ABSTRACT
In most Continental European welfare systems the state ‘shares public space’ (Crouch 1986) with the social partners, employers and trade unions, over such public policy areas as employment regulation and social protection. Corporatist participation of social interest groups in public policy-making has a long tradition in Continental Europe. Since the first Bismarckian reforms in response to the ‘workers question’ by mandating social insurance in the late 19th century, employers and workers received representation in the self-administration in return for their contributions to these parafiscal funds. The Bismarckian social insurance principle with strong reliance on co-financing through social contribution and bipartite self-administrative governance became also the dominant model for and distinct feature of Continental welfare systems. Esping-Andersen’s typology (1990) acknowledges this ‘corporatist’ legacy of Conservative welfare (state) regimes.
