A Long Goodbye to Bismarck?

by Palier, Bruno

• ISBN13: 9789089642349
• ISBN10: 908964234X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-07-15
• Publisher: Amsterdam Univ Pr

Summary

This book provides an extensive and comparative account of all welfare reforms that occurred during the last three decades in Continental European countries. It reveals unexpected important structural reforms, to be understood as the culmination of a long reform trajectory, analyzed in detail with the tools of comparative historical institutionalism. With these reforms, Bismarckian welfare systems have lost their encompassing capacities, have partially turned to employment-friendliness and weakened the strongest elements of their male breadwinner bias. "This volume is the definitive work on the politics of reform in Bismarckian welfare regimes. It is essential reading for any scholar interested in welfare reform - or indeed, in institutional and policy change more generally." (Kathleen Thelen, Massachusetts Institute of Technology ) "The contributors to the volume are all recognized experts on their field and provide strictly comparable analyses in their chapters, making this volume a gold mine for comparative welfare state scholars. Palier's volume is certain to be a benchmark study for the foreseeable future." (John D. Stephens, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) "This volume, representing the best available scholarship in comparative socio-economic research, provides important and highly policy-relevant insights. A must-read." (Fritz Scharpf, Max Planck Institute for the Studies of Societies)

Author Biography

Bruno Palier is CNRS researcher at the Fondation nationale des sciences politiques in Paris and scientific coordinator of the European Network of Excellence, Reconciling Work and Welfare in Europe.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. 9
Prologue: What Does it Mean to Break with Bismarck?	p. 11
Ordering change: Understanding the 'Bismarckian' Welfare Reform Trajectory	p. 19
Introduction	p. 19
A Historical Institutionalist Framework for Analysis	p. 21
Bismarckian Welfare Systems as they Were	p. 35
A Social Insurance State Withers Away. Welfare State Reforms in Germany - Or: Attempts to Turn Around in a Cul-de-Sac	p. 45
Introduction	p. 45
The German Social Insurance State as we Knew it	p. 47
A Sequential Reform Trajectory	p. 51
The Consequences of Maneuvering out of the Cul-de-Sac	p. 64
The Bumpy Road out of the Reform Blockade: How was it Possible?	p. 68
Conclusion	p. 70
The Dualizations of the French Welfare System	p. 73
Introduction	p. 73
The Institutional Arrangements Reflecting the Post-War Compromises	p. 74
The French Reform Trajectory	p. 77
Conclusion: Dualisms in the French Welfare System	p. 96
Janus-Faced Developments in a Prototypical Bismarckian Welfare State: Welfare Reforms in Austria since the 1970s	p. 101
Introduction	p. 101
How Bismarckian was the Austrian Welfare State?	p. 102
Welfare State Change since the 1970s: Reform Sequences	p. 104
Bismarck is Dead. Long Live Bismarck	p. 120
Continental Welfare at a Crossroads: The Choice between Activation and Minimum Income Protection in Belgium and the Netherlands	p. 129
Introduction	p. 129
The Dutch Miracle Revisited	p. 131
Belgium's Reluctant and Erratic Path towards Activation	p. 139
Path-Dependent Policy Divergence across Small Continental Welfare Regimes	p. 145
Explaining within Regime Policy Divergence	p. 152
Italy: An Uncompleted Departure from Bismarck	p. 157
Introduction	p. 157
A Bismarckian Route... With a First Departure	p. 158
Departing from the Bismarckian Compromise: A Stepwise Process of Reform	p. 161
Towards the End of the Bismarckian Compromise	p. 177
Conclusions	p. 179
Defrosting the Spanish Welfare State: The Weight of Conservative Components	p. 183
Introduction	p. 183
The Point of Departure: The Spanish Welfare State in the Late 1970s	p. 185
Reforming Social Protection in the Last Three Decades	p. 189
Explaining the Spanish Trajectory of Reform	p. 202
Conclusions	p. 205
Reform Opportunities in a Bismarckian Latecomer: Restructuring the Swiss Welfare State	p. 207
Introduction	p. 207
Welfare State Growth in a Context of Institutional Power Fragmentation	p. 210
Endogenous and Exogenous Challenges to the Swiss Welfare System	p. 215
Reform Dynamics since the 1980s along Two Dimensions	p. 218
Conclusion: The Politics Linking Modernization and Cost Containment	p. 229
The Politics of Social Security Reforms in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia	p. 233
Introduction	p. 233
The Period before 1945	p. 235
The Period from 1945 to 1989	p. 237
The Period from 1989 onwards	p. 241
Policy Discourses and International Organizations	p. 248
Conclusion	p. 250
Reforming Bismarckian Corporatism: The Changing Role of Social Partnership in Continental Europe	p. 255
Introduction	p. 255
The Role of Social Partners in Welfare System Theories	p. 257
Social Governance in Bismarckian Welfare Systems	p. 261
Social Governance in Bismarckian Pension Systems	p. 264
Social Governance in Bismarckian Labor Market Policies	p. 270
Conclusion: Towards Reforming Governance	p. 276
Trajectories of Fiscal Adjustment in Bismarckian Welfare Systems	p. 279
Introduction	p. 279
Revenue, Debt, Expenditures	p. 281
Dilemmatic Policy Choices	p. 287
Taxes versus Social Insurance Contributions - French and German Experiences	p. 292
Conclusion	p. 297
Whatever Happened to the Bismarckian Welfare State? From Labor Shedding to Employment-Friendly Reforms	p. 301
The Adaptive Capacity of the Continental Welfare State	p. 301
The Continental Employment Dilemma	p. 305
Reconciling Welfare with Work: A Sequence of Intense Reforms	p. 313
An Unfinished Social Reform Agenda for Bismarckian Countries	p. 323
Conclusion	p. 331
The Long Conservative Corporatist Road to Welfare Reforms	p. 333
Introduction	p. 333
How did Continental European Welfare System Change? The Commonalities of the Typical Bismarckian Reform Trajectory	p. 335
How to Explain the Bismarckian Welfare Reform Trajectory?	p. 362
What have the Bismarckian Welfare Systems Become?	p. 374
What are the Main Economic and Social Consequences of the Welfare Reform Trajectory?	p. 380
The Crisis and Beyond	p. 385
Notes	p. 389
Bibliography	p. 403
About the Contributors	p. 439
Index	p. 443
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