How can the "crisis" of the Welfare States affect the policy of fight against poverty?

Résumé du document

Since the end of the XVIIIth century, the disastrous consequences due to the Industrial Revolution and to "savage capitalism" on working conditions has been underlined through the rising resentment of the working class. That is why, in order to avoid social implosion and to control proletarian revolutions, European successive governments have implemented couple of laws that entitled to wage earners social rights, financial help. Those measures, in return, provided them access to consumption, to leisure. This great enhancement in social and economic rights is perfectly embodied by the French social protection's system in 1945, which was, at that time, the most efficient and the most reassuring social coverage. However, the proletarian revolution seems today warded off and European Welfare States has to cope with new difficulties, such as mass unemployment and precariousness.

Extraits

[...] On the other hand and upstream, Welfare States are facing new poverty forms and intrinsic crisis. That is why they have to suspect themselves and to create new plans of action to be efficient and legitimate. However, aren't we witnessing the birth of a two-speed social protection that hampers integration structures yet weakens, all the more so as it is controversial question the State in countries where, in case of crisis, everybody is looking to it? Bibliography: BELAND, DANIEL and R. [...]

[...] Thus, we are witnessing today the incapacity of Welfare States to cope with their finance which threatens a “race to the bottom”, that is to say minimalist Welfare States. B . to a tax and market based model ; To face the central source of fiscal pressure on national systems of social provision, European Welfare States have implemented different measures. As Bismarckian systems could not afford their deficit no more, they preferred to widen the quantity of resources than reducing the social expenditures. [...]

[...] How take them into consideration insofar as they haven't contributed to social insurance, or because they are not contributing any more? Actually, the states are in crisis because people are demanding more of them than they could possibly deliver in public expenditure terms. There is an understandable and often intense mismatch between the needs of new households and the capabilities of old welfare states structures. Many European Welfare State have failed to adequately address new social risks associated with changing family structure, gender relations and the spread of atypical work. [...]

[...] Still, while tax and market may contribute to closing the gap between commitments and resources, it is difficult to imagine that changes in revenues alone could be sufficient to maintain fiscal equilibrium, all the more so as the emergence of a tax backlash could threaten the viability of welfare state funding. II. The crisis of efficiency: cases of extreme poverty requires a reassessment in Welfare States' plans of action A. The emergence of extreme poverty cases put into question the efficiency of Welfare States In this first part, we have underlying the causes of the financing crisis of European Welfare States. [...]

[...] Those measures aim at “re-legitimate” European Welfare states in their fight against poverty mission by making them more efficient. Through the development of new social policies (Couverture Maladie Universelle), activation measures and the development of minimum income benefits (Revenu Minimum d'Insertion, 1988), part of the French social protection system is targeting specific populations by using new means- tested benefits with reference to new goal to combat poverty. In the UK, unemployment compensation policy has been characterized by three trends: downward pressure on the level of benefits, increased targeting and removal of work disincentives. [...]