A New Social Question?: On Minimum Income Protection in the Postindustrial Era

by Ive Marx

Amsterdam University Press, 2007
Paper: 978-90-5356-925-2 | eISBN: 978-90-485-0344-5
Library of Congress Classification HD4928.A5M37 2007
Dewey Decimal Classification 331.236

ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | TOC

ABOUT THIS BOOK

Social scientists, politicians, and economists have recently been taken with the idea that the advanced welfare states of Europe face a “New Social Question.” The core idea is that the transition from an industrial to a postindustrial environment has brought with it a whole new set of social risks, constraints, and trade-offs, which necessitate radical recalibration of social security systems. A New Social Question? analyzes that question in depth, with particular attention to the problem of income protection and the difficulties facing Bismarckian welfare states. It will be necessary reading for anyone interested in understanding the future of European social policy.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction
The Rise of Economic Redundancy

Welfare State Failure(s)
Limits to Incrementalism
Beyond Incrementalism
Organisation of this Book
Acknowledgements

Part 1 The Decline of Self-Reliance and the Labour Demand Shift against the Less-skilled: Conjectures, Facts and Explanations

1 The Decline of Self-Reliance in Advanced Welfare States
1 Introduction

2 A Note on the Relevance of Self-Reliance in Social Policy

3 The Decline of Self-Reliance: General Evidence

4           Evidence for Belgium, with a Particular Focus on the Less-Skilled
5           Difficulties of Interpretation
6           Some Direct Evidence that the Capacity for Economic Self-reliance has Declined
7           Conclusion

2           The Demand Shift against the Less-Skilled
1           Introduction
2           Jobless Growth and the Demand for Less-Skilled labour
3           Is there Evidence of a Universal and Structural Deterioration of the Labour Market Position of the Less-skilled?

4           The Role of Trade and Technological Change Empirically Assessed
5           Accounting for Divergent Country Trajectories: The Role of Education
6           Conclusion

Part 2 New Social Risks, Poverty and the Adequacy of Social Protection

3           Low Pay and Poverty: Anatomy of a ‘New’ Social Risk
1           Introduction
2           What is Low Pay?
3           Low Pay and Poverty
4           Why the Overlap between Low Pay and Poverty is Limited
5           Further Considerations
6           The Impact of Traditional Policy Instruments and the Role for New
7           Conclusion

4          On The Limits to Incrementalism in Income Protection Policy: The Case of Structural Unemployment in Belgium

1           Introduction
2           Unemployment Insurance in Belgium
3           Policy Responses to Mass Unemployment
4           Outcomes in a Comparative Perspective
5           How the UI System Started Failing the Most Vulnerable
6           Why the UI System Started Failing the Most Vulnerable

7 On the Economic Limits to Incrementalism

8           On the Political Limits to Incrementalism
9           Conclusion

Part 3 New Policy Responses Assessed

5           How Responsive are Poverty Rates to Job Growth?
1           Introduction
2           The Renewed Primacy of Work in Social Policy
3           Employment and Poverty: Some Basic Facts
4           Workless Households
5           Households with Work
6           The Case of the Netherlands
7           Conclusion
             Appendix Tables

6           Alternatives to Passive Income Support: The Verdict of Empirical Evaluation Studies
1           Introduction
2           Employers’ subsidies

3 Subsidising the Low-paid

4           Conclusion

             Overall Conclusion

             List of Tables and Figures

             References

             Index of Names

             Index of Subjects

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