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"The New Politics of the Welfare State" by Paul Pierson is a paper that sets out an interesting question in political science about whether or not the welfare state as we know it is being dismatled in the last decades mainly with the emergence of neo-liberal politics. This article opened up a discussion in the field that led several political scientists to come to the conclusion that there is no doubt an evolution in public policy all over Europe from what we call the "old policies" towards the "new policies" of the welfare state.

 This change has been pushed for  political parties all across Europe, and incredibly, not only by the parties we would more cleary see as being suportive of these policies: right wing or conservative parties. This is not an scientific article so i will just write it simply for you: when we do speak about "old social policies" we are talking about the kind of support that we have been used to expect from our national states: subsidies, transfers, medical support, educational support... These ones found their support in traditional working class mainly and still hold firm ground as a preference amongst middle class in most of the western countries. 

As for the "new policies" we are looking at a set of policies that are mainly focused on activation policies in the labour market, i.e, policies that no longer focus on the relationship state-individual, but make their way across third parties (private sector) in order to asure that you as an individual get your needs met through the labour marketing instead of depending on the state to cater for those needs.

 The old policies had a more universalistic character. Despite the big differences between types of welfare regimes, one can say that more or less all the population was considered whenever the redistribution of income was made through social security and other means. The new form of welfare regimes that we are observing now is not so. It is extremelly contractualist on its principles and it´s based on the idea that without the participation of the individual in the labour market, rights should be restricted. This idea is particulary interest when we are looking at a whole generation that was pushed to the universities to get degrees that have hugely massificated the labour force and put them in a labour market that cannot possibly absorve them. And once again THIS WAS A POLITICAL DECISION TOO. Democratization in education doesn´t really work in this conditions to break the cicle of poverty and inequality. Once it´s available for almost everyone, what will be a game changer will many times be a set of assets, internships, courses that cannot be attended very democratically.

But let´s move on. The relationship between the market and society has become an interesting one: if the market was once subordinated to the society as a means to serve it, more and more this relationship was inverted and society became to serve the markets. If you´re curious about this invertion i suggest you to read Polanyi´s "The Great Transformation", which you can access here. That is pretty clear when you have states withrawing from their role as public supporters and passing it on to the market, as if the market could cater for those needs. But it can´t. Markets don´t have morals, principles or orientations. 

Political parties are being emptied of their traditional ideology and coming to support more and more the same type of public policies regardless of their orientation or filiation. Sindicates and unions are declining both in numbers and importance. Political participation and mobilization is generally weak amogst those who are less privileged. Policies and public spending used  to convert western societies into more equalitarian ones have had a limited success since in many states they failed to target the roots of inequality.

The crisis that started in 2008 was a window of opportunity for the policy-makers to enforce these agendas, because this "new policies" would represent a cut on public spending. An oversized welfare state was repeatedly appointed as the origin of the crises, when this one has very different origins, which we all know to be strongly related to the desregulation of the finantial sector.

Many people are left outside the protective wing of the state, as new risks are emerging in the last decades that are not being adressed because these people fall into a hiatus of transition where they cannot benefit from the traditional support for being too young, and are too old to catch the wave of the reforms that just started, and are thus in a fragile position. And this in itself is creating a rearrangement of the social classes that is different from all that is know until now.

Despolitization, as political tactic of removing the political character of decision-making as been very efectivelly used to make these changes, and the public discourse of political parties is embedded with a strange conformism that is nothing but a defense of the status quo, one that has become the true "tragedy of the commons". Their discourse is nothing more than a historical fallacy that tells us we got to the end of history and nothing can ever change.

These are very general trends of course. As i stated before this is not on intends to be a scientific article but is more a like a sum we shall all keep in mind.

More and more we are looking at a political world that is detatching from the electorate. Not big news here. Governments have been prooved to be in general far more responsive to organized interest than to the preferences of the electorate. But as politics moves from the social sphere into the economic sphere, people still have a grip on it as far as they are the work force in which the economic system relies. Though the weight of regular individuals in this relation is obviously more light than the other way around - and even more now with the increase of its  dependence on the labour market to suit its needs - it is still an economic and thus political weapon. 

But there are some problems with this of course. One of the problems is that this transformations in the labour market came accompanied by a transformation and flexibilization of the labour relations that turned most of these into unstable bonds - the so called "atypical contracts", which are the norm of a all new generation of workers. Thus, the weapon we were talking about is not all that, at least for now.

A second problem that leaves this new class into deep problems is of course pension schemes. No discounts, no pensions in old age of course. A generation will be left at the mercy of private schemes in banks which have already proved to be above good and evil and able to have wreckless behaviours towards their clients.

And the third one is maybe the most serious of all. We are witnessing a 4th industrial revolution that will have major political impacts. Work force will be cut, and it will obviously be cut from the bottom up. As the rate of replacement of work force takes ground faster and faster, not only regular people will loose their ultimate means of reinvidication as the risks will increase at the same time and in the same proportion. Technology will insulate political and economic elites for good.

Furthermore, technology is driving government issues out of the hands of traditional politicians who are more responsive to electorate (since their political careers depend on popularity), into the hands of technocrats who are highly insulated from public pressure once they're careers are mainly pursued in the private sector.

Not only are these insulated, as their strong commitment and professional development in the private sector is a strong source of bias. Issues and even public laws are of such a complexity that people have seen their rights of deciding over their destiny in modern democracies held hostage of a monolitic and dogmatic political discourse that tell these people there are no other possible social-economic model. We no longer live in democracies, all we have left is an illusion of choice.

The ghost of EU government (specially after the last constitutional treaty!) is the final and very visible side of these. Just look at what happened to Greece when they tried to claim back their sovereignity. Debts can be forgiven sometimes...when it suits political elites to do so.

What will this mean for political democratic regimes? How can people hold any claims towards a government and a society that does no longer need the typical individual?

Technological evolution contains within itself a seed of self-destruction. As more and more people are exposed to poverty and social inequality, we can picture that this will end up taking its toll on the economic cicle in the long run. The more fragile the typical individual is, the more probability we have of drop in demand.

 This are all suppositions of course, but the future we´re building seems quite bleak in my eyes.

This blog is supposed to be about having a good life. Having a good life requires that we are allowed to sustainable means of living, health and most of all freedom. These are being taken from the hands of our generation slowly as we watch. We're all a big bunch of sit down activists. But we should be worried, and we should be moving. This is very serious.

History tells us that everytime socio-economical conditions are pushed to extrems, and people start feeling they were put against the wall, they react. When you cannot make an agreement, you will probably turn to force. Extreme-right parties have been on the rise in Europe, and it´s not only because some people are xenophobes. It is because people are at the edge and they lack hope in a better future, hope that they will be heard and their needs will be met. Violence is always a reaction to hopelessness.

Politicians have made us believe that they are governed by economics, but that is nothing but a lie. It is a way of desreponsabilization for them to pursue their reactionary agendas. And people have to know, have to worry, have to talk about this, have to gather and must fight.

Most of us are this new class!

Being happy is also about being conscient. Not being allienated. Stop being a robot. Stop thinking we got to the end of History and now we can just stare at our iphones. It´s not true. And you will never find happiness in an unhappy world, cause sooner or later the shit will drop on your lawn too. 

Engage with your world. You didn´t get here by chance. You are the effort of all those who stood and fought before you. Honour them.

I am just a girl. But this is building up inside of me so i have to talk.  Let´s be bold, let´s be dangerous.

 If you don´t take my word for it WATCH THE VIDEO BELLOW! A fair explanation from someone who sure will taught you better.

Have a great day!