Towards a social investment state in the member states of the European Union?

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to measure the degree in which the social investment state is visible in the member states of the European Union. Taking the welfare regime as the interplay between the state, families and the market in providing welfare, the social investment regime as proposed by amongst others Esping-Andersen, envisions a state facilitating the other two actors to provide the maximum possible welfare. The regime aims at activating the population, avoiding social exclusion, creating gender equality and promoting high levels of education. The analysis is done via two approaches: analyzing state spending and analyzing outcomes on societal indicators. Both approaches are measured on four dimensions, combined into an overall score by the surface measurement of radar charts. Both approaches consistently show that Scandinavian, Continental, Anglo-Saxon and Southern regimes are still strongly in place with the Scandinavian countries being the closest to a social investment regime and the Southern the furthest. Spain and The Netherlands seem to escape their regime group. The factors causing these scores differ from country to country, but most progress is made in activity rates and education levels.