Welfare Systems in Europe and the United States: Conservative Germany Converging toward the Liberal US Model?

Abstract

This article demonstrates how the Conservative system of social protection in Germany has been converging toward the Liberal American model during the past two decades, focusing on social protection for the unemployed and pensioners. In addition to public/statutory provisions, occupational welfare is also covered. Despite an overall process of convergence, we continue to witness stark dissimilarities in the arrangements for social protection outsiders: whereas Germany continues to constitutionally guarantee a legal entitlement to minimum social protection for all citizens, such a guarantee does not exist in the United States. The lack of such legal entitlement for poor people of working age, combined with the criminalization of the "dangerous class," is a key differentiating characteristic of the US model at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The findings confirm but also qualify Franz-Xaver Kaufmann's analysis of the United States as "capitalism," which lacks collective welfare responsibility for all citizens, as compared to Germany's "welfare state."The welfare state is the political project to construct a collective institutional framework protecting and furthering the individual welfare of all who belong to a certain commonwealth. Though political legislation and public regulation are essential elements of the idea of the welfare state, public administration of the services is not.-F.-X. Kaufmann, European Foundations of the Welfare StateThe U.S. does have a welfare sector, albeit a comparatively fragmented one, but it is not a social or welfare state. As a country it has no comprehension of public responsibility for the basic aspects of well-being for all citizens.-F.-X. Kaufmann, European Foundations of the Welfare State

Gendered work–family life courses and financial well-being in retirement

“…The results are of particular relevance considering a recent shift of the German pension system towards a more liberal model (Seeleib-Kaiser, 2013). When this more liberal pension system 'hits' cohorts that still have strongly gendered life courses we are likely to observe a resurgence of gender inequality in old age pensions in Germany.…”

At the heart of the Nordic occupational welfare model: Occupational welfare trajectories in Sweden and Denmark

“…A possible consequence of increasing occupational welfare could also be increased dualization in the access to social and welfare benefits (Seeleib‐Kaiser, ). This since it has been argued that occupational welfare in principle could be a way of compensating for welfare retrenchment (Trampusch, ), or that the labor divisions of occupational welfare also imply that “social provision against labor market risks came to stratify rather than reduce social inequalities” (Nijhuis, , p. 66).…”

Borrowing for social security? Credit, asset-based welfare and the decline of the German savings regime

“…As fiscal austerity has come to dominate public policy debates, quasi-public financial institutions have taken over tasks of advancing social policy goals, such as increasing homeownership for low-income households and facilitating higher education access through loans. Against this background, the role of finance in welfare state research must receive greater attention, particularly if the latter wants to investigate common paths and divergent outcomes in the distribution of private and collective risks (Seeleib-Kaiser, 2013). This is even more true for research within the varieties of capitalism framework, which has been debated not only for omitting substantial issues around finance or housing that are at the heart of political economies (e.g.…”