Date: 2011
Type: Working Paper
The Politics of the New Welfare States in Western Europe
Working Paper, EUI RSCAS, 2011/17
BONOLI, Giuliano, NATALI, David, The Politics of the New Welfare States in Western Europe, EUI RSCAS, 2011/17 - https://hdl.handle.net/1814/16194
Retrieved from Cadmus, EUI Research Repository
The present paper has a twofold objective. First we discuss different possible interpretations of recent
current social policy change. Western European welfare states have been characterised by (functional
and normative) innovation towards cost-containment, activation, social investment, and the flexicurity
model. While the effect of recent waves of reforms is still debated, norms and cognitive elements of
welfare policy have clearly changed. Second, on the basis of existing scholarship, we try to develop an
explanation of the observed pattern of change with specific reference to the politics of ‘blame
avoidance’ and ‘credit claiming’. The recent reform process has seen the emergence of a complex set
of strategies policymakers have implemented to improve social and political consensus for innovation.
The latter has consisted in the transformation of the social and employment policies inherited from the
past. Third we shed light on some key aspects of the reforms’ output and outcome, with a brief
summary of the main issues in need for further research. Reforms have been consistent with the
‘contingent’ convergence of national welfare states through a sequence of transformative innovations,
with evident distributional effects.
Cadmus permanent link: https://hdl.handle.net/1814/16194
ISSN: 1028-3625
Series/Number: EUI RSCAS; 2011/17