Volume 62, Issue 2

Social policy is an important instrument states have at their disposal to offer protection against life risks. Yet nearly one century after the foundation of the International Labour Organization (ILO) the majority of the world population still lives without adequate social protection and even in the Western world many observers fear that globalization is undermining the welfare state. Based on various data sources we illustrate the development of social security around the world. We show that more and more states introduce social security programs and increase their social spending. Furthermore, new social policy programs have emerged which cover formerly marginalized groups of society.

Welfare benefit recipients who are subject to benefit sanctions live below the subsistence level for a fixed period of time. Individuals with low education bear an increased risk of being sanctioned. Quantitative analyses of linked administrative and survey data indicate that this increased risk cannot be attributed to a lower motivation to work or a lower willingness to make concessions regarding job offers. Our analyses of qualitative interviews and individual case files reveal complex processes: Low cultural capital when dealing with administrative matters, a habitual distance vis-à-vis job center employees as well as previous negative attributions in case files can advance the sanctioning of low-skilled welfare recipients. In this way, sanctions contribute to the (re)production of social inequality.

Throughout the last ten years the employment rate of older people has improved considerably. It can be assumed that the development was furthered by the removal of legal incentives for early retirement. This study analyses whether the probability of transiting from unemployment into employment has also changed for the elderly in Germany between 2000 and 2009. To assess this question we estimate a hazard rate model, using administrative records of individuals born between 1935 and 1974. Our results show that the employment probabilities of elderly people in particular increased between 2006 and 2009 relative to earlier years. However, we also find persistent differences in the employment probabilities across different age groups.

Social partners have played a privileged role in German social security administration since Bismarckian times. In 2014, a new legislation empowered the social partners to set the level of the statutory minimum wage and to demand the extension of collective agreements. This article examines the interdependence of the trade unions’ and employer organisations’ membership numbers and their involvement in state regulation of labour and social security law. In case the interest in autonomous regulations is not going to increase, the state will have to step in with more heteronomous regulation. This would incrementally lead to a system change.