Welfare State Reform: legitimacy and solidarity

Abstract

This panel focuses on the process of welfare state reform. In particular questions of legitimacy and solidarity will be analyzed in relation to welfare state reform. Welfare state reform is a complicated political and policy process that is aimed at keeping the fundamentals of the welfare state alive under the conditions of globalization and individualization. The restructuring of welfare policy often implies retrenchment, increasing selectivity and diminishing social rights. These policy changes are intended to make the welfare state more robust to change and at the same time they are meant to support the goals of social policy - in a revised version. The central question of this panel is whether, how and to what extent processes of welfare state reform influence the legitimacy of social policy and whether, how and to what extent they affect the level of social solidarity in a society. The panel presents contributions that focus on specific policy fields or countries as well as comparative analyses.

Title	Details
Public Opinion and welfare state change	View Paper Details
Solidarity with whom? New dilemmas for the left in the 'modernization' of family and pension policies in conservative welfare states	View Paper Details
The Role of Industrial Relations in the Liberalization of Welfare States	View Paper Details
Democratic legitimacy and the privatisation of social security	View Paper Details