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Squaring the welfare circle and government ideology: Greece and Spain in the 1990s
Author(s) -
George Vic,
Stathopoulos Peter,
Garcés Jorge
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
international social security review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.349
H-Index - 28
eISSN - 1468-246X
pISSN - 0020-871X
DOI - 10.1111/1468-246x.00053
Subject(s) - welfare , ideology , restructuring , politics , welfare state , economics , welfare capitalism , government (linguistics) , welfare reform , deregulation , political economy , market economy , economic policy , political science , law , linguistics , philosophy , finance
This article examines the “squaring the welfare circle” thesis and its usefulness to our understanding of welfare developments in Greece and Spain in the 1990s. The welfare state in both Greece and Spain was expanded considerably in the early 1980s by the newly elected socialist governments, only to hit the buffers of diminishing resources and rising demands in the late 1980s as well as the hostile neo‐liberal welfare ideology. The process of welfare expansion was halted in the 1990s, labour market deregulation was encouraged and containment of welfare expenditure became the dominant aim of government policies. This article concentrates on the actual policies of governments in the 1990s rather than on the rhetoric of political parties. It concludes that governments of both the Left and the Right in both countries attempted to “square the welfare circle” mainly through reductions in the supply of welfare. This general conclusion is country‐specific and may not apply to other countries involved in welfare restructuring. While recognizing the significance of institutional factors to welfare reform, the article concentrates on the outcomes of reforms rather than on the political process leading to them.