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Welfare regime change – or lack of change – in unemployment compensation
Author(s) -
Ozkan Umut Riza
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
international journal of social welfare
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.664
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1468-2397
pISSN - 1369-6866
DOI - 10.1111/ijsw.12171
Subject(s) - severance , economics , unemployment , stalemate , bureaucracy , welfare , labour economics , compensation (psychology) , welfare state , economic system , politics , public economics , market economy , political science , economic growth , law , psychology , psychoanalysis
Drawing on theoretical accounts of institutional change, this study explored the politics of welfare regime transformation in regard to T urkey's unemployment compensation system. By using the institutionalist approach, the study shows that the process of welfare regime change was one of “institutional layering” of unemployment insurance ( UI ) over severance pay. Also, the study demonstrates that the economic bureaucracy played a key role in pushing the establishment of UI (state‐centric approach) in contrast to the class‐based organizations that focused their struggles on the severance pay scheme (power‐resource perspective). However, the economic bureaucracy preferred a rudimentary UI design, which prevented UI from undermining the vested interests behind the severance pay scheme. Furthermore, subsequent attempts at the reformation of the severance pay scheme were not successful because the social welfare bureaucracy lacked the capacity to develop a policy alternative to resolve the stalemate between the societal actors. Lastly, the study used the successful severance pay reform experiences of S outh K orea and A ustria to locate the T urkish case within a broader comparative framework.