Welfare state

The same view can be found in the organic farming movement (Lund 1996). The organic understanding of animal welfare differs somewhat from that commonly used in conventional farming, where the biological functioning approach is usually seen as the norm. Researchers also prefer the latter approach, since it makes it comparatively easy to quantify welfare states. 

Lerman, P. 1982, Deinstitutionalisation and the Welfare State. Rutgers University Press, New Bmnswick. 

In recent decades regulation as a part of governance has increased in magnitude and importance (Braithwaite 2006). The reasons behind this development can be discussed, but, among other hypothesis, it has been suggested that the complexity of the welfare state in combination with decreased financial resources has advanced regulatory enforcement at the expense of reform policies (Kleinman Mark 2002). 

Kleinman Mark (2002) A European Welfare State European Union Social Policy in context. Hampshire. Palgrave. 

This point has been made forcefully and polemically in the twentieth century by Friedrich Hayek, the darling of those opposed to postwar planning and the welfare state. See, especially. The Road to Serfdom (Chicago University of Chicago Press, 1976). 

On the macro level, the effect of activation policies is largely mediated through the labour market environment, but activation strategies are designed to lower unemployment or non-employment, raise overall employment and improve the fiscal balance of the welfare state at least in the long run. Hence, increasing labour market entry and participation is the major concern of activation policies, and for this purpose options of unconditional benefit receipt for the working-age population are to be closed. 

Both narrow and wider concepts of activation are used in the academic and the policy-oriented debate. Narrow definitions point at the activation of particular target groups or benefit schemes whereas wider definitions point at modifications to the overall welfare state environment, which also implies larger target groups. 

The welfare state perspective Convergence and divergence across countries... 

Welfare state change, however, is difficult particularly if it involves retrenchment of well-established policies and societal expectations and therefore depends on particular explanatory factors (Pierson 1994, 2001). Analysing welfare state change has therefore been a major topic of comparative studies. 

Earlier studies (Clarke et al. 2000) have demonstrated that the way in which public policy is administered contributes significantly to the nature and effects of the welfare state, particularly to citizen-state relations. Thus, in promoting the success of social policies, the provision and delivery has to be considered in connection with the organisation and management of this process. It is therefore surprising that in the proliferation of comparative welfare studies, the implementation and governance side of welfare has only recently received more attention. 

The volume provides a collection of country studies which represent different welfare state regimes and types of employment systems ... 

The political logic of the shift towards activation and its evolution over time, in particular regarding the question whether activation policies are part of a coherent and explicit transformation of the welfare state or take place only in some policy fields... 

Pierson P (1994) Dismantling the Welfare State Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Pierson P (2001) Coping with Permanent Austerity Welfare State Restructuring in Affluent Democracies. In Pierson P (ed.) The New Politics of the Welfare State. Oxford University Press, Oxford pp. 410 156... 

Although Germany has a long-standing reputation as a passive welfare state with elaborate schemes of status-protecting income replacement through social insurance in case of unemployment and a full-blown system of active labour market policies, all benefit systems had formal elements of activation and work requirement - but they had not been enforced systematically. 

Even to date, there is no societal consensus on policy objectives in labour market policies. Hence, the paradigm shift to activation is not yet complete. Moreover, there is a dominating sense of injustice. It is fair to argue that the broad rejection of the Hartz IV reform is due to a fundamental deficit of legitimising the hidden or silent shift from a social insurance state to a welfare state dominated by basic income support and stronger activation. 

The silent change of the welfare state logic From Bismarck to Beveridge ... 

Hence, basic income is of growing relevance regarding the structure of benefits in the German welfare state. Compared to unemployment insurance benefits, means-tested basic income is now the more important welfare scheme. However, recent figures also show some moderate decline in UB II. 

This has more fundamental consequences as it signals the departure from status protection and a benevolent welfare state to a more basic, means-tested system of social protection and stricter workfare. This is not only a result of the abolition of eamings-related unemployment assistance but also due to the associated cut in maximum duration of unemployment insurance benefits for older workers. 

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