Routledge Handbook of European Welfare Systems: (Routledge International Handbooks)

Published ten years after the first edition, this new Handbook offers topical, and comprehensive information on the welfare systems of all 28 EU member states and their recent reforms, giving the reader an invaluable introduction and basis for comparative welfare research. Additional chapters provide detailed information on EU social policy, as well as comparative analyses of European welfare systems and their reform pathways. For this second edition, all chapters have been updated and substantially revised, and Croatia additionally included. The second edition of this Handbook is most timely, given the often-fundamental welfare state transformations against the background of the financial and economic crises, transforming social policy ideas, as well as political shifts in a number of European countries. The book sets out to analyse these new developments when it comes to social policy. In the first part, all country chapters provide systematic and comparable information on the foundations of the different national welfare systems and their characteristics. In the second part, using a joint conceptual foundation, they focus on policy changes (especially of the last two decades) in different social policy areas, including old-age, labour market, family, healthcare, and social assistance policies. As the comparative chapters conclude, European welfare system landscapes have been in constant motion in the last two decades. While austerity is not to be seen on the aggregate level, the in-depth country studies show that all policy sectors have been characterised by different reform directions and ideas. The findings not only reveal both change and continuity, but also policy reversal as a distinct type that characterises social policy reform. The book provides a rich resource to the international welfare state research community, and is also useful for social policy teaching.

Table of Contents:
Part 1: Introduction 1. Reform Pathways of European Welfare Systems: Analysing Change and Continuity in a Broadened Geographical and Temporal Perspective Part 2: Country Studies 2. Austrification in Welfare System Change? An Analysis of Welfare System Development between 1998 and 2018 in Austria 3. Belgium’s Welfare System: Still Lagging After All These Years 4. The Bulgarian Welfare System: Reforms and Their Effects on Inequalities and Vulnerable Groups Between 1997 and 2018 5. The Restructuring of the Cypriot Welfare System: Will the New Provision System Prove to be a Success? 6. Hybridisation and Diversification Welfare System Developments Between 1993 and 2018 in the Czech Republic 7. The German Welfare System: The Calm After the Storm 8. Denmark – A Universal Welfare System with Restricted Austerity 9. The Welfare System in Estonia: Between Liberalism and Solidarity 10. The Spanish Welfare System: Towards a New Social and Territorial Pact? 11. Still Holding Its Breath: The Finnish Welfare System under Reform 12. The Recalibration of the French Welfare System 13. ‘Liberalising’ Social Protection amid Austerity in Greece 14. The Croatian Welfare System: A Lack of Coherent Policy Paradigm Followed by Inconsistent Policy Reforms? 15. Pathway to a Punitive Workfare System: Hungary 16. The Welfare System in Ireland Over the Last 20 Years 17. The Italian Welfare System: An Incomplete Transition? 18. The Lithuanian Welfare System Over the Last Twenty Years of Democratic Transition: Achievements, Challenges and Future Prospects 19. Changes in Luxembourg’s Welfare System (1998-2018): Coalition Governments and Europeanisation as Major Driving Forces 20. Social Policy Reforms in Latvia: Shift Towards Individual Responsibility of Welfare 21. The Maltese Welfare System: Hybrid Wine in Rightist Bottles? With Two-Sided Labels? 22. The Dutch Participatory State: Shift from a Welfare System of Collective Solidarity Towards Individual Responsibility in a Participatory Society 23. Politics of Welfare: The Polish Welfare System in the First Decades of the 21st Century 24. The Portuguese Welfare System: A Late European Welfare System under Permanent Stress 25. The Romanian Welfare System: From the Shadow of Equality to the Dazzle of Dualisation 26. The Swedish Welfare System: The Neoliberal Turn and Most Recent Struggles Over Decentralised Top-down Re-regulation 27. Restructuring the Slovenian Welfare System: Between Economic Pressures and Future Challenge 28. The Slovak Welfare System: From Turbulent Times to Stability 29. The United Kingdom: New Devolved Welfare Systems in Britain Part 3: EU Social Policy and Comparative Perspectives 30. European Union Social Policy – Facing Deepening Economic Integration and Demand for a More Social Europe With Continuity and Cautiousness 31. The Development of Welfare State Spending in the EU, 1995–2015: A Quantitative Comparative Analysis 32. Landscapes in Motion: Welfare System Reform in 28 European Countries 1998-2018

About the Author :
Sonja Blum is Researcher and Lecturer at the Institute of Political Science, University of Hagen, and External Research Fellow at the KU Leuven Public Governance Institute. She holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Münster. Her research focuses on public policy analysis, comparative social policy, family policy, evidence use and learning in public policy. She has published in journals such as Critical Social Policy, European Policy Analysis, Policy Studies, Social Policy & Administration, and Social Politics and is co-editor of the Annual Review of Leave Policies & Related Research. Johanna Kuhlmann is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Collaborative Research Centre ‘Global Dynamics of Social Policy’ (CRC 1342), University of Bremen. She received her PhD from the University of Münster. Her current research focuses on public policy analysis and causal mechanisms of social policy dynamics. She has published in journals such as Policy Studies Journal, Review of Policy Research, Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice, and European Policy Analysis. Klaus Schubert is Senior Professor of Political Science at the Institute of Political Science at the University of Münster. His research interests focus especially on comparative social policy, policy analysis, integration research, and pluralism. He has co-edited Challenges to European Welfare Systems (2016), Policy Analysis in Germany (2013), as well as the first edition of the Handbook of European Welfare Systems (2009), and is the co-editor of the journal European Policy Analysis (EPA).

Review :
'Featuring a conceptual introduction and 28 country chapters, the second edition of this Routledge Handbook provides a rich overview of social policy continuity and change within the European Union. Scholars and practitioners interested in the evolution of social policy in Europe should read and engage with this strong volume.' – Daniel Béland, Professor of Political Science, McGill University, Montreal, Canada '[...]In addition to the in-depth analysis of what is happening in 28 countries and on the EU level, the reader is offered a comparative analysis of the reforms, both from a quantitative and a qualitative perspective. This comprehensive overview of recent efforts to transform European welfare state systems makes the book a must read for all who are interested in comparative social policy research. It is recommended reading for students and senior researchers, but also for professionals and policy makers who seek to learn from policy solutions from abroad.' – Tanja Klenk, Professor of Administrative Sciences, Helmut-Schmidt University Hamburg, Germany 'Edited volumes which review social policy development in a "country-by-country" fashion seem somewhat old-fashioned in style and can often be incoherent in substance. This volume is a welcome exception. Guided by a clear analytical structure, the chapters in this compendium systematically assess key national social policy trajectories since the late 1990s across Europe. The result is an invaluable resource for all those interested in the development of advanced welfare states in recent times.' – Jochen Clasen, Professor of Comparative Social Policy, The University of Edinburgh, UK