Since the beginning of the 1980s, successive Belgian governments have pursued a social security policy that is a combination of cutting social expenditure on the one hand and im proving the plight of lower income categories among benefit recipients on the other. This has been realized by means of a strategy of 'target ing within universalism', i.e. improving the benefits for the poor and restricting them for the better off, but without abolishing the en titlements of the latter category completely. The Belgian experience puts in perspective the 'middle class matters argument, which pre dicts that, if cuts are made in social expendi ture, the middle classes will use their political resources to defend the provisions they benefit from and to diminish the benefits reserved for the poor.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Andries, M. (1995a) Ontwikkeling Belgische bijstandsvoorzieningen in vergelijkend perspectief, De Gids op Maatschappelijk Gebied86 (2): 179-87.
2.
Andries, M. (1995b) Minimumuitkeringen en minimumtrekkers in de Belgische sociale zekerheid, paper presented at the 22nd Flemish Economic Congress, 'Social Security Secured', Brussels, 20-21 October 1995
3.
Atkinson, A., Rainwater, L. and Smeeding, T. (1995) Income Distribution in OECD Countries. Evidence from the Luxembourg Income Study, Paris, OECD.
4.
Baldwin, P. (1990) The Politics of Social Solidarity Class Bases of the European Welfare State. 1875-1975Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
5.
Bolderson, H. and Mabett, D. (1991) Social Policy and Social Security in Australia, Britain and the USA, Aldershot, Avebury.
6.
Bryson, L. (1992) Welfare and the State. Who Benefits? , Basingstoke, Macmillan Press.
7.
Cantillon, B. (1992) De 'zero sum crisis': een verklaring voor de stabiliteit van de inkomens- en welvaartsverdeling in een periode van economische crisis , Maandschrist Economie56 (1): 54-76.
8.
Cantillon, B. (1993) Les limites de la sécurité socialeRevue Belge de Sécurite Sociale37 (1): 3-41.
9.
Cantillon, B., Marx, I., Proost, D. and van Dam, R. (1994) Indicateurs sociaux 1985-1992, Revue Belge de Sécurité Sociale36 (2): 497-546.
10.
Cantillon, B. and Andries, M. (1995) De dualiseringsthese hertoetst. Inkomens, koopkracht en welvaart van uitkeringstrekkers in de periode 1985-1992, De Gids op Maatschappelijk Gebied86 (6-7): 523-43.
11.
Castles, F. (1989) Social protection by other means. Australia's strategy of coping with external vulnerability, in F. Castles (ed ) The Comparative History of Public Policy, Cambndge, Polity Press.
12.
Castles, F. and Mitchell, D. (1990) Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism or Four?The Luxembourg Income Study, Working Paper 63.
13.
Deleeck, H., Huybrechs, J. and Cantillon, B. (1983) Het Matteuseffect. De ongelijke verdeling van de sociale overheidsuitgaven in Belgie, Antwerp, M & I.
14.
Deleeck, H. and Cantillon, B. (1986) Le minimum garanti, Droit social49 (6): 479-87.
15.
De Swaan, A. (1988) In Care of the State. Health Care, Education and Welfare in Europe and the USA in the Modern Era, Cambndge, Cambndge University Press
16.
Esping-Andersen, G. (1990) The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism, Cambridge, Polity Press.
17.
Forster, M. (1994) The effects of net transfers on low incomes among non-elderly families, OECD Economic Studies22: 181-219.
18.
Goodin, R. and Le Grand, J. (eds) (1987) Not Only the Poor. The Middle Classes and the Welfare State, London, Allen & Unwin.
19.
Greenstein, R. (1991) Universal and targeted approaches to relieving poverty: an alternative view, in C. Jencks and P. Peterson (eds) The Urban Underclass, Washington, Brookings Institution.
20.
Hagenaars, A., De Vos, K. and Zaidi, M. (1992) Conditions de vie des plus défavorises au sein des communautés europeennes. Statistiques relatives à la pauvrete, basées sur les microdonnées. Résultats pour neuf Etats Membres des Communautés Europeennes , Rotterdam, Erasmus University.
21.
Hausman, P. (1993) The impact of social security in the European Community, in J. Berghman and B. Cantillon (eds) The European Face of Social Security. Essays in Honour of Herman Deleeck , Aldershot, Avebury.
22.
Mitchell, D. (1991) Income Transfers in Ten Welfare States , Aldershot, Avebury.
23.
Offe, C. (1987) Democracy against the welfare state? Structural foundations of neo-conservative political opportunities, Political Theory15 (3): 501-37
24.
Offe, C. (1992) A non-productivist design for social policies , in P. Van Parijs Arguing for Basic Income. Ethical Foundations for a Radical Reform, London, Verso.
25.
Papadakis, E. (1993) Class interests, class politics and welfare state regime, in British Journal of Sociology 44 (2): 249-70.
26.
Pierson, P. (1994) Dismantling the Welfare State. Reagan, Thatcher, and the Politics of Retrenchment, Cambndge, Cambndge University Press.
27.
Saunders, P. (1994) Welfare and Inequality. National and International Perspectives on the Australian Welfare State, Cambridge, Cambndge University Press.
28.
Skocpol, T. (1987) America's incomplete welfare state: the limits of new deal reforms and the origins of the present crisis, in M. Rein, G. Esping-Andersen and L. Rainwater (eds) Stagnation and Renewal in Social Policy. The Rise and Fall of Policy Regimes, Armdonk, ME Sharpe.
29.
Skocpol, T. (1991) Targeting within universalism: politically viable policies to combat poverty in the United States, in C. Jencks and P. Peterson (eds) The Urban Underclass, Washington, Brookings Institution.
30.
Van Kersbergen, K. (1995) Social Capitalism. A Study of Christian Democracy and the Welfare State, London, Routledge.
31.
Van Oorschot, W. and Schell, J. (1991) Means testing in Europe: a growing concern, in M. Adler (ed.) The Sociology of Social Security, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press.
32.
Weir, M., Orloff, A. and Skocpol, T. (1988) The future of social policy in the United States: constraints and possibilities, in M. Weir, A. Orloff and T. Skocpol (eds) The Politics of Social Policy in the United States , Pnnceton, Princeton University Press.
33.
Whiteford, P. (1994) Income distribution and social policy under a reformist government: the Australian experience, Policy and Politics22 (4): 239-55.
