Yuri Kazepov

THE SUBSIDIARIZATION OF SOCIAL POLICIES: ACTORS, PROCESSES AND IMPACTS.

ABSTRACT This paper seeks to disentangle analytically the trends towards the subsidiarization of social policies in Europe addressing how the social policy reforms changed actors’ governance arrangements and altered the government scales involved over the last few decades. Following an introductory analysis of the main causes of the subsidiarization of social policies (sections 1 and 2), attention is devoted to the differences between welfare systems in Europe (section 3) and the way they influence the directions of change. The hypothesis is that, despite the fact that the subsidiarization of social policies is a converging rhetoric in most European countries’ social policy reforms, the impact of the process varies according to the specificities of the respective regulatory frames at the national or sub-national scales. This is exemplified in the final part of the paper (section 4) which considers the Italian case and the main critical dimensions that emerge through these processes.

Social Assistance Governance in Europe: Towards a Multilevel Perspective

The territorial dimension of social policies has for long been a neglected perspective in comparative social policy analysis. Scholars took for granted that social policies were national policies and almost all comparative work which has been done after the Second World War based comparisons on national data. This is not surprising; social policies developed mainly through nationally regulated social insurance programmes still absorb in all countries most resources targeted to social policies. There was also the belief that national policies, providing mainly income support, could provide the very basis for the equalization of living conditions across single countries. Within this scenario social assistance was considered a residual policy, devolved in some countries to sub-national levels of government.

Is every country fit for social investment? Italy as an adverse case

The scientific debate on social investment (SI) is moving from an ideological and normative approach towards a more realistic one. Scholars are paying closer attention to the actual developments in social policy and to the contextual conditions and impacts of SI policies. Considering this, two main issues arise. First, that SI policies are politically feasible and likely to have positive impacts only if specific contextual conditions are met. Second, SI policies were supposed to have a positive impact on both inequalities and economic growth: a strong theoretical assumption that needs to be carefully tested. The Italian case will be used here to illustrate this new perspective and the consequences of the lack of contextual pre-conditions. For this reason, the article is divided into three parts. The first part will present our theoretical argument in the context of the most recent analytical accounts of SI policy in Europe. In particular we will argue that, given the lack of crucial structural pre-conditions, SI policies may have ambiguous and even unexpected negative impacts on both economic growth and equal opportunities. In the second and third parts, we will present empirical evidence of this ambiguity considering childcare and apprenticeship reforms in Italy. More specifically, based on empirical research carried out in Italy, we want to answer two questions: (1) Why is the Italian welfare state so ‘unfriendly’ to SI policies? What are the main factors explaining the limited room for SI policies? (2) When an SI approach is promoted in specific policy areas in Italy, what is its social and economic impact? Do these interventions achieve the positive results to be expected according to the SI approach? Finally, the last part synthesises the main arguments and aims to open a critical discussion on the structural pre-conditions of SI policies and the need for further analysis of the political economy contexts in which SI policy develops.

Minimum Income and Social Integration: Institutional Arrangements in Europe

This document deals with the different institutional arrangements of minimum income and social integration policies in Europe. It stems from the synthesis report the authors prepared for the EU peer review process, which aimed at placing the Belgian DIS policy in a comparative European context. Five questions are addressed in this document concerning: the increasing importance of social assistance and activation schemes in Europe; the main features of the welfare systems within which social assistance policies are embedded; the characteristics of the Belgian DIS which are relevant in a comparative perspective; the impact of the changes and the critical issues that have emerged; and what can one learns from the comparison.

Young people’s disadvantages on the labour market in Italy: reframing the NEET category

Abstract The worsening of young people’s condition on the labour market has been described as a long-term trend of contemporary advanced capitalist economies. In recent years, the NEET (not in employment, education or training) label has been increasingly used to assess the integration of young people into the labour market. Does the NEET category adequately grasp the complexity of the underlying processes? In this contribution we will try to answer this question considering the Italian case as an extreme example. Focusing on the features of the youth labour market in Italy, we show the heterogeneity that lies behind the NEET concept, as well as its relationships with the labour market, the education system and welfare institutions. We argue that the institutionalization of NEETs as an analytical category may prove to be problematic as it may fail to identify specific vulnerable subgroups clearly, thereby leading to ineffective one-size-fits-all policy responses.

Can Concern for Air Quality Improvement Increase the Acceptability of Climate Change Mitigation Policies

Air quality and climate change policies are finding new common grounds today as increasing social complexity requires better integration of separate knowledge domains. This chapter addresses the complex relationship between these two policy domains, their scientific background and the related acceptability issue, which varies substantially among countries and social groups and is influenced by social and cultural factors. The first section of this chapter describes the relationship between air quality and climate change policies. Indeed, global CO2 reduction objectives require complex adaptations of socio-economic behaviours that might not directly appear to be related to pollution reduction or to improvement the exposure of citizens to harmful pollutants. Recent studies, however, have confirmed that air pollution and its impacts are one of the main environmental concerns for citizens, even if relevant differences in public perception between countries still remain. This section also addresses the ambiguities and conflicts that characterise communication between experts and citizens. The second section briefly describes recent scientific evidence that shows the possibility of coupling air quality and climate change mitigation benefits with policies targeted at specific pollutants called short lived climate forcers (SLCF). The third section spells out some preliminary research questions on the acceptability of these policies and their complex relationship with individual interests and cultural contexts. Linking air quality to climate change could be a win-win strategy to increase the social acceptability of specific policies and their implementation if knowledge and communication gaps between citizens and policy makers will be reduced.

Soziale Ausgrenzung in den Städten im europäischen Vergleich und die Bedeutung des Sozialstaates

Soziale Ausgrenzung und europaische Stadte stehen als eigenes Thema erneut auf der Agenda der Sozialwissenschaften. In den letzten Jahren hat es einen deutlichen Zuwachs an Literatur gegeben; beleuchtet wurden sowohl die Bedeutung des Konzepts (trotz der Unklarheiten) als auch die Besonderheit des stadtischen Europas im Vergleich.2 Dieses wachsende Interesse an sozialer Ausgrenzung und Differenz ist Ergebnis empirischer Forschung und einer wissenschaftlichen Debatte uber die Ende der 1970er-Jahre einsetzenden Transformationsprozesse und Trends sowie uber die daraus resultierende zunehmende Diversitat auf unterschiedlichen innerstaatlichen Ebenen. Die tiefreichenden regionalen Umstrukturierungsprozesse, die nach der Krise des Fordismus einsetzten, fuhrten zu Veranderungen, die in augenscheinlich widerspruchlichen, zum Teil aber auch parallel verlaufende Richtungen gingen. Aus okonomischer Sicht wirkte sich die umfassende Globalisierung der Produktionsstrategien und des Verbraucherverhaltens zusammen mit der zunehmenden Konzentration der Produktion in regionalen Okonomien und Industriegebieten auf der lokalen Ebene unterschiedlich aus; es gab Gewinner und Verlierer. Aus politischer Sicht waren mit dem Aufstieg supranationaler Institutionen und politischer Formationen (z. B. Europaische Union, Weltwirtschaftsfonds, Welthandelsorganisation), die bei der Forderung der Mobilitat von Kapital, Waren, Dienstleistungen und Flexibilitat der Arbeit die strategische Fuhrung ubernahmen, eine Verengung der finanziellen Ressourcen und eine Verlagerung von Regelungskompetenzen auf Ebenen unterhalb des Nationalstaats — d. h. auf die Ebene der Regionen und Stadte — verbunden.