Abstract
This chapter revolves around the promise and limits of social rights in Europe in a time of austerity with the aim to deepen our understanding of the impact of the economic crisis on social welfare programmes and to explore the capacity of constitutional law rights and legal values to shape or even inhibit policy developments. Presenting five national case studies, which represent the biggest European economies (the UK, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain), the paper offers an account of recent reforms on social welfare and the attempts to resist them through litigation. In the first two sections, the background of such case studies in terms of their social welfare regimes, legal traditions in relation to social rights, and the impact of the great financial crisis on national economies are outlined. Then, in the third section, the main findings of the studies are outlined by pointing out the main trends in the domestic social welfare policies and attempts to use fundamental public law rights to challenge the content of such policy developments. The fourth section offers a brief discussion regarding whether and to what extent such case studies can be used as a foundation for theory-building about social rights.
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Notes
- 1.
The notion of the ‘new age of austerity’ was popularized in the UK by its Prime Minister, David Cameron, in a speech in early 2009: see Summers (2009). Cameron was invoking the earlier era of ‘austerity Britain’ which began with the Second World War and extended for almost a decade beyond it.
- 2.
Pfeiffer (2012), pp. 13–25.
- 3.
- 4.
See the thematic review by Ferragina and Seeleib-Kaiser (2011), pp. 583–611, for the argument that typologies are a still fundamental heuristic tool for welfare state scholars.
- 5.
See, for example Nolan and Whelan (2011), p. 105. The fourth tradition—social-democratic—is not represented in this analysis. However, Sweden, as an example of a Nordic social democratic welfare state, will be included as a national case study in a forthcoming work stemming from the present research. See Civitarese Matteucci and Halliday (2017).
- 6.
In the thematic survey of the literature quoted at no. 4, for example, Italy is classified as a low liberal regime alongside the UK, labelled as medium liberal.
- 7.
See Fasone (2014/15).
- 8.
Butt et al. (2000), pp. 30–31.
- 9.
See it at http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/jt200708/jtselect/jtrights/165/165i.pdf. Accessed on 10th July 2017.
- 10.
Seeleib-Kaiser (2016), pp. 219–240, argues that German social policy can no longer be labelled a conservative welfare state.
- 11.
Federal Constitutional Court, judgment of 18 June 1975, 1 BvL 4/74, BVerfGE 40: 121–140.
- 12.
Federal Constitutional Court, judgment of 29 May 1990, 1 BvL 20, 26, 184 und 4/86, BVerfGE 82: 60–105.
- 13.
Federal Constitutional Court, judgment of 18 July 2012, 1 BvL 10/10, 1 BvL 2/11, BVerfGE 132: 134–179.
- 14.
Department of Work and Pensions, ‘21st Century Welfare’ (2010) <https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/181139/21st-century-welfare_1_.pdf> accessed 25 June 2015.
- 15.
Department of Work and Pensions, ‘Universal Credit: Welfare that Works’ (2010) <https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/181145/universal-credit-full-document.pdf> accessed 25 June 2015.
- 16.
Dwyer and Wright (2014), pp. 27–35.
- 17.
J. Meers, ‘Shifting The Place of Social Security: Welfare Reform, Austerity and Social Rights in the UK’, in S. Civitarese, S. Halliday, quoted at n 5.
- 18.
Social Security Code, Art. L111-1.
- 19.
Social Security Code, Art. L111-1.
- 20.
Welfare and Family Code, Art. L345-2-2 (enacted by Law no. 323/2009, of March 25th 2009, art. 73).
- 21.
See Groppi (2012), pp. 1–14.
- 22.
There is, however, a strong argument, raised by F. Bilancia, ‘Economic crisis and territorial asymmetrical effects on the guarantee of social rights within the European Economic and Monetary Union’, in S. Civitarese, S. Halliday, quoted at n 5, that the loss of law-making leeway of deficit States regarding social policy is an immediate and compelling consequence of the Eurozone complex ‘constitutional’ system.
- 23.
Which is payed to those registered as unemployed, have worked at least 30 days during the year prior to the unemployment status, and have contributed to a pension scheme for as much as no less than 13 weeks over the 4 years before becoming unemployed.
- 24.
The Stability Act 2006 laid down € 600 millions for 2016 e € 1 billion for 2017.
- 25.
This has allowed the national Parliament to established the fund mentioned at note 26.
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Civitarese Matteucci, S., Halliday, S. (2018). Constitutional Law and Social Welfare After the Economic Crisis. In: Merloni, F., Pioggia, A. (eds) European Democratic Institutions and Administrations. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72493-5_7
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