Bruno Palier

Institutionalizing Dualism: Complementarities and Change in France and Germany

The French and German political economies have been significantly reconfigured over the past two decades. Although the changes have often been more piecemeal than revolutionary, their cumulative effects are profound. The authors characterize the changes that have taken place as involving the institutionalization of new forms of dualism and argue that what gives contemporary developments a different character from the past is that dualism is now explicitly underwritten by state policy. They see this outcome as the culmination of a sequence of developments, beginning in the field of industrial relations, moving into labor market dynamics, and finally finding institutional expression in welfare state reforms. Contrary to theoretical accounts that suggest that institutional complementarities support stability and institutional reproduction, the authors argue that the linkages across these realms have helped to translate employer strategies that originated in the realm of industrial relations into a stable, new, and less egalitarian model with state support.

Introduction: Does Europe Matter? Accession to EU and Social Policy Developments in Recent and New Member States

has resulted in much discussion focused on the impact of this change on EU institutions and on EU economics. Nonetheless, much less attention has been devoted to social policy. This special issue on enlargement, Europeanization and social policy is therefore intended to contribute to social policy aspects of enlargement. It asks two questions central to our understanding of social policy and the enlargement process: What is the role of EU governance and institutions in shaping the social dimensions of the enlargement process?; and is it desirable and possible to maintain levels of solidarity in an enlarged market of 450m people? In order to address these two crucial questions, this issue compares various processes of enlargement: the accessions of Greece and Spain are contrasted with preparations for enlargement in Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. The present issue constitutes a follow-up and enrichment of the debate opened by the Journal of European Social Policy on European enlargement and European integration (Debates section, 13(1), February 2003). Still the accent here is not placed on enlargement or accession per se but rather on Europeanization. Europeanization is the main reference point cross-cutting all contributions. Each contribution deals with the interplay, or lack of it, between EU and national (and subnational) policy making. The aim of the issue lies in the identification of the ways in which the EU may matter among new and older member states for shaping national social-policy developments. The issue includes seven contributions, covring a wide-ranging set of processes and trends of reform. The first and the last of them provide a general view of Eastern European welfare states. Nick Manning assesses changes in eight of the accession countries since 1989 and also analyses broad processes of evolution in the whole CEE area, thus offering crucial information on where accession countries stand among their neighbours, and on which reform trajectories are shared and which not. In turn, Noémi Lendvai’s review essay addresses academic debates on the social dimension of enlargement, the diversity of accession processes, and the issue of interterritorial solidarity. Four of the contributions are case-studies, devoted to Hungary, the Czech Republic, Greece and Spain (authored by Zsuzsa Ferge and Gábor Juhász; Martin Potůc̆ek; Dimitri Sotiropoulos; and Ana Guillén and Santiago Álvarez respectively). The literature on Southern Europe generally confirms that Mediterranean countries have ‘caught up’ from entering the EU as far as the development of their welfare system is concerned. The idea of comparing accession to the EU by two Southern and two Eastern countries was, first, to look for the conditions that allowed the catch-up scenario for Southern Europe and, second, to see whether these conditions are to be found in the case of CEE countries. The basic question is to see whether, and under which conditions, becoming a member of the EU makes a difference for national member state social-policy developments. In order to organize this comparison, the same questions are addressed in each national case and, thus, in markedly different contexts. Introduction: Does Europe matter? Accession to EU and social policy developments in recent and new member states

Changing France : the politics that markets make

Figures Tables Notes on the Contributors Introduction: The Politics of Social Change in France P.A.Hall PART ONE Capitalism, Coordination, and Economic Change: The French Political Economy since 1985 P.D.Culpepper New Patterns of Industrial Relations and Political Action since the 1980s M.Lallement The Transformation of Corporate Governance in France M.Goyer PART TWO The Long Good Bye to Bismarck? Changes in the French Welfare State B.Palier Different Nation, Same Nationhood: The Challenges of Immigrant Policy V.Guiraudon Social Generations, Life Changes and Welfare Regime Sustainability L.Chauvel PART THREE The Government of the European Union and a Changing France A.Smith The Ongoing March of Decentralization within the Post Jacobin State P.Le Gales PART FOUR The French Party System and the Crisis of Representation G.Grunberg Convergence, Fragmentation and Majority-Cycling in French Opinion R.Balme

Challenges and Change: Issues and Perspectives in the Analysis of Globalization and the European Welfare States

Globalization and its effects became key objects of concern in the late 1990s. Politicians, journalists and academics shared this concern, often expressed as a requirement for ‘less state and more market’ in the new global world. Most failed, however, to support their arguments with evidence. But in recent years, academic social scientists have sought to subject the notion of globalization and consideration of its effects to more balanced and empirically supported analysis. Various studies have also pointed to significant changes in welfare states in the 1980s and 1990s, especially in Europe, some even suggesting the demise of the classic European social model. Whilst there is an ever-growing literature on globalization,1 matched by a similar, if somewhat less rapidly burgeoning literature on welfare state change,2 comparatively little has been written on the interaction between the two.3 The key question with which this book concerns itself brings these two areas of study together and is: How far, and in what ways, has the process of globalization been implicated in recent changes to European welfare states? This question is deceptively simple and needs to be unpacked into a number of contributory questions and issues for analysis. What, exactly, is the globalization process, and which of its multiple aspects are most likely to affect national welfare states? What have been the most significant changes in European welfare states in recent years? What factors, besides globalization, have been implicated in such changes? Last, and not least, how far do these same welfare state changes affect and, indeed, mould the globalization process?

Introduction: The Usages of Europe in National Employment- friendly Welfare State Reforms

What is the use of EU policy? Does European integration influence national social policies? This book focuses on the relationship between European integration and its effects on national institutional and political settings. The most recent literature has shown that the EU is an important variable by which to understand recent welfare state changes, but it remains relatively unclear precisely how Europe matters. Our project is aimed explicitly at exploring and specifying what the political mechanisms are through which the EU plays a role in domestic social policy changes.

The Long Good Bye to Bismarck? Changes in the French Welfare State

From 1945 to the late 1970s, social policies in France expanded as one of the key features of the Keynesian compromises that underpinned the trente glorieuses. Social spending was perceived as favouring economic growth and employment, social insurance transfers were seen as consolidating social integration and (occupational) solidarity, and welfare-state institutions supported social peace. Since then, all the economic, social and political functions of the social protection systems have been called into question. After a long period of crisis and resistance, French social programmes are being reformed in order to become better adapted to the new economic and social environment. These reforms are supposed to increase the economic and social efficiency of social policies. Whether they are also politically legitimate and socially just remains questionable.

The Politics of Pension Reform in France: The End of Exceptionalism?

This book comprehensively documents developments in pension policy in eleven advanced industrial countries in Western Europe, East Asia and North America. In order to explore what population ageing means for the sustainability of pension systems, the authors present a detailed review of pension policy making over the past two decades and provide up-to-date analysis of current pension legislation. They examine the factors that can facilitate or impede the adaptation of pension systems and the features that shape and determine reforms. They also highlight the fact that although the path of reform taken by each country is somewhat different, the processes at work are often very similar.

Social policy paradigms, welfare state reforms and the crisis

The welfare state and the capitalist economy: rhe successive Keynesian, supply-side and social investment social policy paradigms. - lnstitutional change and common paths in social policies: from supply side policies to a social investment strategy? - Institutional change: the Three Worlds of welfare reforms in the last two decades in Europe. - What about the crisis?

DOMESTIC RECONCILIATION POLICIES AND THE USAGES OF EUROPE

In recent years, European institutions have promoted the development of reconciliation policies in an overall context where most European countries are saying ‘farewell to maternalism’ (Orloff 2006) and are now implementing policies aimed at helping individuals (especially women) to combine paid work and family responsibilities. Is it possible to consider that these changes in national reconciliation policies have been due to EU actions in this policy field and, if so, what are the mechanisms of possible EU influence? In section one, we review the Europeanisation literature in order to situate our own perspective. In the second section, we present our approach in terms of ‘national usages of Europe’. In section three, we come back to the policy content to be analysed, presenting the EU definitions of reconciliation policies, and reviewing the tools we have used to situate each national case of care regimes and reconciliation policies. In the fourth section, we introduce our common hypotheses and the analytical framework that is used in all the articles of this special issue. Finally, in section five, we summarise our main findings.

France: Promoting Funded Pensions in Bismarckian Corporatism?

Following the Bismarckian social insurance tradition, the post-war pension system of France has been characterized by occupational fragmentation, its strong reliance on pay-as-you-go financing, and by the direct involvement of employers and trade unions in their management. Generous benefits offered a combination of statutory public pension and mandatory occupational pensions, initially crowding out any funded private pensions. However, pension reforms that promoted retrenchment both in the two pay-as-you-go-financed statutory public and occupational pension schemes since the 1990s have resulted in the gradual development of funded private pensions. In recent years, the governance of mandatory occupational schemes has been harmonized and inequalities between different occupational categories have been reduced. While the regulatory framework governing voluntarily funded plans (both occupational and personal pensions) has been largely unified, access to these schemes remains mostly limited to high-skilled employees.