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The European Union in the 21st century - towards a social Europe?
[conference paper]
Corporate Editor
Universität Bielefeld, Fak. für Soziologie, Institut für Weltgesellschaft
Abstract "At the beginning of the 21st century the future of ‘the welfare state’ is all but clear. The
welfare state originated in West and North European countries in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Today, the idea of the welfare state is facing three challenges: First, Western welfare states
are under econ... view more
"At the beginning of the 21st century the future of ‘the welfare state’ is all but clear. The
welfare state originated in West and North European countries in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Today, the idea of the welfare state is facing three challenges: First, Western welfare states
are under economic, demographic and political pressure to reform their institutions. In
particular, reform is deemed necessary to meet the demands of increasingly competitive
global markets. Second, social policy beyond the nation state is growing, with transnational
actors like Worldbank, ILO, EU and OECD and transnational discourses. National welfare
states are increasingly affected by such transnational social policy. While the Worldbank
concentrates on developing and transitional countries, and the OECD is influentious in
developed countries (Armingeon/Beyeler 2004), especially in education (Jakobi 2006), the
EU is a unique supranational body of 25 European countries with broad and more binding
legal powers. Third, while Western welfare states are in crisis, state social policy is expanding
in non-Western countries. Some authors even speak of ‘new welfare states’ (Esping-Andersen
1996) and of the ‘Coming of East Asian welfare states’ modelled on Western patterns
(Hort/Kuhnle 2000)." [author's abstract]... view less
Keywords
Europe; welfare state; EU; OECD; World Bank; European social policy; reform; Europeanization; twenty-first century; multi-level-governance
Classification
Basic Research, General Concepts and History of Social Policy
Method
empirical
Document language
English
Publication Year
2006
City
Bielefeld
Page/Pages
23 p.
Series
SocialWorld - Working Paper, 13
Status
Published Version; reviewed
Licence
Deposit Licence - No Redistribution, No Modifications
Data providerThis metadata entry was indexed by the Special Subject Collection Social Sciences, USB Cologne