Survival of the European welfare state

Book abstract:

Since the late 1970s, the words, 'crisis', 'breakdown' and 'dismantlement' have frequently been used in analyses to describe the condition of welfare states in Europe. This book adopts a different stance, looking at the welfare state in terms of its survival and future development.

It aims to provide a more informed empirical basis for interpretations of welfare state development in a historical and comparative perspective, thus establishing a better basis for theorising about the European welfare state.

The book consists of three parts. The first seeks to put welfare states in perspective, examining the growth and adjustment of the modern welfare state from the Bismarckian legislation in the 1880s, the similar domestic challenges facing the countries of Europe as well a common external challenge viewed as the economic integration of Europe. There is also a critical review of the current theoretical and empirical literature on the welfare state and a set of hypotheses are put forward by Kees van Kersbergen on the declining resistance of welfare states to change.

The eight chapters of Part II examines the problems, challenges, reforms and reform efforts during the 1990s in more than 10 European countries which are categorised into four major 'social Europes': Continental Europe, Southern Europe, Scandinavia and the United Kingdom. Some of the chapters are national case studies, some are comparative.

Part three of the book discusses the prospect of a consolidation of European welfare states over the course of three chapters which explore the possibility from different angles. Chapter 11 examines the implications of the Maastricht and Amsterdam treaties for the European Union and European social policies as well as outlining the basic division of competencies between the EU and the Member States in the social policy field. Chapter 12 looks at the possibility of 'rescuing' the welfare state by adopting non-European institutional designs of welfare states in the world. The future of the national universal welfare state model in the light of its supposed challenges is discussed in chapter 13 with particular reference to Sweden.

The final chapter is a brief summary of the lessons that can be learned from the development of the European welfare state in the 1990s.

This book will be a valuable resource for all students, researchers and practitioners interested in the welfare state.

Stein Kuhnle is professor of Comparative Politics at the University of Bergen, Norway.