Changing Governance of Welfare States

Abstract

Over the last decades, the European welfare states have been under pressure, both for being ineffective and inefficient, as well as for a growing concern about a lack of popular support. In this regard, scholars of social policy have mainly focused on the content of social policies, such as types of services deployed, changes in benefits systems and instruments used. Much less is known about the changing governance of the welfare state, i.e. how welfare state regimes are administered and policy is implemented. Changes in the governance structure include interagency cooperation and joined-up government approaches, decentralisation, new public management instruments, marketisation and privatisation, reduction of the influence of social partners as well as the establishment of new or reorganisation of old organisations. Thus, the panel will mainly focus on intentional organisational and administrative reforms and incremental changes in welfare state administration. The emphasis will be on how these reforms have changed the government organisation, the actor constellations, and the modes of collaboration (e.g. hierarchy, market, and networks) in different sectors. The panel will also emphasise the effects for political legitimacy and the relationship between the state and its citizens. In particular we are interested in content and effects of reforms in large welfare sectors, such as employment, health care, pensions, education, and migration/integration.

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