Social policies for care dependency in the European Welfare Regimes

Abstract

This article addresses social changes that led to the transformation of individual and family related dependency risk into socially mixed risk with an increasing role for the various social policies which respond to the risk in different welfare systems within the EU. More particularly, the debate is about the general model to respond to the risk of losing autonomy as well as the combination of family, individual and social responsibility on the basis of an increasing commoditization and privatisation in the service provision in the context within which the Welfare State faces cost cutting due to crises, adjustments and restructuring. The features of different public policy models in the EU are also addressed, focussing mainly on the new Spanish model of socialisation of risk which entered into force in 2007. The institutional complexity of dependency models and policies, the continuation and changes of dependency policies and uncertainties concerning its evolution within the current restructuring of the Welfare State, are underlined in the conclusions.