The Territorial Politics of Welfare

Abstract

Since the mid-1970s, European states have been reassesing and reconfiguring the welfare state. At the same time, these states have seen the decentralization of power and responsibility to the regional level, and the trasnfer of competencies to the european uNión. This innovative volume considers these processes in parallel, providing a comprehensive examination of the expansion and ongoing development of the welfare state within the framework of territorial politics. The book includes country studies on the UK, Spain, Belgium, italy, Germany, France, the Nordic countries and Canada, aaddressing key questions such as; (a) Did the expansion of state welfare provide a basis for national unity by reinforcing attachment to the national state or did a shared national identity and solidarity legitimize welfare expansion?; (b) has the retrat from state welfare weakened state national unity andreinforced support for greater sub-state autonomy and vice versa?; (c) How are democratic accountability and territorial subsidiraity, pillars in the process of Europeanisation, taken into account at both national and regional levels of welfare provision?; and (d) Can the European Union draw upon its developing role in social policy to generate a sense of belonging and attachment to the European "community"?