Over the past twenty years, minimum income schemes (MIS) have undergone major transformations in their functions and role. From mainly residual instruments that aimed to guarantee minimum income support and to prevent extreme marginality, in most countries they now have an ‘ambiguous’ function of providing income support and favouring social and labour market inclusion. Against this background, this article provides an analytical grid that allows describing the different features of last-resort safety nets across Europe, building on the definition of key main dimensions of variation of MISs in Europe – generosity, eligibility and conditionality requirements, institutional configuration, active inclusion profiles. Then, it introduces a new typology of MIS in Europe, building on a new dataset with data on expenditures and coverage collected from National Statistical Offices.
The absence of a minimum income scheme was a key feature of the Southern European Model. In the past 20 years, countries in this cluster have witnessed major changes in this policy field. In particular, in Spain, regional safety nets have been introduced which cover the entire country and consolidated over time. Also in Italy, regional programmes were introduced, but they do not diffuse throughout the country and were often subsequently discontinued. How can we explain path departure and divergence in the policy trajectories, in those two otherwise similar countries? To solve those puzzles, this article departs from previous claims about the limited relevance of political competition in this policy field, underlying the crucial role of specific political exchange between social actors and political parties.
In multi-tiered states, subnational policymakers face a dilemma: on one hand, they must ensure the social legitimacy of their subnational unit by owning relevant policies including their potentially negative consequences; on the other, they have to manage their budget responsibly, which limits the scope of policy development. We study this dilemma in relation to social policies, by examining how the constituent units and municipalities in Germany, Italy, Spain and Switzerland deal with it, taking social assistance as an empirical example. Our analysis suggests that the combination of the federation’s history and a multinational political context affects the incentives and the choices made by the policymakers regarding ownership and disownership of policy competencies in the field of social assistance. By analysing mechanisms that are likely to play out in multi-tiered welfare states, our article contributes to both the social policy and the political science literatures.
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