De Gruyter Handbook of Contemporary Welfare States

Welfare States have evolved and developed over now close to the last 150 years, although not in all countries at all times in the same direction implying that they are still very diverse. There was a time of golden growth of the welfare states shortly after the second world war, and then after the oil-price shock in 1th 1970's has, at least since OECD's pathbreaking book been argued to be in crisis. This has been followed up with discussions of dismantling of the welfare states , and continued after the financial crisis as with further changes, often under the label of austerity and retrenchment.

Over the year's elements either expected to have or having an impact on the development has been many and varied. The elements have, for the same reasons, not been similar across countries and welfare states. However, there are some common traits that have and can be expected to influence contemporary welfare states development also in the years to come. This includes aspects of globalisation, regionalisation, new technology, demography, voter's expectation and re-structuring of societies. There are however also new challenges to welfare states. The financial crisis showed the vulnerability of welfare states economic systems, but also that the ability to have a stable economy influences the options and ability to continue and be able to afford a welfare state. The recent COVID19 crisis has showed the possible double pressure of welfare states, including if there are strong challenges in several areas at the same time - in this case health and economy then a strong pressure on the sustainability of the welfare state is at play. This combined with the increasing inequality has implied both economic and political problems in a number of countries, and thereby creating new variants of the existing and possible crises in the future. These crises, including the assessment of whether it is in fact a crisis, may vary according to ideas, but also how the individual country is positioned in relation to solving it. At the same time, a number of the aspects mentioned before continues to be possible threats and pressures on welfare states - such as demographic change and the development of new technology. Possible topics is described later.

This book thus takes the "temperature" of welfare states, while also trying to assess the strength of the challenges for different types of welfare states/regimes. It analyses and compares several welfare state models - Nordic; Continental; Liberal, including the US; Southern-Europe; Eastern-Europe; China; South-East Asia - and also points to future opportunities.

Auteur

Bent Greve is Professor in Social Science with an emphasis on welfare state analysis at the University of Roskilde, Denmark. His research interest focuses on the welfare state, and social and labour market policy, often from a comparative perspective. He has published extensively on social and labour market policy, social security, tax expenditures, public sector expenditures and financing of the welfare state. He is editor of Social Policy & Administration. Recent books include Long-Term Care for the Elderly in Europe. Development and Prospects (Ed.) (Routledge), Handbook of Social Policy Evaluation (ed.) (Edward Elgar), Technology and the Future of Work.The Impact on Labour Markets and Welfare States (Edward Elgar), The Routledge Handbook of the Welfare State, 2nd edition (Routledge), Welfare, populism and welfare chauvinism (Bristol University Press), Austerity, Retrenchment and the Welfare State (Edward Elgar), Routledge International Handbook of the Welfare State.

Contenu
There will be four sections. The first will, beside the introduction, deal with research methods to understand and grasp the challenges for contemporary welfare states. This will include how to measure change, but also look into issues of big data as a way to follow what is going on, and, as well looking into evidence based social policy. The second will, in order to have a background for and understanding of the challenges, give a presentation of a number of welfare regimes, this given that the challenges might vary due to history, economy and demography among other things. Then the third will look into a number of possible issues that is or might come to be a challenge for the welfare states not only now, but also in the years to come, see more below. The fourth and last will show future research need and conclude what we know about possible upcoming avenues for the welfare states. Section 1 1. Introduction This chapter will set the scene for the book and present the approach to the book, including a short presentation of the content of each chapter. 2. Measuring change In order to discuss change and challenges for welfare states, it is necessary to have a knowledge of how to actually measure change. This includes understanding which parameters can be used (i.e. quantitative data on expenditure, redistribution), but also on changes in rules for, for example, access to a number of social benefits. In addition, change may have an impact on staff's experience of working life and users 'experience of quality of services, but at the same time a need to be aware of that users' and staff's perspectives may be influenced by subjective interest. The time horizon for change can also be important. 3. Approaches to analyse welfare state change In continuation of Chapter 2, this chapter looks more closely at what approaches can be used to analyse welfare states, both individually and comparatively. The overview should contribute to an understanding of whether explanations of changes are also included, and whether it can be seen that ideas have a bearing on development. Legitimacy as a possible cause of change and how it is possible to analyse welfare states legitimacy is also included. 4. Big Data The possibilities of analyzing ever-increasing amounts of data can be an opportunity to create new knowledge that can be used in efforts for citizens, for example in the health sector, to provide better knowledge of when, for example, changes in the economy are coming. At the same time, Big Data increases the risk of monitoring taking place and the opportunity to try to influence, for example, elections, such as what have been argued in relation to the vote in the UK on leaving the EU. The paradox is that, on the one hand, more opportunities are opened, but at the same time the risk of someone becoming better able to influence what is going to happen in a welfare state is increased. 5. Evidence based social policy It has always been, and probably always will be so, that there are more wishes for the welfare state than it is possible to finance. Therefore, in all types of welfare states, there will be a need to use evidence-based knowledge. The question here is not only what is the best type of knowledge, although it will be briefly presented, but to a greater extent its applicability and what potential challenges its use will have in the development of welfare states. Section 2 Welfare States and Regime These five chapters aims at setting the scene for the reference and discussions in Section 3 on how different welfare regimes can be expected, based upon the knowledge of their central structure, to understand and reflect upon how changes will influence the development. They are thereby also expected to be shorter than the other chapters in the book. Thus, the common format for these five chapters will be: a) Introduction b) State of the art what do we know about the regime in an ideal-typical understanding, and central goals and achievement over the last ten years. c) An analysis of their preparedness to cope with challenges given recent years development including fiscal pressure on welfare states d) Conclusion 6) Nordic 7) Continental 8) Liberal, including the US 9) Southern-Europe 10) Eastern-Europe 11) China 12) South-East Asia Section 3 Specific topics …