ABSTRACT
Trends explaining the main challenges the French Etat social, along with other welfare states, have been facing for the last twenty years, can be traced to the combined effects of (1) financial constraints, (2) labor markets under pressure to become more flexible, and (3) demography and family patterns. In any national system of social protection (NSSP) this combination of exog enous and endogenous changes is closely related to outcomes in terms of inequality, poverty, and unemployment. It has become conventional wisdom that even when they belong to different clusters, welfare states face “univer sal” challenges, such as fertility decline, unstable couples and families, single parenthood, child poverty, workless households, welfare traps, insufficient employment and activity rates for certain segments of the working-age popu lation. For our part, we contend that NSSPs diverge sufficiently so as not to face the same challenges, although from a general perspective they obvi ously face similar challenges. The difference between sameness and similar ity relates to different NSSPs’ rationales. After exploring the global trends and the macroeconomic and political contexts, we will address these “universal challenges” in the specific terms in which they are constructed within the French System of Social Protection (FSSP).
