This title was first published in 2001: Employing an interdisciplinary and comparative approach to equity in long-term care, this book addresses the fact that demographic changes leading to ageing populations, financial pressures and changes in traditional support systems have brought long-term care and the redesign of care systems to the top of the European social policy agenda. Despite the importance of this issue, however, the question of equity in long-term care has until now received relatively little attention in social policy research. Rather than focusing on theories of social justice or the analysis of specific interpretations of equity, this book develops key dimensions of equity choices in a framework for systematic comparative analysis. This tool is then used to investigate long-term care policies in Europe, exploring equity choices in both the provision and the finance of long-term care. These choices are discussed comparatively with regard to the implications for the various actors and are also contrasted with basic welfare state objectives. This book represents an important addition to comparative research into several key areas of welfare and welfare state design. It explores the division of responsibilities in long-term care systems between the public and private and formal and informal sectors, the relationships between different welfare state objectives, the different types of welfare state intervention, and the principles and choices surrounding the allocation of resources and burdens.

Over the last two decades, many changes have happened to the social welfare policies of various industrial countries. Citizens have seen their pensions, unemployment benefits, and general healthcare policies shrink as “belt tightening” measures are enforced. But in contrast, long-term care has seen a general growth in public financing, an expansion of beneficiaries, and, more generally, an attempt to define larger social responsibilities and related social rights. The aim of this book is to describe and interpret the changes introduced in long-term care policies in Western Europe. The volume argues that recent reforms have brought about an increasing convergence in LTC policies. Most of the new programs have developed a new general approach to long-term care, based on a better integration of social care and health care. The book explores increasing public support given to family care work (in the past, the family would take care of the elderly or infirm) and increasing growth and recognition of a extended social care market (by which care has shifted from a moral obligation based on family reciprocity to a paid, professional activity). A new social care arrangement has therefore been developing in Western countries, based on a new mix of family obligations, market provision, and public support. In order to understand such changes, this analysis will take into account the social and economical impact of these reforms.

The workings of multi-level governance -- institutional choices concerning centralisation, decentralisation and subsidiarity -- are widely debated within European public policy, but few systematic studies assessing the effects of changing divisions of power for policy-making have been carried out. This volume offers an assessment of the workings of multi-level governance in terms of social welfare policy across different clusters of European states -- Nordic, Southern European, Central and East European. This book reports on a major comparative study at the European Centre for Social Welfare policy and Research, which included partners from univerisities in Finland, France, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Poland, Spain and Switzerland. It reports on three particular policy areas: social assistance and local policies against poverty; activation and labour market policies; and care for the elderly. The authors describe different starting points, strategies and solutions in European countries which are facing similar challenges and could thus learn from each other. They explore the differences between European welfare regimes in terms of territorial responsibilities, the changes that have taken place over the past few years and their effects. The book is distinctive in highlighting comparative transversal and transnational issues of multi-level governance in social welfare policies, rather than presenting country reports.

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- List of Tables -- List of Figures -- Acknowledgements -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Long-Term Care and the Welfare State -- 2.1 The growing importance of long-term care issues -- 2.2 Defining and measuring long-term care -- 2.3 The long-term care system -- 2.4 Long-term care as a welfare state issue -- 2.5 Conclusions -- 3 Equity and Long-Tenn Care: A Framework for Analysis -- 3.1 The basic terminology of equity -- 3.2 Studying equity in long-term care - A survey of the literature -- 3.3 The concept of 'equity choices' -- 3.4 Equity and the allocation of resources -- 3.5 Equity and the allocation of burdens -- 3.6 Conclusions -- 4 Investigating Long-Tenn Care Policies in Europe -- 4.1 Cross-country comparative analysis in long-term care -- 4.2 Objectives, regimes and choices -- 4.3 Lang-term care in Austria, Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom: An overview -- 5 Equity Choices in Long-Term Care: A Comparative Perspective -- 5.1 Equity choices in the provision of long-term care -- 5.2 Equity choices in the finance of long-term care -- 5.3. Equity choices and equity objectives in European long-term care systems -- 6 Conclusions -- Glossary -- Bibliography -- Index

This book examines to which extent economic globalisation, skill-biased technological progress and institutional and regulatory reforms have had an impact on the distribution of earnings.

This analytic study surveys the transformations of elderly care policies and practices since the early 1990s, by comparing the trajectories of two extremely different care systems: Italy and the Netherlands.

Offering a comparative and thematic cross-country analysis of the governance of home care, this book systematically maps out governing arrangements in relation to formal care services, informal care, care workers and users of care across nine countries.

The Oxford Handbook of the Welfare State is the authoritative and definitive guide to the contemporary welfare state. In a volume consisting of nearly fifty newly-written chapters, a broad range of the world's leading scholars offer a comprehensive account of everything one needs to know about the modern welfare state. The book is divided into eight sections. It opens with three chapters that evaluate the philosophical case for (and against) the welfare state. Surveys of the welfare state 's history and of the approaches taken to its study are followed by four extended sections, running to some thirty-five chapters in all, which offer a comprehensive and in-depth survey of our current state of knowledge across the whole range of issues that the welfare state embraces. The first of these sections looks at inputs and actors (including the roles of parties, unions, and employers), the impact of gender and religion, patterns of migration and a changing public opinion, the role of international organisations and the impact of globalisation. The next two sections cover policy inputs (in areas such as pensions, health care, disability, care of the elderly, unemployment, and labour market activation) and their outcomes (in terms of inequality and poverty, macroeconomic performance, and retrenchment). The seventh section consists of seven chapters which survey welfare state experience around the globe (and not just within the OECD). Two final chapters consider questions about the global future of the welfare state. The individual chapters of the Handbook are written in an informed but accessible way by leading researchers in their respective fields giving the reader an excellent and truly up-to-date knowledge of the area under discussion. Taken together, they constitute a comprehensive compendium of all that is best in contemporary welfare state research and a unique guide to what is happening now in this most crucial and contested area of social and political development.

This book provides the first comprehensive information and detailed data on the welfare systems of all twenty-seven EU member states and offers the reader an invaluable introduction and basis for comparative welfare research. The introductory chapter summarizes the actual debate about welfare states and welfare (state) regimes, gives an overview on current welfare (state) research and analyses the main recent developments necessitating a new focus on European Welfare Systems. The twenty-seven chapters on the welfare systems of the member states are written on the basis of a common structure by experts from the individual states. An additional chapter analyses the current social and welfare policies of the EU and focuses on the interplay and limits between European and national social policies. Two concluding chapters provide (a) a first comparative analysis on the basis of all twenty-seven European Welfare Systems and (b) a theoretical reflection both arguing for and venturing the idea of politically limited pluralism in European welfare politics.

We are more likely to be lonely tomorrow as a result of the freedoms we enjoy today. The risk of loneliness in old age is on the rise due to changing ways of life in Britain. Our families are more fragmented, more people are childless and we are living longer, which all increase our chances of being socially isolated in later life. A growing number of older people can be expected to be housebound with minimum social contact. Many of these risk factors are associated with social progress and independence, particularly for younger people. But they make it harder for us to sustain the social networks on which we may have to rely for support as we grow older. Policy-makers have tried to protect older people against isolation through efforts to integrate health and social care services, and to involve older users more actively in making decisions about their own care. Yet more must be done to improve the quality of life of those living housebound lives. Over 30 people die alone and unnoticed in their own homes each year, and one in six older people living alone rate themselves as ‘often or always lonely’.Unless significant changes occur, by 2021 nearly 2.2 million over-65s will be socially isolated. The benefits of promoting independent living for older people are enormous, for individuals, our public services and wider society. Extending years of active life will allow older people to play a full role in family life and in their local communities. Home Alone argues that users need to become ‘co-producers’ of personalised services. Policy-makers must learn from the voluntary and community sectors to help older housebound people develop their own networks of support.