The Future of European Welfare : A New Social Contract?

European welfare states are currently under stress and the 'social contracts' that underpin them are being challenged. First, welfare spending has arguably 'grown to limits' in a number of countries while expanding everywhere in the 1990s in line with higher unemployment. Second, demographic change and the emergence of new patterns of family and working life are transforming the nature of 'needs'. Third, the economic context and the policy autonomy of nation states has been transformed by 'globalization'. This book considers the implications of these challenges for European welfare states at the end of the twentieth century with interdisciplinary contributions from first-rate political scientists, economists and sociologists including Paul Ormerod. Front Matter....Pages i-xii Europe’s Social Contract Under Stress....Pages 1-19 Front Matter....Pages 21-21 Unemployment and Social Exclusion: An Economic View....Pages 23-40 Poverty and Social Exclusion: A Sociological View....Pages 41-62 Against Exclusion: The Poor and the Social Sciences....Pages 63-78 Front Matter....Pages 79-79 The Four ‘Social Europes’: Between Universalism and Selectivity....Pages 81-96 The Evolution of Financial Poverty in Western Europe....Pages 97-124 In Defence Of Welfare: Social Protection and Social Reform in Eastern Europe....Pages 125-153 Front Matter....Pages 155-155 Negative and Positive Integration in the Political Economy of European Welfare States....Pages 157-177 Globalization, Labour Markets and Welfare States: A Future of ‘Competitive Corporatism’?....Pages 178-203 Global and Regional Agencies and the Making of Post-Communist Social Policy in Eastern Europe....Pages 204-225 Front Matter....Pages 227-227 The Social Contract and the Problem of the Firm....Pages 229-243 European Social Citizenship: Why a New Social Contract (Probably) Will Not Happen....Pages 244-265 Some Sceptical Reflections on EU Citizenship as the Basis of a New Social Contract....Pages 266-283 Back Matter....Pages 284-287

European welfare states are currently under stress, and the social contracts that underpin them are being challenged. Welfare spending has arguably grown to limits in the 1990s in line with higher unemployment, and demographic change and the emergence of new patterns of family and working life are transforming the nature of needs. This book considers the implications of these challenges for European welfare states at the end of the 20th century.

This book considers the implications of spending growth as unemployment has grown, demographic change and the emergence of new patterns of family and working life, plus the economic context and the policy autonomy of European welfare states