Artikel

De activerende verzorgingsstaat: van "welfare" naar "workfare": ontwikkelingen in België en in de Verenigde Staten

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Abstract

The activating welfare state : from welfare to workfare ? Developments in Belgium and the United States - This contribution deals with the question if contemporary welfare states (particularly the Belgian and the American welfare state) are developing towards systems of ’workfare’, and - to the extent that this is the case - with the consequences of evolution in this form of welfare state. Workfare appears to have at least a twofold sense : in the broad sense, it means that welfare recipients are expected to make efforts for re-employment and reintegration; in the strict sense it means that they are urged to fulfil ’useful tasks’ for society in return for their welfare allowances. Unlike in the United States, the latter kind of workfare is hardly found in Belgium, but there exists a tendency to strengthen, to concretize and to individualize behavioural conditions imposed on able-bodied people who receive welfare allowances. At least in practice, this seems to be more the case in unemployment insurance than in social assistance. Although there are a number of good reasons to reform the welfare state in a more activating sense and to ask efforts from long-term unemployed to escape from welfare dependency, the strengthening of behavioural conditions also generates a number of problems and dilemmas. Among other things, these imply the trade-off between the income guarantee function of social security and the reintegration objective, next to the question whether paid labour is to be seen as the sole way leading to social (re)integration.

How to Cite:

Andries, M., (1997) “De activerende verzorgingsstaat: van "welfare" naar "workfare": ontwikkelingen in België en in de Verenigde Staten”, Tijdschrift voor Sociale Wetenschappen 42(2), 119–145. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/tvsw.95266