Documents social policy 2 998 results

"This paper updates previous OECD work on the strictness of activation requirements for benefit recipients, a topic central to the mutual obligations framework that underpins modern social safety nets. It covers multiple tiers of income support for jobseekers, including unemployment insurance, unemployment assistance, and minimum income benefits where relevant. By incorporating new data for 2024, it presents detailed information on job-search reporting procedures, monitoring mechanisms, definitions of suitable work, and sanction rules across OECD and EU countries. The paper also updates the OECD indicator of strictness of activation requirements. This composite indicator summarises complex national rules into a single, standardised measure that enables consistent monitoring and benchmarking across countries. Together with related OECD databases on benefit levels, work incentives for benefit recipients, and spending on active labour market policies, the updated database and strictness indicator support in-depth, evidence-based assessments of recent changes in income support and activation policies."

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"This book serves as a sequel to two distinguished volumes on capitalism: Continuity and Change in Contemporary Capitalism (Cambridge University Press, 1999) and Order and Conflict in Contemporary Capitalism (1985). Both volumes took stock of major economic challenges advanced industrial democracies faced, as well as the ways political and economic elites dealt with them. However, during the last decades, the structural environment of advanced capitalist democracies has undergone profound changes: sweeping deindustrialization, tertiarization of the employment structure, and demographic developments. This book provides a synthetic view, allowing the reader to grasp the nature of these structural transformations and their consequences in terms of the politics of change, policy outputs, and outcomes. In contrast to functionalist and structuralist approaches, the book advocates and contributes to a 'return of electoral and coalitional politics' to political economy research. "

"Terms such as 'Social Europe' and 'European Social Model' have long resided in the political and regulatory lexicon of European integration. But in recent years, and in spite of the adoption of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, the EU social profile has entered a profound period of crisis. The ECJ judgments of Viking and Laval exemplify the unresolved tension between the EU's strong market imperatives and its fragile social aspirations while the ongoing economic crisis, while the various 'bail out' packages are producing a constant retrenchment of social rights. The status quo is one in which workers appear to shoulder most of the risks attendant on making and executing arrangements for the doing of work. Chapters in this book advocate a reversal of this trend in favour of fair mutualization, so as to disperse these risks and share them more equitably between employers, the state, and society at large."

"Growing socio-economic disparities in the EU, both within and between member states, pose a serious threat to the Union's social model, political viability, and its economic strength. In the absence of adequate levels of public investment, and with the added pressures of an ageing population and societal changes, Claire Dhéret and Marta Pilati make the case for a paradigm shift in the financing of social investment. The latter is based on the idea that investing in human and social capital enhances individuals' capabilities and enables them to successfully participate in society and the economy, resulting in a more skilled, resilient and healthy workforce.

But where will the money come from? In this Policy Brief, Dhéret and Pilati investigate the unlocked potential of EU financial instruments in fostering social investment, and the unique opportunity provided by the next Multiannual Financial Framework (2021-2027) and the InvestEU programme. Although the Commission's efforts have been commendable so far, they argue for additional EU measures to ensure the creation of a genuine market for the social economy, which will not only help re-invigorate Europe's social model but also make it a global champion for an ‘economy of well-being'.

The EU can do this by: (1) ensuring that financial regulation is not an obstacle to social investment; (2) supporting social innovation throughout the entire social policy production chain; and (3) integrating national social investment strategies into the larger European policy framework."

"Welfare states around the globe are changing, challenged by the development of knowledge economies. In many countries, policy-makers' main response has been to modernize welfare states by focusing on future-oriented social investment policies that focus on creating, mobilizing, and preserving
human skills and capabilities. Yet, there is massive variance in the development of social investment strategies.
The World Politics of Social Investment: Political Dynamics of Reform is the second of two volumes of the World Politics of Social Investment (WOPSI) project, which systematically maps and explains different welfare reform strategies in democratic countries around the world. This volume traces the
development of social investment reforms across the regions of Nordic, Continental, and Southern Europe, as well as Central and Eastern Europe, North and Latin America, and North East Asia. The chapters in this volume study the impact of different structural drivers for social investment (e.g.,
demographic, poverty, demand for skill, or lack of an available workforce), the salience of social investment in the public debates, and the different political coalitions that led to or prevented the adoption of social investment strategies. The chapters are written by leading social policy
scholars from different world regions. They all apply a joint theoretical framework (developed in the first of the two volumes) to explain the politics of social investment in a range of contexts and policy fields. Jointly with the first volume, the WOPSI project offers the first worldwide analysis
of social investment reforms around the globe."

"In Politik und Gesellschaft der Bundesrepublik zählen die Gewerkschaften – auch jenseits der Arbeitsbeziehungen – zu den wichtigsten politischen Akteuren. In diesem grundlegenden Handbuch, das Beiträge führender Gewerkschaftsforscher*innen versammelt, findet sich ein Überblick, der den nationalen und internationalen Forschungsstand zu den Gewerkschaften abbildet: Also die wesentlichen Daten, Theorien, Entwicklungen und Perspektiven von Gewerkschaften in ihren unterschiedlichen Funktionen – als Arbeitsmarkakteur, Solidarorganisation und politischem Akteur. Dabei beleuchten die einzelnen Beiträge die historische, organisatorische, politikfeldbezogene und politische Dimension der Gewerkschaften, ihre Einbettung in Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft sowie ihr internationales Umfeld. Für die 3. Auflage wurden zahlreiche neue Autor*innen gewonnen und nicht nur bestehende Texte überarbeitet und erweitert, sondern auch wichtige aktuelle Themen neu aufgenommen."

"La question qui nous intéresse est la suivante : comment les systèmes de protection sociale peuvent-ils en même temps relever le défi du développement économique sur le long terme, lequel implique de nouvelles dépenses sociales et de répondre à la demande permanente d'austérité ? Cette exigence de contrainte fiscale a encore été accrue récemment par la crise financière et économique. La stratégie d'investissement social peut-elle être une solution ? Cet article examine la stratégie d'investissement social de la République tchèque pendant et après la crise. Nous nous intéresserons aux secteurs les plus pertinents du point de vue des investissements sociaux, à savoir l'éducation, les politiques actives du marché du travail (PAMT), l'accueil des jeunes enfants, l'aide aux familles (y compris la garantie d'un revenu minimum) et le logement. Les travaux montrent que le programme d'investissement social mis en place par l'Union européenne (UE) en 2013 n'a eu aucun effet sur le discours politique en République tchèque. Néanmoins, malgré le rééquilibrage budgétaire et la réduction des dépenses publiques intervenus depuis, on observe des signes de changement dans la conception des stratégies d'investissement social dans ce pays. Parmi les facteurs de ce changement, nous pouvons citer les attentes en matière de productivité, les pressions et les financements de l'UE, ainsi que des changements intervenus dans les politiques nationales."