1,721,254 research outputs found
Varieties of Risk
No full textExamines conceptual frameworks from sociology, psychology and decision theory appleid to risk in relation to health issues and develops a new approach
Risk, Contingency and the Third Way: Evidence from BHPS and Qualitative Studies
No full textDetailed analysis of attitudes to state and private pensions using attitude survey and original focus group and interview data. Shows that trust in both sectors low and class plays an important role
Is the future American? Or, can left politics preserve European welfare states from erosion through growing 'Racial' diversity?
No full textThe welfare state is the distinctive contribution of Europe to the modern world. Other places do market capitalism better, and democracy, art and culture at least as well. However, the future of the European welfare state is in question, as a result of economic globalisation, pressures from population ageing and other social changes and the dominance of an EU primarily committed to creating an open market to rival that of the US. An important recent critique of the welfare state project argues that social cohesion and diversity are simply incompatible - with the implication, that as Europe grows more diverse, welfare states will wither. An influential variant of this argument uses statistical modelling to support the argument that greater ethnic diversity accounts for the failure of the US to develop political support for a welfare state on European lines (and implies that Europe's future is American). This article demonstrates that the model used fails to take into account the significance of left politics in European countries. The evidence is that the left substantially counteracts the impact of greater diversity on welfare states in Europe. The case that increased migration will undermine popular commitment to social spending is not proven
The New Welfare Settlement in Europe
No full textThe post-war settlement rested on confidence that state welfare combined with neo-Keynesian economic management supported economic progress and enhanced social stability. New approaches from the 1970s onwards inspired by monetarism saw extensive state welfare as a damaging economic burden. The welfare settlement that is currently emerging in European debates argues that a welfare state centred on social investment, combined with appropriate de-regulation and use of social benefits to support employment mobility can again contribute to economic and social objectives in a virtuous spiral of growth and justice. In practice, however, most European states have been far more successful in what might broadly be called negative activation (less regulation, restrictions on passive benefits and targeted help for high-risk groups), than in investment to enhance the knowledge base and improve mobility. The differences between the new social investment welfare state and more limited de-regulated welfare system seem to be less marked in practice than the tenor of policy debate implies
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