The Swiss welfare state

The Swiss welfare state can be described as a multi-tiered welfare state. The bulk of social expenditure is controlled by the federal level and assigned to core social programmes such as old age and invalidity pension and unemployment insurance. The Cantons and the municipalities, however, have kept substantial powers in some important fields of social policy, including family policy, and - most importantly as far as activation is concerned - social assistance (see Obinger 1998 Armingeon et al. 2002). 

The fragmentation of the social security system and the presence of different actors whose interests are not always compatible constitute an obstacle to the development of a coherent activation policy. The biggest difficulty lies in the coordination of four schemes that are at the core of activation unemployment insurance, social assistance, invalidity insurance and sickness insurance. 

The cantons (and the municipalities, where applicable) certainly have an interest in leading social assistance recipients back into employment, but a second best option for them is to have them relying on a federal income replacement scheme unemployment or invalidity insurance.3 Regional placement offices, responsible for 

2 Outsourcing public administration tasks to committees of (elected or co-opted) citizens is a standard and traditional practice in Switzerland, since the early days of the federal state (founded in 1848). It has been explained with reference to the weakness of the state at the time of its creation (see Katzenstein 1984). The system is referred to as a militia administration (Milizverwaltung). 

3 In some cantons, social assistance recipients are offered labour market programmes in the shape of contribution-paying temporary jobs, which last just enough (1 year) to open 

---

Activation is a relatively recent development in the decade-long process of welfare state building in Switzerland. Traditionally, like in most other continental European countries, social pohces have been of a compensatory nature. Based on the social insurance framework, Swiss social protection has provided replacement income to those unable to work. Its coverage includes the key traditional social risks old age, invalidity, industrial injury, sickness, long-term care and unemployment, which makes the Swiss welfare state a standard continental European social protection system1. 

Activation was introduced in Swiss social policy in the early 1990s, after a quick and impressive rise in the unemployment rate. Initially, this instrument was applied to unemployment insurance only, but the idea has since spread to other areas of the Swiss welfare state, most importantly social assistance and invalidity insurance. As will be shown below, these two schemes have seen their caseload increase dramatically over the last decade. The rise reflected what had happened with the unemployment rate, but with a 2-3 year time lag, suggesting that some fundamental transformation of the labour market has occurred (see Fig. 9 below). 

The employment crisis of the 1990s, the first experienced in post-war Switzerland, turned out to be the catalyst of a major reorientation of the Swiss welfare state. While in the past its main aim was to guarantee a reasonable income to those who for various reasons were unable to work, today social policy increasingly aims at putting people (back) into the labour market. First in unemployment insurance, then in invalidity insurance and in social assistance, we have seen a clear development incentives are being redrawn and new tools are being adopted with the overall aim of promoting labour market participation. 

Armingeon K (2001) Institutionalising the Swiss Welfare State. West European Pohtics 24 (2) 145-168... 

Versus Social Inclusion Edward Elgar, The Swiss welfare state a changing public-private mix (with F. Gilardi) In Beland D and Gran B (eds.) Social Policy Puzzles, Palgrave Macmillan (forthcoming). 

Fabio Bertozzi is a scientific collaborator at the Swiss graduate school for public administration (IDHEAP), Lausanne, Switzerland. He has taken part in several national and international research projects in the area of comparative welfare state analysis, with a special focus on pensions and labour market policies. His publications include The Swiss Pension System and Social Inclusion (2007, with Giuliano Bonoli). In Meyer T, Bridgen P and Riedmiiller B (eds.) Private Pensions... 

---