The State of Social Investment as a Derivation of the Welfare State

According to Anthony Giddens, the state of social investment was to be the third way between neoliberalism and the post-war welfare state, the quintessence of a future-oriented approach in which the state becomes an entrepreneur. In this concept, state expenditures are perceived as a form of investment in human capital and understood as positive prosperity. The implementation of the state of social investment entails the phenomenon of citizenship of responsible risk recipients. In the literature on social investments, the reflection is repeated that this model is the result of the need to respond to the radically changed economic and social order, including the challenges of a globalized knowledge-based economy. The model encourages active participation in the search for solutions for social structural changes, such as aging population, changing the family model or the labour market. Despite the fact that the social investment model is based on the free market perceived as the most suitable for the organisation of societies, this is no longer the so-called inexorable market. It emphasizes the need for government intervention and targeting market forces to improve both economic and social performance. The aim of the article is to verify the thesis about the investment paradigm of social policy between free-market mechanisms and the welfare state, two extremely different interpretations of contemporary socioeconomic reality.

PAŃSTWO INWESTYCJI SPOŁECZNYCH JAKO DERYWACJA PAŃSTWA DOBROBYTU

Według Anthony’ego Giddensa państwo inwestycji społecznych miało być trzecią drogą między neoliberalizmem a powojennym państwem opiekuńczym, kwintesencją podejścia zorientowanego na przyszłość, w którym państwo staje się przedsiębiorcą. Wydatki państwa są w tej koncepcji postrzegane jako forma inwestycji w kapitał ludzki i rozumiane jako dobrobyt pozytywny. Implementacja państwa inwestycji społecznych pociąga za sobą zjawisko obywatelstwa odpowiedzialnych odbiorców ryzyka. W literaturze dotyczącej inwestycji społecznych powtarza się refleksja, że model ten jest wynikiem potrzeby reagowania na radykalnie zmieniony porządek gospodarczy i społeczny, w tym wyzwania zglobalizowanej gospodarki opartej na wiedzy. Model zachęca do aktywnego uczestnictwa w poszukiwaniu rozwiązań dla społecznych zmian strukturalnych, takich jak: starzenie się społeczeństwa, zmiana modelu rodziny czy rynku pracy. Pomimo faktu, że model inwestycji społecznych oparty jest na wolnym rynku, postrzeganym jako najbardziej odpowiedni dla organizacji społeczeństw, to nie jest to już tak zwany nieubłagany rynek. Podkreśla się bowiem potrzebę interwencji rządu i ukierunkowania sił rynkowych w celu poprawy zarówno wyników gospodarczych, jak i społecznych. Celem artykułu jest weryfikacja tezy o usytuowaniu paradygmatu inwestycyjnej polityki społecznej pomiędzy mechanizmami wolnorynkowymi a państwem dobrobytu, dwiema skrajnie różnymi interpretacjami współczesnej rzeczywistości społeczno-gospodarczej.

BIBLIOGRAFIA:

• Bonoli, G.(2011).Active Labour Market Policy and Social Investment: A Changing Relationship.In: N.Morel, B.Palier, & J.Palme (eds.).Towards a Social Investment Welfare State? Ideas, Policies and Challenges (pp.181–204).Bristol: Policy Press.DOI: 10.1332/policypress/9781847429247.003.0007.
• Cantillon, B.(2011).The Paradox of the Social Investment State: Growth, Employment and Poverty in the Lisbon Era.Journal of European Social Policy, 21(5), 432–449.DOI: 10.1177/0958928711418856.
• Cantillon, B., & Van Lancker, W.(2012).Solidarity and Reciprocity in the Social Investment State: What Can be Learned from the Case of Flemish School Allow­ances and Truancy? Journal of Social Policy, 41(4), 657–675.DOI: 10.1017/ S0047279412000359.
• Collier, D.(1993).The Comparative Method.In: A.W.Finifter (ed.).Political Science: The State of the Discipline II (pp.105–119).Washington D.C.: American Political Science Association.
• Corluy, V., & Vandenbroucke, F.(2014).Individual Employment, Household Employ­ment, and Risk of Poverty in the European Union: A Decomposition Analysis.In: B.Cantillon, & F.Vandenbroucke (eds.).Reconciling Work and Poverty Reduction: How Successful Are European Welfare States? (pp.94–130).Oxford: Oxford Univer­sity Press.
• De Deken, J.(2014).Identifying the Skeleton of the Social Investment State: Defining and Measuring Patterns of Social Policy Change on the Basis of Expenditure Data.In: B.Cantillon, & F.Vandenbroucke (eds.).Reconciling Work and Poverty Reduc­tion: How Successful Are European Welfare States? (pp.260–285).Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Diamond, P., & Lodge, G.(2014).Dynamic Social Security after the Crisis: Towards a New Welfare State? International Social Security Review, 67(3–4), 37–58.DOI: 10.1111/issr.12047.
• Dowling, E., & Harvie, D.(2014).Harnessing the Social: State, Crisis and (Big) Society.Sociology, 48(5), 869–885.DOI: 10.1177/0038038514539060.Retrieved from (and cited after): https://lra.le.ac.uk/bitstream/2381/29294/2/Dowling%20and%20Harvie%20Harnessing%20the%20Social%20%5BSociology%202014%5D.pdf (pp.1–26).
• Erikson, R., & Goldthorpe, J.H.(1992).The Constant Flux: A Study of Class Mobility in Industrial Societies.Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• Esping-Andersen, G.(ed.) (2002).Why We Need a New Welfare State.Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Ethridge, D.E.(2004).Research Methodology in Applied Economics.Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell.
• European Commission (2013).Social Investment: Commission Urges Member States to Focus on Growth and Social Cohesion.Retrieved from: https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=89&furtherNews=yes&newsId=1807&langId=en.
• Gair, C.(2009).SROI Act II: A Call to Action for Next Generation SROI. Retrieved from: https://ccednet-rcdec.ca/files/ccednet/pdfs/2009-REDF_SROI_Act2.pdf.
• Giddens, A.(2004).The Welfare State in a Modern European Society.Retrieved from: http://www.uoc.edu/symposia/caixamanresa/jornadaeconomia/eng/giddens.pdf.
• Giddens, A.(2013).Five minutes with Anthony Giddens: “The European Social Model Can and Must Survive the Crisis”.LSE.Retrieved from: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2013/11/04/five-minutes-with-anthony-giddens-the-european-social-model-can-and-must-survive-the-crisis/#Author.
• Gilbert, N., & Van Voorhis, R.(2001).Activating the Unemployed: A Comparative Appraisal of Work-Oriented Policies.New Brunswick & London: Transaction Publishers.
• Haberkern, K., Schmid, T., & Szydlik, M.(2015).Gender Differences in Intergenera­tional Care in European Welfare States.Ageing and Society, 35(2), pp.298–320.DOI: 10.1017/S0144686X13000639.
• Hall, P.A., & Soskice, D.(2001).Varieties of Capitalism. The Institutional Foundations of Comparative Advantage.Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Hemerijck, A.(2013).The Reform Capacities of European Welfare States.In: B.Cantillon, & F.Vandenbroucke (eds.).For Better, For Worse, For Richer, For Poorer: Labour Market Participation, Social Redistribution and Income Poverty in the EU (pp.238–259).Oxford: Oxford University Press.DOI: 10.1093/acprof: oso/9780199926589.003.0008.
• Jenson, J., & Saint-Martin, D.(2003).New Routes to Social Cohesion? Citizenship and the Social Investment State.Canadian Journal of Sociology, 28(1), 77–99.DOI: 10.2307/3341876.
• Korpi, W.(1985).Power Resources Approach vs.Action and Conflict: On Causal and Intentional Explanations in the Study of Power.Sociological Theory, 3(2), 31–45.
• McNally, D.(2009).From Financial Crisis to World-Slump: Accumulation, Finan­cialisation, and the Global Slowdown.Historical Materialism, 17(2), 35–83.DOI: 10.1163/156920609X436117.
• Morel, N., Palier, B., & Palme, J.(2011).Beyond the Welfare State as We Know It? In: N.Morel, B.Palier, & J.Palme (eds.).Towards a Social Investment Welfare State? Ideas, Policies and Challenges (pp.1–30).Bristol: Policy Press.
• Nicholls, A.(2010).The Institutionalization of Social Investment: The Interplay of Investment Logics and Investor Rationalities.Journal of Social Entrepreneurship, 1(1), 70–100.DOI: 10.1080/19420671003701257.
• Ostner, I., & Stolberg, C.(2015).Investing in Children, Monitoring Parents: Parenting Support in the Changing German Welfare State.Social Policy and Society, 14(4), 621–632.DOI: 10.1017/S1474746415000287.
• Palme, J., & Cronert, A.(2015).Trends in the Swedish Social Investment Welfare State: ‘The Enlightened Path’ or ‘The Third Way’ for ‘the Lions’? Poverty Reduction in Europe: Social Policy and Innovation, Discussion Paper 15/12.
• Payne, G., & Payne, J.(2004).Key Concepts in Social Research.London: Sage.
• Peeters, H., & de Tavernier, W.(2015).Life Courses, Pensions and Poverty among Elderly Women in Belgium: Interactions between Family History, Work History and Pension Regulations.Ageing and Society, 35(6), 1171–1199.DOI: 10.1017/ S0144686X14000129.
• Stiglitz, J.E.(2004).Ekonomia sektora publicznego.Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.Taylor-Gooby, P.(ed.) (2004).New Risks, New Welfare: The Transformation of the European Welfare State.Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Wells, P.(2012).Understanding Social Investment Policy: Evidence from the Evalua­tion of Futurebuilders in England.Voluntary Sector Review, 3(2), 157–177.DOI: 10.1332/204080512X649342.
• Wilson, K.E.(2014).New Investment Approaches for Addressing Social and Economic Challenges.OECD Science, Technology and Industry Policy Papers, 15, 1–41.DOI: 10.1787/23074957.