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Welfare systems characterize both European capitalisms and the way such capitalisms are governed politically. In recent years that relationship has been reconfigured as policymakers have become more aware of the economic externalities of welfare expenditure and have come increasingly to demand an economic return on the social investment that it represents. It is the general and regime type-specific reconfigurations that this has led to which this chapter seeks to describe and account for. It detects a transition from a demand-side to a supply-side oriented conception of the role of welfare within the workings of European capitalism; this it associates with the rise of the social investment state. Yet this tendency has been embraced more or less fully to produce a complex pattern of within-regime-type convergence and between-regime-type divergence.

This chapter traces the different approaches to social policy as they have developed over time, starting with the early origins of the social investment perspective in the ‘productive social policy’ approach put forward in Sweden in the 1930s, before turning to a brief analysis of the Keynesian and neo-liberal eras of social policy. It suggests that the social investment perspective may represent a new, emerging social and economic policy paradigm which is based on a new understanding of social policy as a productive factor. The chapter then reviews the different critiques which have been levelled at the social investment perspective, and suggests that these critiques may be linked in part to some of the tensions and ambiguities embedded in the social investment perspective, which can be related to the different intellectual sources behind it. Finally, it presents the aims and focus of the book, which are to assess the achievements, shortcomings and potentials of social investment policies; to question whether the ‘social investment’ strategy is able to regenerate the welfare state, promote social inclusion, create more and better jobs; and helps address the challenges posed by the economic crisis, globalisation, ageing and climate change.

European policies regarding the reconciliation of paid work and private life have undergone substantial changes since the 1950s. This paper analyses how European resources related to reconciliation policies have been incrementally developed through layering and conversion processes. Three phases can be distinguished. Beginning with early initiatives at the Community level, reconciliation policies transformed into an instrument of equality policy and finally an instrument of employment policy. Beyond tracing these historical developments, the paper addresses the various definitions of reconciliation and their different functions as cognitive and legitimising resources. It suggests a larger and encompassing definition of reconciliation in order to acknowledge the potentially diverse and numerous usages of Europe by domestic actors.

Les pays d’Europe de l’Ouest sont souvent différenciés des autres pays industrialisés par l’existence de leur « modèle social »1. Le modèle social européen repose sur un socle commun érigé au cours des trente glorieuses, qui associe recherche du plein emploi, garantie de droits sociaux et du bien-être relativement déconnectée de la situation sur le marché du travail, et politiques keynésiennes de soutien de la demande. Chaque pays ouest-européen a cependant élaboré ses propres compromis politiques autour de ce socle commun, et instauré des façons de faire, des institutions de protection sociale particulières (...).

International audience; Une vision de «la» mondialisation s’exprime dans la rue. À Seattle, à Prague, à Porto Allègre, à Québec, des foules manifestent leur opposition, leur rejet, leur haine à l’égard de la mondialisation économique, culturelle et sociale. Venues de partout, elles s’en prennent à une conception trop optimiste d’un monde dépourvu de frontières économiques et – très souvent – de frontières nationales et culturelles. Néanmoins, aux yeux des enthousiastes de la mondialisation ou de ses opposants, tout a changé depuis quelques années, ou quelques décennies. Les uns et les autres proposent donc des actions et des analyses allant « au-delà » des anciennes pratiques, au-delà des approches «dépassées» et des visions «rétrogrades». Pour eux, les frontières du social se sont déplacées.Loin d’affirmer que tout a changé et que tout doit être repensé, les auteurs des articles présentés dans ce numéro de Lien social et Politiques-RIAC posent sur la mondialisation un diagnostic plus nuancé. Dans une série d’études empiriques minutieuses consacrées aux politiques et aux acteurs du domaine social en Europe, en Amérique du Nord et en Amérique latine, nos collaborateurs et collaboratrices expriment des réserves relativement à l’impact des changements attribués à la «mondialisation» sur les processus sous-jacents à l’élaboration des politiques sociales, sur les acteurs qui y participent et sur les résultats qui en découlent. À leurs yeux, seule une analyse fouillée peut permettre de délimiter les vraies frontières du social et de déterminer si elles débordent, désormais, les espaces nationaux. (Intro.)

This article compares the Lisbon Strategy and the EUROPE 2020 Strategy. It demonstrates while none of the two strategies are sufficient as support for the monetary integration and the Euro-collaboration.

Orientadores: Valeriano Mendes Ferreira Costa, Yves Surel Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas e Université Paris 3 Sorbonne Nouvelle École doctorale Resumo: A década de 1990 assistiu ao nascimento das chamadas « transferências condicionadas de renda » : programas assistenciais para famílias pobres à condição de que elas incentivem seus filhos a prosseguirem os estudos e que frequentem centros de saúde. Com o objetivo de reduzir a pobreza e assegurar um futuro melhor para os « pobres » de amanhã, essas políticas representam um novo tipo de proteção social com princípios e modos de operaçäo diferentes dos programas tradicionais. A análise de suas origens revela uma estruturação progressiva marcada por contextos institucionais e trajetórias distintas que geraram resultados semelhantes. O objetivo deste estudo é identificar uma ou mais variáveis que possam explicar a emergência e expansão no Brasil e no México nas décadas de 1990 e 2000, examinando a maneira como suas evoluções suscitaram oposições mais ou menos fortes de atores e os constrangimentos institucionais enfrentados. Nós podemos observar uma estruturação de grupos reunidos em torno a « causas » - notadamente a causa do capital humano - que influem na elaboração e na implementação dessas políticas. Esse trabalho busca matizar a ideia de reformas consensuais no México e no Brasil, sem negar a dimensão das transformações ocorridas. A mudança institucional no Brasil é operada por meio da adição de novos recursos às instituições existentes; e no México, em primeira instância, o processo de mudança e consolidação da política de transferência de renda ocorreu como um deslocamento institucional e, posteriormente, os atores defensores do status quo modificam marginalmente o programa para manter os seus interesses. Assim, esses programas são objeto de um consenso ambíguo, uma vez que atores de diferentes coalizões passam a reivindicar eventualmente esses instrumentos. Finalmente, os « interesses » constituíram-se como uma variável chave para entender a permanência e o reforço das condicionalidades dessas políticas por meio de fenômenos de lock- in Abstract: The 1990s saw the birth of so-called 'conditional cash transfers', assistance programs for poor families on the condition that they encourage their children to seek education and attend health centers. In order to reduce poverty and ensure a better future for tomorrow's « poor », these policies represent a new type of social protection with different principles and modes of operation for traditional programs. The analysis of their origins reveals a progressive structuring marked by institutional contexts and different paths that have generated similar results. The objective of this study is to identify one or more variables that might explain their emergence and expansion in Brazil and Mexico in the 1990s and 2000s and to highlight how the evolution of these policies could generate more or less strong opposition from some actors as well as the institutional constraints these policies face. We can observe group structures centred on "causes" - notably the cause of human capital - that have largely determined the development and implementation of these policies. This paper seeks to show the nuances of the idea of consensual reforms in Mexico and Brazil, without denying the extent to which these transformations have occurred. This means that institutional change in Brazil is operated by adding new features to existing institutions; while in Mexico, in the first instance, the process of change and consolidation of conditional cash transfer programs has occurred as an institutional shift and then the defenders of the status quo actors marginally modified the program to keep their interests. As monetary instruments to combat poverty, these programs are the subject of an ambiguous consensus and actors from different coalitions end up supporting them. Finally, "interests", necessary at different times, were constituted as a key variable to understand the permanence and strengthening of these policies through locking phenomena Doutorado Ciência Política Doutora em Ciência Política CAPES 99999.005717/2014-00 Eiffel Excellence Scholarship Programme

In this chapter, Herbert Obinger, Peter Starke, and Alexandra Kaasch analyze various policy responses to labor market divides in three small open economies (Austria, New Zealand, and Sweden). They argue that different welfare state regimes generate distinctive patterns of insider-outsider divides and that the three countries developed quite different, albeit mainly path-dependent coping strategies. In other words, none of the three countries significantly departed from previous labor market policies in response to growing labor market inequalities.

This chapter introduces the concept of dualization. Poverty, inequality, and social exclusion are back on the political agenda in many rich democracies of Western Europe and North America, not only as a consequence of the Great Recession that hit the global economy in 2008. It argues that the translation of structural pressures into policies and outcomes has to be understood as a political process. Dualization is a political process that is characterized by the differential treatment of insiders and outsiders and that can take the form of newly created institutional dualisms or the deepening of existing institutional dualisms (policy output). Thereby, changes in the labor market are translated into the social policy realm, where new distinctions arise or old institutional distinctions are re-activated. Feedback effects and vicious circles are likely to strengthen this effect because weak labor attachment and social exclusion are associated with weaker political representation.

The chapter compares employment structures in five Continental European welfare states, with a focus on private services. Despite a common trend to overcome institutional employment barriers by creating a more divided labor market, a closer look reveals considerable differences between national patterns of standard and non-standard work. We identify five transformative pathways towards a more flexible and cheaper use of labor in Continental European welfare states: 1. defection from permanent contracts, 2. from full-time employment, 3. from dependent employment, 4. growing wage dispersion, and 5. government-sponsored labor cost reductions. The chapter shows that by relying on one or several of these options, each country developed a distinct solution for the labor cost problem in the service sector, which corresponds to a particular form of dualization.