopardize the welfare state at all.     

Disability Retirement in a Welfare State

The increasing number of disability pensioners may put a strain on the welfare state. In this paper, we try to assess the effect of financial incentives on disability entrance. A sample of Norwegians on long-term sick leave at the beginning of 1989 is examined as of the end of 1989, and the exit routes are studied in a multinomial logit model. The results indicate that the incentive effects of wages are larger than the disincentive effects of benefits. Furthermore, there is no evidence that having a "subjective" diagnosis affects the probability of becoming a disability pensioner.
JEL Classification : H 55; I 18; J 26     

The Welfare State, Budgetary Pressure and Labour Market Shifts

Public debate about the welfare state in OECD countries has emphasized the need for reform to meet a twofold set of shocks: budgetary pressure and a labour market shift against unskilled workers. The aim of the paper is to set out a framework for examining the implications of these shocks for the optimal scale of social transfers and, in particular, the impact on different societies, distinguishing a restricted welfare state, labelled "the United States" and a more extensive welfare state, labelled "Continental Europe".     

The Environmental Paradox of the Welfare State: The Dynamics of Sustainability

Thus far, there has been a reluctance to instigate a dialogue and engage with the tensions between two literatures with significant insights for each other. The first is the literature on the fiscal sustainability of welfare states, which is invariably predicated upon future growth primarily to manage demographic changes. The second is the post-growth literature, which has enjoyed a renaissance in recent years due to an environmental critique of economic growth. Both literatures contain implications for the analysis of welfare state sustainability. The primary contribution of this paper will be to explore the intractability of the tensions between these discourses and the difficulty of mapping out a progressive policy direction in the twenty-first century which meets both our environmental and social sensibilities. It is claimed that in the post-industrial world the fiscal sustainability of welfare capitalism is dependent upon public expenditure financed indirectly an environmentally unsustainable growth dynamic, but that ironically any conflagration of public welfare programmes is likely to be counter-productive as the welfare state is able to promote de-carbonisation strategies and notions of the public good as well as promoting monetarily and ecologically efficient public welfare services.     

International Integration, Risk and the Welfare State

How does international integration affect the welfare state? Does it call for a leaner or an expanded welfare state? International integration may affect the distortions caused by welfare state activities but also the risks motivating social insurance mechanisms. This paper addresses these potentially counteracting effects in a fully specified intertemporal two–country stochastic endowment model, focusing on the implications when product market integration reduces trade frictions across national product markets. It is shown that lower trade frictions may increase the marginal costs of public funds, which gives an argument for reducing (steady–state) public consumption. However, tighter integration of product markets unambiguously leads to more variability in private consumption, and this gives a case for expanding the social insurance provided via state–contingent public sector activities (automatic stabilizers). JEL classification: E30; F10; H11     

Migration,Foreign Aid and the Welfare State

Aspects related to the links between international migration, foreign aid and the welfare state are highlighted in this paper. Migration is modeled as a costly movement from an aid‐recipient developing country with low income and no welfare state, towards a rich donor, developed country with a well‐developed welfare state. Within this model, it is found, among other things, that the best response of the developed donor country is to increase aid as the co‐financing rate by the recipient country increases. When the immigration cost decreases, e.g. as a result of greater economic integration between the two countries, it is beneficial for the donor country to increase aid and the recipient country to increase the co‐financing rate.     

论中国国家福利的重构

社会权利是公民权利的一部分,社会政策对保持一个和谐的社会起决定的作用。在福利国家发展进程中,社会政策对于自由放任资本主义导致的两极分化起了缓和社会矛盾、保障社会安全的根本性作用。中国应该根据经济和社会发展的现状和国际社会的经验,调整社会政策,推进国家福利的重构,这是消除市场经济体制下出现的社会发展不和谐因素,促进社会和谐的治本之策。     

Colonialism,Postcolonialism and the Liberal Welfare State

ABSTRACT

This article addresses the colonial and racial origins of the welfare state with a particular emphasis on the liberal welfare state of the USA and UK. Both are understood in terms of the centrality of the commodified status of labour power expressing a logic of market relations. In contrast, we argue that with a proper understanding of the relations of capitalism and colonialism, the sale of labour power as a commodity already represents a movement away from the commodified form of labour represented by enslavement. European colonialism is integral to the development of welfare states and their forms of inclusion and exclusion which remain racialised through into the twenty-first century.     

日本地域福利的现状及其走向——以东京都调布市“生活支援照看网络”为例

日本社会福利的制度化框架自1940-1950年代确立以来,其社会福利服务理念不断成熟、规范,特别是随着1970年代地域福利的推进,建设福利社区的计划也在逐步实现.本文拟通过东京都调布市"生活支援照看网络"这一案例的研究来分析日本地域福利的现状,并透过地域中具有连带关系的福利共同体的视角来分析日本地域福利的发展趋势,以期对我国的社会福利事业发展有所启示.     

从布莱尔政府的福利改革看福利国家的转型

布莱尔政府福利改革的主要目的在于调整国家在社会福利中的角色和减轻政府的财政负担,这次改革涉及到劳动就业、养老保险、医疗保健等各个方面.布莱尔政府的福利改革是对福利国家弊端的一种应对措施,反映了由福利国家向社会投资型国家转型的这一当代潮流.