Social Citizenship in the European Monetary Union: The Case of Portugal

The impact of monetary integration on European welfare capitalism has received longstanding attention. Yet, the unfolding of events has brought new light and pertinence to the investigation of processes of continuity and change in social protection at the country-level. Focusing on T.H. Marshall’s concept of social citizenship, this dissertation analyses the impacts of the establishment of the common currency specifically on the Portuguese case. With resort to historical explanation and process-tracing, it is claimed that the EMU contributed to a different strategic context, as well as new discursive selectivities, for welfare governance, which led to a recalibration of the Portuguese welfare state towards managed recommodification. It is further argued that the deep restructuring of social policy that followed external intervention by the troika, far from being a structural break, has strong elements of continuity with the period prior to the crisis.