Peter Abrahamson

The Welfare Modelling Business

The paper starts out by identifying a substantial increase in the use of welfare state typologies within comparative studies. This has developed to a degree where many authors take it for granted that the world consists of a limited number of well-defined welfare regimes. This discussion took off in 1990 and it is expected to continue as an important dimension of welfare and social policy research long into the next millennium. It is shown that the idea of ordering welfare states according to ideal-typical models dates back to the late 1950s and was elaborated substantially during the early 1970s, though rather unnoticed. The publication of Esping-Andersens The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism in 1990 is identified as the starting point for what has now become a whole academic industry, here entitled the Welfare Modelling Business. Different typologies with different degrees of differentiation are discussed: should we consider welfare capitalism to come in two, three, four or more models? Though the differentiation into regimes is widely recognized, there have, of course, been many discussions about problems and shortcomings. Two major issues are elaborated: the one-sided focus on social insurance provisions and the simultaneous neglect of personal social services; and the parallel one-sided focus on state and market and the neglect of civil societal institutions such as family and networks. The paper concludes that welfare typologizing must take into account the kinds of programmes analysed: context matters.

The Dutch and Danish Miracles Revisited: A Critical Discussion of Activation Policies in Two Small Welfare States

Denmark and the Netherlands are usually considered to belong to two different families of welfare states: the Scandinavian and the Continental model respectively. Yet, in both states active labour market policies, or activation, have increased during the  s and are currently prominent. Both in Denmark and in the Netherlands activation has been viewed as an important reason for the low unemployment rates which both states have experienced since the early to mid-  s, hence explaining the so-called Dutch and Danish jobs miracles. The paper examines critically the activation measures taken in both countries and their alleged positive effect upon (un)employment. It further examines their effect on rights and obligations from a citizenship perspective. The paper concludes that in both cases the positive development of labour market performance cannot primarily be attributed to activation measures. Furthermore, activation has reduced the entitlements and increased the obligations affiliated with social citizenship.

Continuity and consensus: governing families in Denmark

In Danish family policy, changes initiated by the present conservative-liberal government differ little from those proposed by the opposition. Recent changes are minor, but significant ones occurred in the 1960s, when childcare was universalized, and in the 1980s, when parental leave substituted maternal leave. These changes can be explained as adjustments to post-industrial conditions within a political culture relying on class compromises and a broad consensus informed by expert advice coming from civil servants and ad hoc policy commissions. The paper concludes that changes in Danish family policy reflect changing conditions for employment and the minding of children and that there has been a high degree of continuity and consensus about the change, as indicated by the strong increase in female labour market involvement.

Reconciliation of work and family life in Europe: A case study of Denmark, France, Germany and the United Kingdom

Abstract European Union institutions as well as member states are embracing welfare policies that support reconciliation of work and family life as a means of solving problems of low fertility and gender inequality, and they do so unanimously within a welfare mix approach. Hence, viewing the social policy rhetoric, everything points to a convergence of European welfare models towards a mixed economy of welfare. However, analysing the everyday experiences of families with young children in four European cities leaves the impression of a continuation of past differences. In 1998/1999 no deviation from the traditional welfare and family policy models could be traced in Roskilde (Denmark), Nantes (France), Mannheim (Germany) and York (the United Kingdom).

Review Essay Liquid Modernity: Bauman on Contemporary Welfare Society

In the sociology of Zygmunt Bauman, contemporary society, labelled consumer society by Bauman, is viewed as liquid modernity, which underlines mobility as indicative of our time. Globalization encapsulates the increasing mobility of capital and social elites; Bauman stresses that the present consumer society is stratified, and for the poor mobility is not an easy option. Spatial differentiation goes hand in hand with social differentiation. Increasingly, the affluent segments isolate themselves in voluntary ghettos such as gated communities, while the poor are relegated to the enforced ghetto, where they are labelled an underclass and viewed as useless and unwanted. Bauman demonstrates the development in North America as indicative of the situation elsewhere, but suggests an alternative to neo-liberal welfare state dismantling: namely the introduction of a basic income and substitution of the work ethic by an ethic of craftsmanship.

East Asian welfare regime: obsolete ideal-type or diversified reality

ABSTRACT The paper asks if East Asian welfare regimes are still productivist and Confucian? And, have they developed public care policies? The literature is split on the first question but (mostly) confirmative on the second. Care has to a large, but insufficient extent, been rolled out in the region. Political science studies tend to conclude that the region has left the old legacies behind and are now welfare states comparable to European states including them either in the conservative type (e.g. Japan), the liberal type (e.g. Korea) or even as a tendency in the Nordic type (e.g. China), while studies focusing on outcomes or causal links tend to suggest that legacies prevail, but there is (nearly) consensus that Confucianism exercises great influence in the whole region.

Researching poverty and social exclusion in Europe

Since the so-called crisis of the welfare state struck Europe in the early 1980s, poverty studies have flourished. Both politicians and the social-scientific community have apparently felt a need to try and explain the seemingly strange phenomenon of persistence of poverty despite massive investment in collective welfare measures. The welfare state was supposed to do away with poverty; but instead the difference between the haves and the have-nots has been growing bigger over time. This is an embarrassment to governments and supranational institutions such as the EU and the UN which have, to some degree, been willing to support studies of poverty. Hence, three of the four recently published volumes under review here have, in part, been financed by the EU, institutions which have, furthermore, been keen to add the concept of social exclusion to a contemporary understanding of misery amid plenty, or all together substituting social exclusion for poverty. These recent studies maintain a difference between the two phenomena and with different accents touch upon both. Although poverty has existed in all societies at least since historical times there is no consensus within the social sciences about either its definition or its measurement. Yet some notion of resource deprivation set against a societal norm as constitutive for a condition defined as poverty is widespread in the literature, as are estimates of income or material resources for indicating the magnitude of poverty. This also goes for Van den Bosh’s study, where poverty is defined as a situation where ‘people lack the economic resources to realize a set of basic functionings’ (p. 1). The literature has suggested that functionings in this sense could be interpreted as needs, but Van den Bosh, inspired by Sen, prefers the alternative view which refers to capabilities understood as what people can do or be, and he suggests that the best way of measuring them is by consulting the same people, hence the subtitle of the book: using subjective and consensual measures. Researching poverty and social exclusion in Europe Review Essay

Current Issues of Family Policy in Denmark

This article traces recent changes in Danish family policy. The current government seems focussed on maintaining state support of families with young children, but it aims at changing day care institutions into more school-like places by emphasising common curricula and trying to change the lifestyle of many children (and parents) regarding unhealthy nutrition that lead to problems of obesity and poor health. There is also a focus on children’s right to two parents, both a father and a mother, which translates into discussion of issues such as custody regulation, visiting rights. During the 1990s and 2000s, Danish governments have firmly committed themselves particularly to the needs of middle-class families, but while the Social Democratic governments tried to change the gender biases (by establishing ‘use or lose’ elements within parental leave), the present Conservative-Liberal government is pursuing a more traditional path by introducing individualised, liberal and familistic forms of family policies.

Advantages of a Universal and Generous Family Policy: The Case of Denmark

Since WWII Europeans have enjoyed a cumulative expansion of social citizenship rights. The sequencing of types of entitlement is the same everywhere, and family benefits are the last to be granted indicating a well-developed welfare society. Societies vary with respect to extension of family allowances, child and elderly care and tax policies towards families. The Scandinavian region is a for-runner because of a combined effort of generous universal transfers and services, which has led a family (or women) friendly welfare state. The result is a high female labor market participation rate since generous policies allow women both to be mothers and workers and has resulted in a relatively high absolute fertility rate of 1.9; up from 1.4 in 1983 when the expansion of social services for families took off. The family welfare package has also resulted in low child poverty. Unfortunately, Scandinavian experience is based on specific preconditions not found elsewhere, so policies cannot readily be copied.