신자유주의 시대의 사회 정책: 미국, 영국, 네덜란드, 스웨덴의 근로연계복지 개혁의 빈곤 관련 정책 성과와 서비스 전달 과정에 대한 사례 비교를 중심으로 = A Comparative Study of the Relationship between Welfare-to-work policies and Poverty: Comparing Policy Performance and Service Delivery of the US, the UK, Sweden and the Netherlands

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The response throughout the western countries to the passive welfare state had been social investment or workfare, and this applied to Korea as well, by the late 1990s. Welfare reform was at the top of the political agenda of the New Labour Government in Britain. Although the labour party is out of government at present, the principle of job first and social investment has spread throughout European unemployment systems. The study focused on the impact of welfare reforms and workfare on service delivery, performances of the western welfare states with comparative reference to the US, the UK, Sweden and the Netherlands. In conclusion, we can learn some lessons from the experience of various policy choice made by the welfare states comparatively mentioned in this article. Most evaluations of active responses to unemployment conclude that efforts to improve the position of marginal workers through employment subsidies or training efforts will be ignored by employers. This demonstrates paradox of active policies: their actual impact on labour market outcomes will be weakest when demands for them should be highest. Activation is most successful for those just above the poverty thresholds, not those in the lower strata. Mandatory workfare programs may actually contribute to the loss of motivation to work, it is necessary for policy-makers to approach carefully for the design of strategies and programs that respond to the concerned targets.