Maria Petmesidou

Can the Welfare State as We Know It Survive? A View from the Crisis-Ridden South European Periphery

South European countries have been hit hardest and longest by the post-2008 economic crisis. This has brought their welfare states under acute strain. Unmet need has sharply increased while significant welfare reforms and (more or less) deep cuts and changes in social spending have been prominent in the repertoire of the crisis management solutions implemented by the governments (under European Union constraints and the strict rescue-deal requirements for Greece and Portugal). This introduction briefly reviews reform trends prior to and during the crisis in order to highlight convergent and divergent paths among the four countries and outline the major questions addressed by the contributions to this volume.

Is social protection in Greece at a crossroads

ABSTRACT This paper critically examines the limitations and deadlocks of welfare patterns embedded in the statist-familialist regime that for a long-time has been pivotal for the institutional set up and processes of social redistribution in Greece. Changes to social protection under the combined effect of conflicts and impasses of this regime, and of an intractable sovereign debt crisis (largely due to accumulated deadlocks) that has engulfed the country since the late 2000s are our main focus. Current welfare reforms across major policy areas are examined, with the aim to foreshadow the direction of impending change; and, particularly, to trace any indications of whether reform can bolster ‘inclusive solidarity’ and improve redistribution or, instead, will bring about heightened insecurity.

South European Healthcare Systems under Harsh Austerity: A Progress–Regression Mix?

This article addresses the question of whether the economic crisis provides a politically opportune time to drastically curtail public healthcare in South Europe or whether, instead, there are signs of longer-term reform strategies for potentially balancing fiscal targets with the quest for enhanced value and health outcomes, when eventually growth resumes. After a brief examination of the profile of healthcare systems in Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain prior to the crisis, we comparatively assess the mix of retrenchment, restructuring and recalibration strategies. The effects of the austerity-driven reforms on current (and expected) health outcomes are also briefly analysed. We conclude with reflections on the future of public healthcare in South Europe.

The Public-Private Mix in Southern Europe: What Changed in the Last Decade?

Welfare states are undergoing a process of transformation that redraws the balance between the public-private welfare mix under the pressure of rapid socio-economic and political changes. Southern European (SE) countries experienced an expansionary phase of social welfare over much of the 1980s, but soon faced serious fiscal constraints that became even more pressing when these countries embarked on the project to join the European Monetary Union. This considerably stalled the welfare state expansion trends of the 1980s and called for comprehensive social reforms. In this endeavour a common language for institutional change and policy reform developed, embracing guidelines, strategic options, benchmarking and other performance criteria, in the various fields of co-ordinated European strategies (e.g. equal opportunities, employment policy and social inclusion, pensions and health), which deeply affected research and policy agendas. Nevertheless, different starting points, socio-cultural patterns, institutional structures and reform capacities account for a variety of responses. In Spain, Italy and, to a lesser extent, Portugal negotiated agreements have been important vehicles of structural reform.

Mass Higher Education and the Social Sciences in Greece

This article aims to contribute to the debate on major changes in tertiary education in Europe over the last 15 years by focusing on mass higher education in Greece and the place of the social sciences in it. It examines the main objectives and effects of the significant educational reform, introduced by the Panhellenic Socialist Party in the early 1980s, and of the subsequent amendments to it, with an emphasis on excessive state control over higher education, and the statist/clientelistic mode in which graduate markets function in Greek society. These characteristics account for many of the rigidities in the structure of the social sciences and put severe limits on the ability of the Greek higher education system to respond to the challenges of European competition in education and research.