https://www.carloalberto.org/event/whos-afraid-of-the-welfare-state-now/

Presentation of the book “Who’s Afraid of the Welfare State Now?” Oxford University Press, 2024 by Anton Hemerijck and Manos Matsaganis.

The 2008 Great Recession marked a critical stress test for European welfare states with dramatic repercussions, including a massive surge in unemployment, a widening in wage and income disparities, and rising poverty. Hikes in fiscal deficits and public debt, required to pre-empt an economic meltdown, forced policymakers to make painful cuts in welfare services to shore up public finances, thereby jeopardizing welfare support for vulnerable groups. Alongside serious retrenchments, there have been assertive attempts to rebuild social programmes and institutions, to accommodate policy repertoires-not merely domestically but also at the EU level-to the new realities of the knowledge economy and an ageing society. Overall, the long 2010s showed that the future of work and welfare is in our hands: it is perfectly possible to shape this future in such a way as to provide inclusive social security, achieve high employment, advance and maintain human capabilities across the life-course, and fight poverty and inequality.

Speakers
Anton Hemerijck, Professor in Political Science and Sociology at the European University Institute, FlorenceManos Matsaganis, Professor of Public Finance at Polytechnic University of Milan

Discussant
Chiara Saraceno, Honorary fellow at the Collegio Carlo Alberto

Introduction
Francesco Devicienti, Director of the Master in Welfare: Fondamenti teorici e Data Analysis