Martin Seeleib-Kaiser

Economic Globalization and the Welfare State in Affluent Democracies, 1975-1998

Previous scholarship is sharply divided over how or if globalization influences welfare states. The effects of globalization may be positive causing expansion, negative triggering crisis and reduction, curvilinear contributing to convergence, or insignificant. We bring new evidence to bear on this debate with an analysis of three welfare state measures and a comprehensive array of economic globalization indicators for 17 affluent democracies from 1975 to 2001. The analysis suggests several conclusions. First, state-of-the-art welfare state models warrant revision in the globalization era. Second, most indicators of economic globalization do not have significant effects, but a few affect the welfare state and improve models of welfare state variation. Third, the few significant globalization effects are in differing directions and often inconsistent with extant theories. Fourth, the globalization effects are far smaller than the effects of domestic political and economic factors. Fifth, the effects of globalization are not systematically different between European and non-European countries, or liberal and non-liberal welfare regimes. Increased globalization and a modest convergence of the welfare state have occurred, but globalization does not clearly cause welfare state expansion, crisis, and reduction or convergence. Ultimately, this study suggests skepticism toward bold claims about globalizations effect on the welfare state.

Sozial- und Wirtschaftspolitik unter Rot-Grün

1. Einfuhrung - 2. Theoretischer Rahmen - 3. Politikfeldanalysen: Arbeitsmarkt - Familienpolitik - Rentenpolitik - Gesundheitspolitik - Bildung - Sozialhilfe - Soziale Dienste - Gleichberechtigung/Gleichstellung - Einwanderungspolitik/Staatsburgerschaft - Steuer- und Haushaltspolitik - Wirtschaftspolitik - 4. Neue politische Entscheidungsmuster? - 5. Fazit

Business, skills and the welfare state: the political economy of employment-oriented family policy in Britain and Germany

Family policies have been expanded in many OECD countries, whilst developments along other welfare state dimensions have been characterized by retrenchment. Although the contribution of gender analyses of the welfare state to a better understanding of family policies is widely acknowledged, the literature so far has largely failed to provide a comparative account explaining the recent expansions of employment-oriented family policies in countries that were previously categorized as pursuing policies in accordance with the strong male breadwinner model. This article aims to make a contribution to the comparative literature by investigating the socioeconomic conditions and politics of employment-oriented family policy expansions in Britain and Germany since the 1990s. We pay special attention to processes of post-industrialisation and especially changed skill compositions as well as the role of key policy actors, with a special focus on organized business.

The Dual Transformation of Social Protection and Human Capital: Comparing Britain and Germany

Britain and Germany have been experiencing significant changes in the nature of work and welfare since the 1990s. Although important differences have remained, there have been compelling indications of a dual transformation of welfare constituted not only by a far-reaching retrenchment in unemployment insurance but also by a remarkable expansion in family policy. These developments have their functional underpinnings in accelerating de-industrialization with a declining proportion of the male workforce with specific skills as well as in service sector growth and rising female labor market participation characterized by an increase in general skills. As the aggregate effect of economic fluctuations in industrial production has diminished over time, the relative incidence of work disruptions which have arisen from maternity and child-rearing has increased substantially. This dual transformation in welfare and employment patterns suggests that the process of de-industrialization has initiated significant path adjustments unanticipated in the existing comparative political economy literature.

Zum Wandel wohlfahrtsstaatlicher Sicherung in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland: Zwischen Lohnarbeit und Familie

Zusammenfassung Die aktuellen Debatten zur wohlfahrtsstaatlichen Entwicklung in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland stellen den Ausgangspunkt dieser Analyse dar. Wir argumentieren, daß wir weder Zeugen eines alleinigen wohlfahrtsstaatlichen Abbaus, basierend auf einer neoliberalen Ideologie, noch Zeugen einer politischen Blockade und eines damit einhergehenden sozialpolitischen Stillstandes sind. Vielmehr deuten unsere vorläufigen Ergebnisse auf einen Wandel hin, in dessen Verlauf sich der bundesrepublikanische Wohlfahrtsstaat langsam von seinem traditionellen zentralen Charakteristikum der ‚Lohnarbeitszentriertheit’ lösen und sukzessive einer auf die Unterstützung familialer Gemeinschaften orientierten Politik zuwenden könnte. Für einen solchen Wandel des bundesdeutschen Wohlfahrtsstaates finden wir auf beiden Analyseebenen, den konkreten Maßnahmen sowie den politischen Deutungen, plausible Anhaltspunkte.

Socio-Economic Change, Party Competition and Intra-Party Conflict: The Family Policy of the Grand Coalition

The German welfare state has historically been characterised as a prototype of the ‘strong male breadwinner model’. Although there have been incremental innovations and expansions of various family policies since the mid-1980s, which accelerated during the Red–Green government of the late 1990s and early 2000s, it is argued that paradigmatic change towards an employment-oriented family policy only came about during the Grand Coalition. This article systematically analyses family policy change and the factors that have determined it.

Solidarity against All Odds

In an era of fiscal austerity and dualization of social protection, has organized labor become increasingly split along skill and industry lines? Against recent political science accounts of trade union involvement in social policymaking, this paper argues that, in the specific area of pensions, unions representing high-skilled workers and the core industrial sectors of the economy have paradoxically been led to increase their cooperation with unions representing the less privileged segments of labor, in order to improve coverage of private pensions across the board. These unions’ motivations for doing so and the strategies they have employed have nonetheless differed according to the preexisting institutional design of domestic pension systems. The argument is supported with case studies of British, French, German, and Belgian unions’ involvement in contemporary pension reform.

Welfare State Transformations in Comparative Perspective: Shifting Boundaries of ‘Public’ and ‘Private’ Social Policy?

The dividing line between the ‘public’ and the ‘private’ is not fixed, but usually contested and constantly renegotiated (cf. Shonfield, 1965). During the so-called golden era of welfare state capitalism, direct public provision of social policy was perceived as the core element for the realization of ‘social citizenship’ (Marshall, 1950), social integration or the reduction of poverty by a majority of political actors and social scientists in Western Europe. Although the family, voluntary organizations and the market had been identified in addition to the state as constituent parts of the mixed economy of welfare very early on, the attention within public debates and academic analyses has been on the nation state as a financier and provider of social policy (Titmuss, 1958). Over the past two decades, however, public debates in many countries and international organizations have shifted, calling for a greater emphasis on private arrangements, said to be mainly resulting from a combination of three socio-economic developments: globalization, rapidly ageing societies and individualization.

Solidarity against All Odds: Trade Unions and the Privatization of Pensions in the Age of Dualization

In an era of fiscal austerity and dualization of social protection, has organized labor become increasingly split along skill and industry lines? Against recent political science accounts of trade union involvement in social policy-making, this paper argues that, in the specific area of pensions, unions representing high-skilled workers and the core industrial sectors of the economy have been paradoxically led to increase their cooperation with unions representing the less privileged segments of labor, and this in order to improve coverage of private pensions across the board. These unions’ motivations for doing so and the strategies they have employed have nonetheless differed according to the pre-existing institutional design of domestic pension systems. The argument is supported with case studies of British, French, German and Belgian unions’ involvement in contemporary pension reform.

What do parties want? : An analysis of programmatic social policy aims in Austria, Germany, and the Netherlands

Comparative welfare state research has argued for some time that whether Social Democrats or Christian Democrats are in government makes a difference with regard to specific welfare state design. The theory is based on the fact that, historically, the social policy aims of Social Democrats and Christian Democrats have differed. Can these policy differences still be assumed after almost three decades, which have been characterised by a discourse about ‘necessary’ welfare state retrenchment, adaptation, and modification? Based on an in-depth analysis of the social policy aims of the Social Democrats and Christian Democrats in Austria, Germany, and the Netherlands since 1975, we argue that, the differences between the two welfare state parties in formerly conservative welfare states have largely faded away.