ABSTRACT
Public opinion towards the welfare state has changed completely in the last 30 years. Whereas in earlier times people were very optimistic about the welfare state and the belief was widespread that social rights could be combined with full employment, attention has slowly shifted to the welfare state’s inability to reach these goals. At the end of the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s, confidence in the welfare state decreased because it was associated with less economic growth and even with financial crises. More and more attention was given to the idea that welfare states may not only solve societal problems but can also create them. Recently, the discussion has widened in scope, and concerns are being raised about the future of the welfare state and the way it is threatened by several societal developments (Korpi 2003). Globalization is one of the threats that has attracted the attention of politicians, researchers, and the general public (Castles 2002). Within public and political debates there seems to be a consensus that extensive and generous welfare state provisions cannot be sustained as globalization continues. Usually, expectations about the threat of globalization are based on the argument that the ongoing integration of the world market inevitably leads to tax cuts, thus decreasing the available resources needed to fund the welfare state. The main reason for this is that countries need to be attractive for companies, investors and highly qualified personnel to compete at a global scale. Moreover, high tax levels are believed to be an incentive for companies to save costs by outsourcing some of their activities or completely moving their production to low-wage countries. At the same time, welfare states may function as a magnet, attracting people from poorer parts of the world who are trying to get access to the provisions a country offers. Given these threats, there seems to be little reason for optimism about the future of the welfare state.
