Crises and change processes of the welfare systems

Abstract

Our passage from a modern into a post-modern society has activated the profound transformation of the relationship between economics and society. Of consequence, the welfare systems, which have characterised economic development in the majority of the more industrialised countries since the end of World War II, have also undergone intense transformation. The studies of national welfare regimes, which started with the analysis of the situations in Western countries, are no longer able to represent a situation that is undergoing rapid evolution and diversification. The changes in act are influenced by dynamics that are both exogenous and endogenous to the system and which make it difficult to predict the possible future outcomes. Today, different and at times adverse dynamics can be noted, but certain constant aspects are also apparent. Of these aspects, it is worth noting: the failure of the market as the sole support strategy for the development of social well-being; the central role of community dynamics; the de-standardisation and personalisation of interventions; subsidiarity and the necessity to support families with regard to care work; and the necessity to redefine the role of the state and its governing technologies.