Journal of European Social Policy current issue

Erratum

2008-07-02

Choosing paths in European Union health services policy: a political analysis of a critical juncture

Greer, S. L. — 2008-07-02

Health services policy in the European Union is at a critical juncture: a moment at which decisions are highly contingent but, once taken, will shape politics and policy for the future. There is no established EU health services policy community or trajectory because EU health services politics have been a reaction to decisions by the European Court of Justice. Instead, there are a range of different models of health policy, each with different logics, lineages, policy tools and bureaucratic sponsors. The decisions taken in this fluid situation will shape future policy because of the importance and `stickiness' of the EU. Once the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has taken a decision or legislation has been passed, it is difficult to undo. This article explains the challenges that created an EU policy arena where none had been; the reasons that decisions taken now will be subject to the logic of path dependency; and the different models that are being put forward for the EU.

Explaining the underdevelopment of `Social Europe': a critical realization

Bailey, D. J. — 2008-07-02

This article argues that existing accounts of the underdevelopment of `Social Europe' have failed to adequately integrate the contending obstacles that explain the absence they rightly identify. It argues that by employing a critical realist methodology, including the concepts of generation, emergence, and stratification, it is possible to more adequately integrate knowledge of the obstacles to `Social Europe'. Concretely, the article argues that obstacles to `Social Europe' exist at three strata, constituted by institutional relations, political relations, and Europe-wide social relations, respectively. The underdevelopment of `Social Europe' emerged from the institutional stratum, which in turn was generated (but not determined) by the underlying political relations, which were themselves in turn generated by EU-wide social relations. From this perspective, the oft-lamented absence of `Social Europe' is an emergent property of underlying institutional, political and EU-wide social relations; its occurrence, therefore, is far less contingent than existing, less integrated, accounts suggest.

Restructuring the welfare state: reforms in long-term care in Western European countries

Pavolini, E., Ranci, C. — 2008-07-02

Faced with the problems associated with an ageing society, many European countries have adopted innovative policies to achieve a better balance between the need to expand social care and the imperative to curb public spending. Although embedded within peculiar national traditions, these new policies share some characteristics: (a) a tendency to combine monetary transfers to families with the provision of in-kind services; (b) the establishment of a new social care market based on competition; (c) the empowerment of users through their increased purchasing power; and (d) the introduction of funding measures intended to foster care-giving through family networks. This article presents the most significant reforms recently introduced in six European countries (France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK) as regards long-term care. It analyses their impact at the macro- (institutional and quantitative), meso- (service delivery structures) and micro-level (families, caregivers and people in need). As a result the authors find a general trend towards convergence in social care among the countries, and the emergence of a new type of government regulation designed to restructure rather than to reduce welfare programmes.

Size matters: targeting efficiency and poverty reduction effects of means-tested and universal child benefits in Russia

Notten, G., Gassmann, F. — 2008-07-02

This article evaluates a policy change from universal to means-tested child allowances in terms of targeting efficiency and poverty reduction, taking the introduction of the latter form of benefits in Russia as a case-study. We use the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS) from 2000 to 2004 to analyse the impact of the reforms and to simulate the effects of various means-tested and universal child benefit schemes. Since the reforms in 2000, more children have received benefits and there has been improved targeting of low income households. Nevertheless, both inclusion and exclusion errors are considerable and although the poverty reduction impact has improved marginally since the reforms, its effect on child poverty has been small. Our simulations show that universal schemes achieve additional poverty reductions with regard to all indicators because previously excluded children now also receive a benefit. However, size matters most: only by increasing benefit levels considerably can more substantial poverty reductions be achieved.

Shared housework in Norway and Sweden: advancing the gender revolution

Bernhardt, E., Noack, T., Lyngstad, T. H. — 2008-07-02

In the first part of the gender revolution, women have entered the public spheres of education, employment and politics. The next step is the process by which men enter the private sphere and share the responsibility for the care of home and children equally with their female partners. Using comparable survey data, we investigate to what extent this process is underway in Norway and Sweden, analysing both ideal and actual sharing. Young Swedish couples are clearly more in favour of egalitarian sharing of housework than their Norwegian counterparts, and also seem to apply this ideal in reality to a greater extent. This is probably due to Sweden's longer history of gender equality norms, which are more `institutionalized' in public policies (thus demonstrating path dependency). However, more or less the same explanatory factors were established to be important as those found by researchers of other, less gender-equal, societies.

Too late for gender mainstreaming? Taking stock in Brussels

Woodward, A. E. — 2008-07-02

Gender mainstreaming is one of the major strategies adopted by the European Union and member states for achieving gender equality. It is seen as a major success, and other social movements have begun to demand mainstreaming for their issues in European social policy. This article considers eight recent studies which include Belgium, a middle case as far as European gender equality is concerned. They show meagre results in terms of altering the understanding of equality policy to include a gender perspective, and applying efforts transversally. The article also evaluates the successes and challenges of the gender mainstreaming strategy ten years after its adoption. It then examines the changes in the organization of EU equality issues with regard to diversity and the implications for the gender mainstreaming strategy. These changes include efforts to address new target groups under Article 13 as well as the issues posed by enlargement. It thus addresses the question: To what extent can experience relating to gender mainstreaming be utilized to meet evolving demands? Recent developments in intersectional theory may offer fruitful new angles.

European Briefing: Digest

Barbier, C., Ghailani, D. — 2008-07-02

Books Received

2008-07-02

Journal of European Social Policy: Special Issues: Call for Papers

2008-07-02