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European comparative data on the situation of disabled people: an annotated review
- Authors:
- OORSCHOT Wim van, et al
- Publisher:
- Academic Network of European Disability Experts
- Publication year:
- 2009
- Pagination:
- 215p., bibliog.
- Place of publication:
- Utrecht
The aim of this project was to identify opportunities for national comparisons between European countries regarding quantitative data on the situation and participation of disabled people, through a review of existing relevant data sources. It used the definition of disabled people from the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and focused on selected major life areas (education, work and employment, income and social protection, mobility, information and communication, political participation, cultural participation, and discrimination). The report describes the study methodology, including identification and selection of data sources. It sets out the findings about data sources (comparative surveys and comparative statistics and indicators) containing data for a number of, and where possible all, European Union countries. It also presents conclusions and recommendations, covering availability of comparative quantitative data on the situation of disabled people in European countries, gaps in comparative data, and recommendations for future data initiatives.
Welfarism and the multidimensionality of welfare state legitimacy: evidence from The Netherlands, 2006
- Authors:
- OORSCHOT Wim van, MEULEMAN Bart
- Journal article citation:
- International Journal of Social Welfare, 21(1), January 2012, pp.79-93.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
This article reports on a study of whether it was possible that individual citizens who emphatically endorsed a substantial role for government in the provision of welfare could, at the same time, be critical about specific aspects of such provision. In other words, is the social legitimacy of the welfare state multidimensional, or not? Data were drawn from a national representative welfare opinion survey conducted from October to November 2006, from the Dutch population aged 16 years or above. This dataset was uniquely detailed in that it contained over 50 attitude questions referring to various aspects and dimensions of the welfare state. It was found that the ten separate attitudinal dimensions were differently affected by socio-structural position and ideological dispositions. Notwithstanding this, people's political stance on a left–right scale consistently affected their scores on all dimensions in an expected direction: leftist people tended to be more positive towards, or less critical of, all aspects of the welfare state, compared with rightist people.
Disability policies in European countries
- Authors:
- OORSCHOT Wim van, HVINDEN Bjorn
- Publisher:
- Kluwer Law International
- Publication year:
- 2001
- Pagination:
- 128p.
- Place of publication:
- The Hague
This book examines the possible convergence in disability policies in Europe. It points out that assessment of claims for disability benefits are often complex and rely on input from interdisciplinary groups. It argues that in the disability area there rarely a simple relationship between cash and care. The policies of Spain, The Netherlands, Great Britain, Denmark and Ireland are examined.
Welfare state effects on social capital and informal solidarity in the European Union: evidence from the 1999/2000 European Values Study
- Authors:
- OORSCHOT Wim van, ARTS Wil, HALMAN Loek
- Journal article citation:
- Policy and Politics, 33(1), January 2005, pp.33-54.
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
This article tests whether state-organised solidarity substitutes social capital and informal solidarity, based on recent data from the European Values Study. At country level, we find that welfare spending has a reinforcing effect on social capital and a negative substitution effect on informal solidarity. At the individual level, there is also evidence for a substitution effect, since informal solidarity is lower among people who live in countries that spend more on social protection. In addition, there is evidence of a 'national burden' effect, since informal solidarity is lower among people who live in countries with an older population, with higher unemployment, and with a higher percentage of immigrants.
Culture and social policy: a developing field of study
- Author:
- VAN OORSCHOT Wim
- Journal article citation:
- International Journal of Social Welfare, 16(2), April 2007, pp.129-139.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
This article takes the increased interest in the relation between culture and social policy as a starting point, and discusses how this increasing attention can be understood as the result of contextual factors such as economic, social and academic trends. It discusses these matters and at the same time reviews briefly some of the main findings of studies that contain a cultural perspective in analysing social policy. A second issue concerns the specific character of cultural perspectives in such analyses. Thus far, most studies in the field have been guided by a notion of culture as consisting of the values, norms and beliefs of welfare state actors. Recently, this notion has been questioned by advocates of the so-called ‘cultural turn’, who suggest that a radical change in the cultural analysis of social policy is required. The article concludes with a discussion of their claims.
Making the difference in social Europe: deservingness perceptions among citizens of European welfare states
- Author:
- VAN OORSCHOT Wim
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of European Social Policy, 16(1), February 2006, pp.23-42.
- Publisher:
- Sage
This article aims at contributing to a theoretical and empirical understanding of the popular cultural context of welfare rationing. It examines European public perceptions of the relative deservingness of four needy groups (elderly people, sick and disabled people, unemployed people, and immigrants). Hypotheses, deduced from a literature review, are tested against data from the 1999/2000 European Values Study survey. It is found that Europeans share a common and fundamental deservingness culture: across countries and social categories there is a consistent pattern that elderly people are seen as most deserving, closely followed by sick and disabled people; unemployed people are seen as less deserving still, and immigrants as least deserving of all. Conditionality is greater in poorer countries, in countries with lower unemployment, and in countries where people have less trust in fellow citizens and in state institutions. At the national level there is no relation with welfare regime type or welfare spending. Individual differences in conditionality are determined by several socio-demographic and attitudinal characteristics, as well as by certain features of the country people live in.
Balancing work and welfare: activation and flexicurity policies in the Netherlands, 1980–2000
- Author:
- VAN OORSCHOT Wim
- Journal article citation:
- International Journal of Social Welfare, 13(1), January 2004, pp.15-27.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
As a result of the flexibilisation of labour and the trend towards the ‘activating welfare state’, social policies show an increasing interconnection of work and welfare issues. The Netherlands is no exception. It is generally believed that the Dutch welfare state is successfully activating its unemployed labour potential (often referred to as the ‘Dutch Miracle’), and that flexible and part-time work is protected by adequate ‘flexicurity’. This article critically reviews Dutch activation and flexicurity policies. It concludes that there is still more unemployment than the miracle-story suggests; that important target groups of activation policies have not profited from ‘the miracle’; that part-time workers have sufficient social protection but that social security for flex-workers still needs major improvements, despite favourable adjustments of labour law.
Non-take-up of social security benefits in Europe
- Author:
- VAN OORSCHOT Wim
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of European Social Policy, 1(1), 1991, pp.15-30.
- Publisher:
- Sage
The phenomenon of non-take-up of social security benefits has social policy implications and is therefore a relevant subject for study for social policy analysts. This article starts with a discussion of the arguments in support of this general statement, followed by an overview of available data on non-take-up in various western European countries. Britain, and to a lesser extent the former West Germany and the Netherlands, are exceptions to the general rule that in European countries very little is known about the incidence of non-take-up. Not only from an academic point of view, but also from the viewpoint of any policy-maker trying to take measures which could solve the problem, the reasons for non-take-up are of great relevance. Research into the factors affecting (non)take-up is reviewed and the actual 'state of the art' in the theoretical modelling of the phenomenon of (non)take-up is presented and discussed. At the end of this article an alternative 'three-t-model' is presented, on factors affecting the decision whether or not to put in a claim for a social security benefit.
The social capital of European welfare states: the crowding out hypothesis revisited
- Authors:
- VAN OORSCHOT Wim, ARTS Wil
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of European Social Policy, 15(1), February 2005, pp.5-26.
- Publisher:
- Sage
A recurrent critique on the welfare state is that it crowds out social capital (networks, trust and norms). However, the empirical evidence on the crowding out hypothesis is still scarce, findings are sometimes contradictory, and there is variation in the measurement of social capital. In this article we explore the crowding out hypothesis on the basis of data from the European Values Survey wave 1999/2000 for 23 European countries. Compared to (the few) other comparative studies on the hypothesis, this study contains more recent data and for a larger number of countries. Instead of focusing on a single dimension of social capital, the authors use an eight-scale measurement model of social capital; we explore the relationship between welfare (regime type, social spending) and social capital at both country and individual level, and the authors control for confounding factors. At the aggregate country level the authors found no evidence at all in favour of the hypothesis. At the individual level we found that it does matter for people’s social capital in which type and size of welfare state they live. However, there is only evidence for a crowding out effect in case of people’s trustworthiness. With regard to other forms of social capital, there is at best mixed evidence, but mostly our findings contradict the crowding out hypothesis altogether.
The Dutch and Danish miracles revisited: a critical discussion of activation policies in two small welfare states
- Authors:
- VAN OORSCHOT Wim, ABRAHAMSON Peter
- Journal article citation:
- Social Policy and Administration, 37(3), June 2003, pp.288-304.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Denmark and the Netherlands are usually considered to belong to two different families of welfare states: the Scandinavian and the Continental model respectively. Yet, in both states active labour market policies, or activation, have increased during the 1990s and are currently prominent. Both in Denmark and in the Netherlands activation has been viewed as an important reason for the low unemployment rates which both states have experienced since the early to mid-1990s, hence explaining the so-called Dutch and Danish jobs miracles. The paper examines critically the activation measures taken in both countries and their alleged positive effect upon (un)employment. It further examines their effect on rights and obligations from a citizenship perspective. The paper concludes that in both cases the positive development of labour market performance cannot primarily be attributed to activation measures. Furthermore, activation has reduced the entitlements and increased the obligations affiliated with social citizenship.