Activation and Labour Market Reforms in Europe

Transcription

1 Activation and Labour Market Reforms in Europe Challenges to Social Citizenship Edited by Sigrid Betzelt Berlin School of Economics and Law, Germany and Silke Bothfeld University of Applied Sciences, Bremen, Germany March 25, :11 MAC/VATI Page-iii _289543_01_prexxii

2 Selection and editorial matter Sigrid Betzelt & Silke Bothfeld 2011 Individual chapters their respective authors 2011 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act First published 2011 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number , of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN hardback This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham and Eastbourne March 25, :11 MAC/VATI Page-iv _289543_01_prexxii

3 This book has been published thanks to the European research project RECWOWE (Work and Welfare in Europe), , co-funded by the European Commission, under 6th Framework Programme for Research Socio-economic Sciences and Humanities (contract nr ) in the Directorate-General for Research. The information and views set out in this book are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of the European Union. Neither the European Union institutions and bodies nor any person acting on their behalf may be held responsible for the use which may be made of the information contained therein. March 25, :11 MAC/VATI Page-v _289543_01_prexxii

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5 Contents List of Tables List of Figures Preface Series Preface Notes on Authors and Editors xii xiv xv xvii xix Part I Introduction and Conceptual Framework 1 Activation and Labour Market Reforms in Europe: Challenges to Social Citizenship Introduction 3 Silke Bothfeld and Sigrid Betzelt 1 The inherent logic of the activation paradigm 4 2 Main features of activation policies 5 3 How do activation reforms fit into existing normative patterns? 6 4 Critical aspects in the analysis of activation reforms 8 5 Bringing politics back in 10 6 The contributions to this volume 12 2 How Do Activation Policies Affect Social Citizenship? The Issue of Autonomy 15 Silke Bothfeld and Sigrid Betzelt 1 Introduction 15 2 The objective of welfare state intervention: Tracing normative arguments in social policy research 17 3 A three-dimensional concept of autonomy 21 4 The social policy principles: How do social policies support or reduce individual autonomy? 27 5 Analysing the impact of activation policies 32 vii March 25, :11 MAC/VATI Page-vii _289543_01_prexxii

6 viii Contents Part II The Universal Adult Worker Norm Tensions between Equality and Diversity 3 Social Security Provision Targeted at Immigrants A Forerunner for the General Change of Scandinavian Equal Citizenship? A Danish Case Study 37 Karen N. Breidahl 1 Introduction 37 2 The Danish active line and ethnic diversity 39 3 Tensions between equality, diversity and employment 45 4 Output: The start assistance and the 300-hour rule institutional changes 48 5 The impact on individual autonomy and gender equality 50 6 Discussion and outlook 57 4 Relinquishing Rights? The Impact of Activation on Citizenship for Lone Parents in the UK 59 Sharon Wright 1 Introduction 59 2 Activating lone parents: Paid employment and unpaid care in an international context 60 3 Towards activation for lone parents in the UK ( ) 63 4 Does the activation of UK lone parents promote autonomy? 73 5 Conclusion 77 5 Social Citizenship and Activation in Europe: A Gendered Perspective 79 Marie-Thérèse Letablier, Anne Eydoux and Sigrid Betzelt 1 Introduction 79 2 Challenging pathways to women s social citizenship 81 3 Activating women: The limits of the French strategy 88 4 One step forward, two steps back: Continuous gender bias in German activation strategies 92 5 Conclusion 99 March 25, :11 MAC/VATI Page-viii _289543_01_prexxii

7 Contents ix Part III Erosion of Social Status? Tensions between Core and Periphery 6 The Erosion of Social Status: The Case of Germany 103 Sigrid Betzelt and Silke Bothfeld 1 Introduction The employee citizen as core status of the German employment system Institutional reforms as a trigger for far-reaching change The impact of activation on the employee-citizen status Conclusions Redefining Unemployment and Employment Statuses: The Impact of Activation on Social Citizenship in France 125 Mathieu Béraud and Anne Eydoux 1 Introduction The challenged status of non-employed citizens Employment quality: The pitfall of activation policies Activation and social citizenship: Present challenges Concluding remarks Chances and Pitfalls of Flexible Labour Markets: The Case of the Spanish Strategy of Labour Market Flexibility 147 Begoña Pérez and Miguel Laparra 1 Introduction Recent evolution of labour regulation in Spain is orientated to combating unemployment and attaining flexibility Impact of the reforms The strategy of deregulation of the labour market in Spain eroded social citizenship for the outsiders Outlook Activation and the Limited Social Citizenship Status of Young and Female Workers: The Italian Case 173 Paolo R. Graziano 1 Introduction The Italian welfare state: A brief overview 174 March 25, :11 MAC/VATI Page-ix _289543_01_prexxii

8 x Contents 3 The Italian sub-protective unemployment regime : Data and main policy features The employment policy configuration: Low overall unemployment protection, low social citizenship Promoting flexibility and activation: Italian employment policy reforms, The impact of activation policies on social citizenship Conclusion 190 Part IV Governance and Implementation Tensions between Standardization and Individualization 10 The Local and Street-Level Production of Social Citizenship: The Case of Dutch Social Assistance 195 Rik van Berkel 1 Introduction Reforms of Dutch social assistance: A brief overview Reforms of social assistance and their implications for dimensions of social citizenship Discussion and outlook Norwegian Welfare Reforms: Social Contracts and Activation Policies 218 Nanna Kildal and Even Nilssen 1 Introduction Contractualism The Norwegian reform trajectory: Upcoming of contractualism as a new governing principle Implementing contractualism The impact of contractualism on social citizenship in Norway Outlook 237 Part V Conclusions 12 Activation Policies: Potential Enhancement and Factual Restraints of Citizens Autonomy 242 Sigrid Betzelt and Silke Bothfeld 1 Introduction 242 March 25, :11 MAC/VATI Page-x _289543_01_prexxii

9 Contents xi 2 Institutional changes of social citizenship patterns Tackling tensions Outlook 255 References 258 Index 281 March 25, :11 MAC/VATI Page-xi _289543_01_prexxii

10 List of Tables 3.1 The total number of immigrants in the Danish population, Employment rate for men and women from non-western countries, Western countries and for men and women with a Danish background: , age group years, per cent Employment rate among men and women from selected countries: 1 January 2007, age group years, per cent Number of persons who have been subject to reduced social security benefits in the period Recipients of the new benefits oriented at immigrants, , per cent Labour participation rates of lone parents (living in independent households) Activation reforms affecting lone parents in the UK ( ) Work tests for lone parents in selected OECD countries Female labour force participation by number and age of children, Working patterns of couples with children under 15 years, Socio-demographic distribution of atypical employment, Unemployment compensation (insurance and solidarity schemes) and social assistance Labour market policies (LMP) expenditure (as per cent of GDP) Atypical (temporary or part-time) employment (as per cent of total employment; absolute numbers in thousands) Characteristics of Spanish unemployment protection, xii March 25, :11 MAC/VATI Page-xii _289543_01_prexxii

11 List of Tables xiii 8.2 Overview of main labour market reforms in Spain since the 1980s Evolution of number and per cent of recipients under contributory, means-tested and active insertion benefit Level of public expenditure in Spain on labour market programmes as a percentage of GDP Passive and active labour market policies expenditure in selected EU countries, per cent of GDP, Incidence of atypical, flexible contracts Net replacement rates and unemployment insurance benefits duration in selected OECD countries, Gender gap indexes and sub-index ranks, 2009, selected countries Median age of young people leaving home, Trade union density in selected OECD countries, (share of employees being member of a trade union) Union membership in Italy workers and pensioners, Numbers of social assistance and unemployment benefit recipients, Characteristics of the Dutch social assistance population, Activation reforms in Dutch social assistance Target groups of Work First (percentage of municipalities focusing Work First at the mentioned target groups) 208 March 25, :11 MAC/VATI Page-xiii _289543_01_prexxii

12 List of Figures 2.1 The threefold concept of the citizen s autonomy a taxonomy Proportion of children in lone parent families Atypical employment as a share of all employees (in per cent) Evolution of fixed-term work (per cent) Unemployment evolution in Spain (per cent) Social protection expenditure by functions, Italy and EU-15, Female unemployment, Italy Male and female unemployment, Italy A framework for analysing the production of social citizenship in the context of activation policies 198 xiv March 25, :11 MAC/VATI Page-xiv _289543_01_prexxii

13 Preface This book is the joint product of a continuous working process within the European research Network of Excellence Work and Welfare in Europe (RECWOWE), running under the roof of the Work Package on Flexicurity, coordinated by Giuliano Bonoli and Jochen Clasen. The idea to conceptualize and write such a collected volume originated from a previous project in the network, coordinated by the editors of this volume, in which a comparative survey of institutional regulations of activation policies was carried out in the participating member states. This first exploration encouraged us to undertake an in-depth analysis of country case studies on this topic from a normative perspective with focus on the concept of social citizenship. At the RECWOWE Conference in Oslo in June 2008 a research group was formed, comprising the authors of this book. The conceptual framework as well as the findings from the single country case studies were discussed and further developed by the contributors of this volume. The book is thus the product of a fruitful and intellectually stimulating exchange of knowledge and ideas among the authors, which always occurred in a constructive and convivial atmosphere at our four workshops, which were held in Bremen and Stirling, and during the RECWOWE Conferences in Utrecht and Nantes. We therefore thank first of all the contributors of this volume who participated in this explorative undertaking for investing considerable intellectual effort and time to drive forward this project. This work would not have been possible without the support of many people involved in the RECWOWE network. We would like to especially thank the coordinators of this large interdisciplinary network, Denis Bouget (Nantes) and Bruno Palier (Paris), for creating a highly stimulating and creative atmosphere, as well as Amélie Guisseau and her colleagues for their professional and kind support in all technical questions. Karin Gottschall, the leader of the team from the University of Bremen, earns our gratitude for holding the threads of these different tasks perfectly together. We are also grateful to Language Associates (Bremen) for the thorough language editing of the chapters, and Friederike Theilen-Kosch for excellently finalizing the typescript, both of them addressing the high time pressure with extreme flexibility xv March 25, :11 MAC/VATI Page-xv _289543_01_prexxii

14 xvi Preface and professionalism. Last but not least we are indebted to our institutions, the Berlin School of Economics and Law and the University of Applied Science Bremen, for granting us relief from parts of our teaching obligations during the work on this book. Sigrid Betzelt (Berlin) and Silke Bothfeld (Bremen) March 25, :11 MAC/VATI Page-xvi _289543_01_prexxii

15 Series Preface Since the late 1970s, both labour markets and welfare regimes have been under intense economic pressure and have been challenged by profound changes in social and demographic structures, as well as in social norms. The work/welfare relationship has always been key to the modern state, but has undergone substantial change over recent decades. On the one hand, approaches to social provision have become more explicit in recognizing the importance of the relationship to employment, such that it is possible to suggest that social policies have become employmentled. On the other hand, it is possible to argue that there is a profound disconnect between labour markets and welfare systems, and that this partly explains the socio-economic problems that some countries are facing in terms of high unemployment and low activity rates in particular. Changes in labour markets, which have often tended to more flexibilization, often pose challenges to the protective goals of social policies; thus the financial and programmatic configurations of social policies are often held to have impeded job creation. These arguments over the nature and effects of the relationships between labour markets and welfare systems have been and are intense and need to be further analysed. These relationships between labour markets and welfare systems constitute the backdrop for this series, which takes as its starting point the tensions that now characterize this centrally important relationship between work and welfare. Among these tensions, one can mention the tension between the firms demands for more labour market flexibility and citizens need for economic security; the tensions between the increased participation in paid work and the importance of family life, the greater fluidity in family relationships and the greater flexibility in the labour markets; the friction between quantity and quality of the jobs to be created, between job creation and maintaining or improving the quality of employment; and finally the conflicts raised by the need to adapt (industrial) social protection systems to new labour market structures. This book series has been created within RECWOWE, a European Network of Excellence created within the 6th Framework Programme of the European Commission (FP6). The full title for the network s activities xvii March 25, :11 MAC/VATI Page-xvii _289543_01_prexxii

16 xviii Series Preface is Work and Welfare in Europe. Such a reconciliation is an important political objective for most EU member states. In order to meet it we need to improve our understanding of the relationship between work and welfare in very diverse national settings across member states. The RECWOWE series publishes books that analyse work and welfare, and which pay special attention to the tensions that now characterize this relationship. Beyond the four main tensions mentioned above, the series is open to any other forms of analysis of the relationship between work and welfare. It is committed to publishing work that focuses on the gender dimension of this relationship, on the impact of the relationship on migrants and on its multi-level European, national and local institutional dimensions. Denis Bouget, University of Nantes Jochen Clasen, University of Edinburgh Ana Guillen, University of Oviedo Bruno Palier, Sciences-po Paris March 25, :11 MAC/VATI Page-xviii _289543_01_prexxii

17 Notes on Authors and Editors Mathieu Béraud is Senior Lecturer of Economics at the University of Nancy 1 (Henri Poincaré), France, Researcher at 2L2S (Institute of Sociology in Lorraine) and GREE (group of research on education and employment). His fields of research are employment and social policies, organization of work and working conditions. He participates in several national and international programmes of research in these topics. Sigrid Betzelt is Professor for Sociology of Work and Organizations at the Berlin School of Economics and Law (University of Applied Science), Germany. Her research and publications cover recent labour market and social policy reforms, as well as social law, especially concerning the gender effects of the German Hartz reforms. She has further published on changes of professional work and new employment forms from a national and comparative perspective. Silke Bothfeld is Professor for Political Science at the University for Applied Science Bremen, Germany. Her research interests include normative aspects of social policy, the work welfare nexus, gender issues and theories of public policy, governance and social law. She has carried out research projects on labour market policy, family and equal opportunity policies from a national and comparative perspective. Karen N. Breidahl is a Political Scientist and PhD candidate at CCWS Centre for Comparative Welfare Studies, Aalborg University, Denmark. Her primary research interest includes comparative welfare state research and labour market reforms targeted at the unemployed in particular immigrants in the Scandinavian countries. Recent publications: The Impact of Active Labour Market Policy on Social Marginalization, Social Policy and Administration 2010 (with Sanne Lund Clement). Anne Eydoux is Senior Lecturer in Economics, Researcher at the CRESS- Lessor, University of Rennes 2, and Associate Researcher at the Centre xix March 25, :11 MAC/VATI Page-xix _289543_01_prexxii

18 xx Notes on Authors and Editors for Employment Studies. She is also a member of the European Network of Experts on Gender, Social Inclusion, Health and Long Term Care (EGGSI). Her fields of research are employment and social policies, social inclusion and gender studies. She has coordinated several national research programmes and is the author of many articles and book chapters on employment, social policies and gender. Paolo R. Graziano is Assistant Professor at Bocconi University and Visiting Fellow at Sciences-po Paris. He has co-edited a volume on Europeanization: New Research Agendas (2007). His work has appeared in the following international journals: European Journal for Political Research, European Political Science, Regional and Federal Studies, Social Policy and Administration, International Journal of Labour Law and Industrial Relations, Global Social Policy, Journal of Social Policy. Nanna Kildal is Senior Researcher at Stein Rokkan Centre for Social Studies, University of Bergen. Her main interests are the normative aspects of welfare policies, that is, the interrelationship between welfare and work, the idea of a basic income, rights and duties and social contracts, and the analyses of welfare discourses on national and international levels. Miguel Laparra is Professor and now Head of the Social Work Department at the Public University of Navarre, Spain. His research trajectory is related to the study of social exclusion and poverty, precarious employment, migrations, minimum income programmes, social inclusion strategies and social services. Marie-Thérèse Letablier is Senior Researcher in Sociology in the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, in the Centre d Economie de la Sorbonne. Her research interests include work, family and gender issues from a European and comparative perspective. She has participated in several European research networks. She is currently general secretary of the executive committee of the European Sociological Association (ESA). She also coordinates (with Pf. U. Apitzsch) the Women and Gender Studies thematic network in this association. Even Nilssen, Political Scientist, is Senior Researcher at Stein Rokkan Centre for Social Studies, University of Bergen, and a Professor at Bergen University College. He has carried out several studies in the field of social law and social inclusion both from national and comparative March 25, :11 MAC/VATI Page-xx _289543_01_prexxii

19 Notes on Authors and Editors xxi perspectives. He is particularly interested in the relationship between welfare and work in Norwegian and European welfare policy. Begoña Pérez is Professor of Social Policy in the Social Work Department in the Public University of Navarre, Spain. In recent years she has developed her research in the following fields: Social exclusion and poverty, activation, minimum income programmes, social inclusion strategies and social services. Rik van Berkel is Associate Professor at the School of Governance of Utrecht University, the Netherlands. His research interests are situated on the interface of social policy, public administration and public organization studies. He has published several edited volumes and articles in journals such as Public Administration, Journal of Social Policy and European Journal of Social Policy. Sharon Wright is Senior Lecturer for Social Policy at the University of Stirling, Scotland. Her research focuses on in-depth studies of the welfare reform and the implementation of employment services. She edited Social Policy & Society ( ). Recent publications include: Contracting out employment services: lessons from Australia, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands (Child Poverty Action Group, 2008) and, with Dr Tess Ridge, Understanding Inequality, Poverty and Wealth: Policies and Prospects (The Policy Press, 2008). March 25, :11 MAC/VATI Page-xxi _289543_01_prexxii

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