Concepts of Social Justice in the Welfare State. Great Britain and Germany since 1945
Concepts of social justice are at the very heart of the welfare state. From the perspective of the history of institutions, the article reconstructs the principles of justice which underlie the architecture of the social security systems in Great Britain and Germany and analyses how they have changed since 1945. It turns out that in general both welfare states are based on mixtures of different concepts of justice. Parallels can be found above all in the health care systems, which in both countries are based on a combination of two principles – equality of access on the one side and treatment according to one’s needs on the other side. There are more significant differences, in contrast, in regard to insuring against unemployment and to pension systems, whereby the British welfare state entails a link between the norms of equality and of neediness, whereas in Germany the principle of the equivalence between contributions and benefits is deeply rooted. All path-dependencies notwithstanding, a convergence in the institutional arrangements of both welfare states can be traced over the last decades. In Britain as well as in Germany means-tested benefits and thus the principle of neediness became increasingly important, most notably in the field of unemployment benefits. At the same time, both welfare states experienced the rise of new concepts of justice starting from non-class groups like families, women or generations.
Reformversuche und Reformblockaden im deutschen Gesundheitswesen
Uber Jahrzehnte hinweg lassen sich politische Reformversuche wechselnder Intensitat im Gesundheitssystem nachweisen. Der Erfolg blieb ihnen allerdings oftmals versagt. Die Autoren gehen in ihrer empirischen Analyse den Anlassen fur Steuerungsversuche in verschiedenen Teilbereichen des Gesundheitssystems nach. Erkenntnisleitend ist die Frage, aufgrund welcher Akteurkonstellationen und institutioneller Mechanismen Reformvorhaben oder auch Einzelmasnahmen durchgesetzt werden konnten bzw. blockiert worden sind. Die vier Fallstudien konzentrieren sich exemplarisch auf Reformversuche in folgenden Bereichen: - Verzahnung von ambulanter und stationarer Versorgung; - Offentlicher Gesundheitsdienst; - Vertrauensarztlicher Dienst; - Kassenarztlicher Dienst. Als Ergebnis resumiert die empirische Analyse der vier Einzelfalle eine erhebliche Reformresistenz des deutschen Gesundheitssystems.
Partisan politics and welfare adjustment: the case of France
This article examines the relationship between partisanship and welfare reform in France. France was governed by the right from 1993 to 1997 (Edouard Balladur and Alain Juppé) and has been ruled by the left since June 1997 (Lionel Jospin). Fiscal consolidation and welfare reform have been a central issue, perhaps the central issue, for each of these governments, making it possible to compare strategies across the political spectrum. The article pays particular attention to the ongoing efforts of the Jospin government to anchor its social and economic reforms on the left. The government's strategy can be distilled into four components: 1) imposing the costs of austerity on the constituents of the right, rather than the left; 2) giving a progressive twist to neo-liberal ideas, such as privatization; 3) targeting tax relief at average and low-income groups; 4) channeling scarce resources to highly visible, progressive projects.