Année universitaire 2015/2016 Master Science politique, Majeure Sociologie politique comparée Semestre d automne The Political Economy of European Welfare Systems Colin HAY, Bruno PALIER Course description The aim of the course is to provide students with a clear idea of the diversity of European welfare systems, of their political background, and to allow for the assessment of their performance. The course will also provide an in-depth account of current welfare reforms, in the perspective of their historical development. The social science analysis concepts (de-/re-commodification, path dependency...) will also be used in order to understand the issues at stake in recent debates concerning the welfare state and the trajectories of their reforms. Emphasis will particularly be given to a political economy approach, particularly utilizing concepts emerging from the Varieties of Capitalisms approach. Course requirements (grading & assessment) In the grading of Students, the participation to discussion, based on reading in advance will be taken into account (20% of the grade). One short (1,500 word) review of a special issue of a journal or a book from the reading list, or chosen by students after discussion with the professors (40%) and one short (3,000 word) research essay (40%) will be required. Detailed summary of the course Since World War II, the Welfare States have become a crucial element of modern occidental societies, both as recognition of new forms of citizenship and as one of the major elements of the policy-making process in the Nation-State. The emergence and the institutionalization of the Welfare States were indeed the main dynamic behind State expansion throughout the growth era that characterized the 1950s and the 1960s in most western countries. Since the first reforms in the 1980s, many politicians and analysts tend to view the retrenchment of social policies as a major issue in contemporary societies and as a political necessity. The aging of the population, the globalization process and the development of normative critiques against public policies have paved the way for deep welfare state reforms in many countries. Since the late 1990s, new visions for the Welfare systems are put forward, which involve social investment strategies, investment in human capital, and are trying to address economic as well as social needs of post-industrial societies. The course will focus on these dynamics and, more precisely, will analyse why Welfare State reforms are such prominent issues, to identify the vulnerabilities and assets that various forms of welfare systems do experience, to analyse the different forms of policies that have been conducted during the past few years and
to think about the justifications and the perspectives which animate the political debate today. Is the globalization process a dynamic that systematically has a negative impact on domestic social policies? Can new social policies become an economic asset in the global competition? How are different countries dealing with the ageing of the population? Is the political debate dominated by neoliberal arguments, or is it possible to identify new diagnoses and new propositions, which are designed in order to keep at least some elements of the traditional Welfare State? The course will start with some historical and institutional overview of the various ways welfare systems have been organised in the Western world. It will then analyse the changes in context which undermine traditional welfare. It will afterwards concentrate on the various trends of reforms that have been implemented to cope with demographic, economic and social difficulties, studying in particular pension, heath care reforms and policies aimed at coping with new social risks. Finally, this course will end with a general discussion of the new architectures currently proposed for welfare systems in a globalised post-industrial world. Biograpichal Information Bruno Palier is CNRS Research Director at Sciences Po, Centre d études européennes. Trained in social science, he has a PHD in Political science, and is a former student of Ecole Normale Supérieure. He is studying welfare reforms in Europe. He is Honorary Professor in Welfare state research at the University of South Denmark. He was Guest Professor at the University of Stockholm (Spring 2009 and 2010), Visiting Scholar at Northwestern University (Spring quarter 2007), at Center for European Studies from Harvard University in 2001 and Jean Monnet Fellow in the European University Institute in Florence in 1998-1999. He has published numerous articles on welfare reforms in France and in Europe in Politics and Society, Journal of European Social Policy, West European Politics, Governance, Socio-Economic Review, Global Social Policy, Social Politics, and various books. In 2012, he co-edited The Age of Dualization: The Changing Face of Inequality in Deindustrializing Societies (with Emmenegger, Patrick, Häusermann, Silja, and Seeleib-Kaiser, Martin), Oxford University Press, and Towards a social investment welfare state? Ideas, Policies and Challenges, (with Morel, Nathalie and Palme, Joakim), Bristol: Policy Press. In 2010, he edited A long Good Bye to Bismarck? The Politics of Welfare Reforms in Continental Europe, Amsterdam University Press Colin Hay is Professeur des Universités in Political Science at Sciences Po, Centre d études européennes. He is an affiliate Professor in the Department of Politics at the University of Sheffield, UK and founding co- Director of the Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute (SPERI). He has held visiting positions at ANU, Harvard, MIT and Manchester University. He is the author of a number of books including, most recently, Civic Capitalism (Polity, 2015, with Anthony Payne), The Legacy of Thatcherism (Oxford University Press 2014, with Stephen Farrall), The Failure of Anglo-Liberal Capitalism (Palgrave 2013) and The Political Economy of European Welfare Capitalism (Palgrave 2012, with Daniel Wincott). He is perhaps best known for his prizewinning book Why We Hate Politics (Polity, 2007) and for Political Analysis (Palgrave Macmillan, 2002). He is editor of the journals New Political Economy, Comparative European Politics and British Politics. He was Chair of the UK Research Excellence Framework Sub-Panel for Politics and International Studies. 2
Course Outline Session 1: The European origins of the welfare state 3 September (led by Bruno Palier) The national welfare states have common roots and have historically responded to the same challenge. The nation state was made to assume responsibility for the social protection of its citizens, social protection responded to the common challenge posed by the advent of a capitalist economy, and societal demands for social programs were voiced through the channels of liberal democracy. This session will highlight the common sources (nation state, capitalism, liberal democracy) behind the West European welfare state. No reading Session 2: The diversity of welfare models 10 September (led by Bruno Palier) A prominent strand in the comparative welfare state literature has argued that the remarkable diversity and institutional variation among welfare states is not only due to the different timing of the national revolution, the industrial revolution and the extension of the suffrage, but has as its root cause in different political-class coalitions, which led to three distinct welfare regimes: a social-democratic (Nordic) welfare state regime, a liberal (Anglo-Saxon) welfare state regime and a conservative (continental) welfare state regime. More recent research have also shown the importance of Church state relations in the building of National welfare states. This session will also examine the arguments made in favour of the regime approach in the comparative welfare state literature. MANOW, Philip, Van KERSBERGEN, Kees, Religion, Class coalitions and the Welfare state Cambridge University Press, Chpaters 1, 3, 6 and 10 Session 3: Gender and social Citizenship 17 September (led by Bruno Palier) Traditional typologies have been criticised by feminist researchers for being gender blind. The scholars have shown that Welfare systems do incorporate social norms about the division of labour between genders, and are usually based on a male breadwinner model. Various welfare regimes do however promote more or less equality between men and women. Lewis, Jane (1992) "Gender and the development of welfare regimes", Journal of European Social Policy, 2(3): 159-73. Orloff, Ann Shola (1993) "Gender and the social rights of citizenship: the comparative analysis of gender relations and welfare states", American Sociological Review, 58: 303-328. Session 4: The three worlds of welfare state reforms 24 September (led by Bruno Palier) In the recent years, many studies have analysed the recent reforms implemented in the main welfare systems in Europe and beyond. One can conclude that for long retrenchment has been the basic common answer to the challenges facing the welfare states. However, when going deeper in the analysis, one can see three main paths of reforms, each of them corresponding to the main welfare regimes identified before: the various regimes do not show the same vulnerabilities in front of the new contexts, they have chosen various paths of reforms. PALIER, Bruno (2004), Social Protection Reforms in Europe: Various National Strategies for a New Social Model for CPRN Project F-82, Seeking a Social Architecture for Canada s 21st Century, Canada. Thelen, Kathleen, Varieties of Capitalism: Trajectories of Liberalization and the New Politics of Social Solidarity, Annual Review of Political Science 2012. 15:2.1 2.23 3
Session 05: Pension systems and pension reforms 01 October November (led by Bruno Palier) European countries are all facing a demographic change which will endanger their pension systems in the near future. This session will analyse the main challenges (beyond demographics, what are the economic and political challenges?) and the trends in the main reforms implemented in various European countries. Hinrichs, Karl, 2011, Pension reforms in Europe: directions and Consequences in Ipek Eren Vural, Converging Europe, Ashgate, pp.93-116 Ebbinghaus, Bernhard, 2001 The Varieties of Pension Governance: Pension Privatization in Europe, Oxford University Press, chap.2 Session 06: Towards a social investment welfare state? 08 October (led by Bruno Palier) Since the late 1990s, new ideas and strategies concerning the role and shape of the Welfare State have been formulated, with the focus being placed on developing policies that aim to prepare rather than repair. While different terms and labels have been used, all these analyses point towards a similar policy logic based on social investment. This social investment perspective has also underpinned the Lisbon Agenda, which the European Union adopted in 2000 in order to accompany the shift towards a knowledge-based and service economy and with the aim of making Europe the most dynamic and competitive knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion, and respect for the environment. The aim of this session is to analyse the content and coherence of the ideas put forward in this new perspective but also to assess how far the social investment strategy has actually come in terms of the policies effectively implemented throughout Europe, and with what outcomes. Morel, Nathalie; Bruno Palier and Joakim Palme (eds). (2012) Towards a social investment welfare state? Ideas, Policies and Challenges, Bristol: Policy press, 2012. (chapter 14). Cantillon, Bea (2011), The paradox of the social investment state: growth, employment and poverty in the Lisbon era, Journal of European Social Policy, 21(5): 432 449. Session 07: European welfare system diversity 15 October (led by Colin Hay) This session examines the range and diversity of European welfare systems and the conceptual schema used to characterise them. It introduces the concept of European welfare capitalism and relates European welfare systems to the models or varieties of capitalism in which they are located. It examines Esping-Anderson s welfare regime types and considers the utility of this schema, and extensions of it, today. Arts, W. I. L. and Gelissen, John (2002) Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism or More? A State-Of-The-Art Report, Journal of European Social Policy, 12 (2), 137-58. Esping-Andersen, G. (1990) The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism. Cambridge: Polity chapter 1. Macmillan chapter 2. Session 08: Convergence and/or divergence in European welfare systems 29 October (led by Colin Hay) This sessions examines the welfare state convergence thesis, picking apart the depiction of both the dependent and independent variables in this literature. It explores the concept of convergence itself, differentiating between types of convergence and cautioning against the conflation of convergence and movement in a common direction, before examining evidence of convergence/divergence in European welfare systems since the 1960s. 4
chapter 6. Montanari, I., Nelson, K. and Palme, J. (2007) Convergence Pressures and Responses: Recent Social Insurance Development in Modern Welfare States, Comparative Sociology, 6 (3), 295-323. Session 09: The politics of welfare retrenchment: social democracy in hard times 05 November (led by Colin Hay) This session explores the long-standing relationship between social democracy and the welfare state. It starts by seeking to define social democracy and by considering the extent to which the welfare state is integral to any such definition. It assesses the challenges to social democracy today, gauging the extent to which parties of the centre-left in Europe have accommodated themselves (in, for instance, the adoption of the third way ) to a neoliberal orthodoxy exploring the implications for the welfare state in recent years. Cramme, O. and Diamond, P. (eds.) (2012) After the Third Way: The Future of Social Democracy in Europe. London: I. B. Taurus especially chapter by Taylor-Gooby. Giddens, A. (1998) The Third Way. Cambridge: Polity especially chapter 1. Hicks, Alex (1999) Social Democracy and Welfare Capitalism. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press especially chapter 1. Pontusson, J. (2011) Once again a model: Nordic Social Democracy in a Globalised World, in J. Cronin et al. (eds.) What s Left of the Left? Duke University Press. Session 10: Challenges to the welfare state I: globalisation 12 October (led by Colin Hay) This session considers the prominent thesis that globalisation renders the welfare state economically anachronistic, reviewing the evidence for both the welfare retrenchment anticipated by such a thesis and for the mechanisms identified in this literature. It examines the alternative thesis that, far from being an economic burden, the welfare state is integral to the success of small open economies competing in global markets. especially chapters 3 and 6. Pierson, P. (ed.) (2001) The New Politics of the Welfare State. Oxford: Oxford University Press first chapter. Taylor-Gooby, P. (2013) The Double Crisis of the Welfare State and What We Can Do About It. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan PIVOT. Session 11: Challenges to the welfare state II: competitiveness 19 November (led by Colin Hay) This session considers the concept of competitiveness and the extent to which it is seen to pose, in an era of increased economic interdependence, a profound challenge to the future of the welfare state. It examines Krugman s critique of competitiveness as a dangerous obsession and the dangers of a narrow view of the determinants of economic success. It concludes by seeking to update Gough s provocative competitive audit of the welfare state. Gough, I. (1996) Social Welfare and Competitiveness, New Political Economy, 1 (2), 209-32. Hay, C. (2012) The Dangerous Obsession of Cost Competitiveness And the Not So Dangerous Obsession of Competitiveness, Cambridge Journal of Economics, 36 (2), 463-80 a critique of Krugman (1996). chapter 4. Krugman, P. (1996) Competitiveness: A Dangerous Obsession, in Pop Internationalism. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press this also appears in Foreign Affairs, March/April 1994, 28-44. 5
Session 10: Challenges to the welfare state III: the global financial crisis 26 November (led by Colin Hay) This session concludes this section of the module by assessing the extent to which the global financial crisis threatens the viability and sustainability of European welfare systems. It considers whether this is a crisis of debt or growth and the extent to which austerity and welfare retrenchment are appropriate responses. It considers the differential exposure of European economies to the crisis and the prospects for their welfare states in the years ahead. Blyth, M. (2013) Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea. Oxford: Oxford University Press first chapter. Crouch, C. (2009) Privatised Keynesianism: An Unacknowledged Policy Regime, British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 11 (3), 382-99. Hay, C. (2013) The Failure of Anglo-Liberal Capitalism. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan PIVOT. final chapter. Vis, B., van Kersbergen, K. and Hylands, T. (2011) To what extent did the financial crisis intensify the pressure on the welfare state?, Social Policy & Administration, 45 (4), 338-53. Colin Hay & Bruno Palier, May 2015 6