Distributive Politics and Social Protection in the 21st Century

Abstract

Dramatic economic and demographic transitions have prompted societies around the world to renegotiate the social bargains underpinning national social protection systems. In the process, social welfare reforms have laid bare deep fault lines of distributive conflict, cleaving societies across generations, income levels, and risk groups. Although considerable scholarly attention has been paid to the distinctive contours of these reforms, much of this inquiry remains bound within regional or national lines. As a step toward bridging these empirical and theoretical gaps, this workshop will bring together scholars engaged in research on social protection and distributive conflict in diverse regions of the world, from Latin America to Europe and Asia. Questions addressed in the workshop will include efforts to understand the longer-term implications of social welfare transformations, while asking what changes in social welfare spending, structure and function will imply for longer-term distributions of political and economic resources, risk and life chances. Lastly, participants in the workshop will ask how the shift of risks from collective social insurance programs to individuals affect social cohesion, and democratic stability.