The Legitimacy of European Constitutional Orders is a systematic and comparative study of European constitutional orders, which takes into consideration the national constitutional trajectories of ...European countries, as well as the defining power of EU law. Drawing on a wealth of case studies, this book explores the conceptual tools needed to undertake comparative reconstruction and assessment of national and supranational constitutional developments in the European context.
Beyond its variable organizational structures, the nation-state is an idea or model - a now-global institution. Since the late nineteenth century, and at an accelerated rate after World War II, the ...core ideological model of the state has expanded to incorporate authority over, and responsibility for, more aspects of society. We track the worldwide impact of this process by describing and analyzing the rise of eleven relevant cabinet ministries across 190 countries, from 1870 to 2000. We find that early in the period, state penetration occurred in areas seen as central to the collective good - education, welfare, health, statistics, and labor. After the war, areas involving the status of the individual and the rationalization of nature and society were added in global formulations. New ministries focused on women, children, and family life, along with ministries of higher education and the environment. We show that these changes occur globally, rather than mainly as the result of the internal characteristics of countries. The expanded state, beyond its power, reflects structuration under the influence of global models: as the nation-state model expands in associations and discourse at the world level, organizational structuration develops at the national level.
Resumen Las bases institucionales y fundamentales aprobadas por el Congreso para regular el nuevo proceso constituyente incluyen una cláusula de bien común, también introducida en el anteproyecto ...aprobado por la Comisión Experta. Con base en el método histórico y comparado y siguiendo el Derecho Interamericano, la cláusula del bien común debe interpretarse para sostener dos conclusiones: (i) los mandatos transformadores del Estado social deben interpretarse considerando la capacidad estatal y el principio de progresividad, y (ii) el Estado social debe interpretarse desde la centralidad de la dignidad humana. Esas conclusiones podrían evitar algunos excesos presentes en el nuevo constitucionalismo latinoamericano.
Resumen Este artículo examina la configuración y evolución del derecho a la seguridad social en Chile, en el contexto de los procesos constituyentes recientes. Se analiza el papel del Estado como ...garante y fiscalizador de las prestaciones básicas y uniformes de seguridad social, así como la participación de instituciones públicas y privadas en su implementación. Además, se discute la definición y alcance del derecho a la seguridad social, considerando fuentes internacionales y la jurisprudencia del Tribunal Constitucional Chileno. Finalmente, se plantean los desafíos constitucionales y legislativos en la consagración de este derecho fundamental, considerando aspectos jurídicos y políticos.
The article is devoted to the theoretical and legal study of the role and place of the pension system in the mechanism of the social state on the example of the modern Ukrainian legal experience. ...Based on the analysis of legislation, doctrinal positions and practice of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, the author has formulated the own vision of the substantive and ontological core of pension provision. It is demonstrated that pension provision as a set of legal relations and a real legal phenomenon in the substantive and ontological dimension cannot be identified either with the process of providing an individual with a set of certain social and material services (procedural approach), or with a set of measures taken by the State to meet the needs of an individual for adequate material security upon reaching retirement age or due to adverse social circumstances which exclude their opportunities for active participation in economic and social life. According to the human-centred paradigm, the substantive and ontological essence of pension provision is not only the right (legal possibility) to demand from the state a certain level of pension payments in accordance with certain objective criteria, but also the real possibility to receive such payments in the amount that allows a person to maintain a decent existence, to ensure their key needs in life and social environment, avoiding poverty and social isolation. The importance of the State’s guarantee of the right to pension as a component of the constitutional right to social protection is substantiated. It has been revealed that the social state implements such a social policy which guarantees not only pension payments, but also their amount, frequency of receipt and indexation in accordance with the established procedure, which ensure that every person entitled to a pension has an adequate standard of living, the stability of the established standards of pension provision, the guarantee of this provision, the predictability of the legislative policy of pension provision (in accordance with the concept of legitimate expectations), and the appropriate law enforcement policy of pension provision. It has been proved that in the context of the social state concept, the problem of legislative fixation of the optimal model of pension provision (which would take into account the issues of determining the amount of pension provision, their ranking in various, including special, laws, methods and pace of pension indexation, etc.), taking into account the economic situation of the State and the compliance of such provision with the task of realisation of basic human needs for decent living conditions, requires careful consideration (in accordance with the concept of “space for consideration”). The article emphasises that compliance with the constitutional principles of the social state requires legislative regulation of pension provision on the basis of equity and proportionality, taking into account the State’s obligation to ensure decent living conditions for every citizen of Ukraine.
This article aims to clarify the role of "solidarity" in the development of the German Sozialstaat as a variation of concepts that sustain the ideal formation of the welfare state. Although previous ...studies have emphasized the historical importance of the social democratic milieu and its labor movement under the concept of solidarity in Germany, they have not taken into account the conceptual usage in the concrete legalization processes of social insurance through debates about social problems. From the perspective of semantic analysis, which focuses on the differences in the efficiency of the concepts in various organizations or institutions, this paper scrutinizes the discourses of politicians in the ruling party and bureaucrats from the 1860s to the 1880s. It thus attempts to learn about the social problems they faced and how these were dealt with using the vocabulary of solidarity as a semantics of sovereign practices. For policymakers in this period, one reason for social problems like poverty and the deterioration of the working environment was that both employers and employees failed to recognize their own interests. Thus, policymakers found it necessary to define both sides of interests and construct "the solidarity of interests（Solidarität der Interessen）," thereby intervening in the private systems of insurance. These findings indicate that the connotation of "Solidarität" in 19th-century Germany worked not only as a fighting concept for the labor movement but also as a notion to justify political intervention, connecting the divided interest groups. The concept of solidarity, a historical branch of "the social," was refined in Germany under the rationality of sovereign practices, thus reducing other possibilities of conceptualization.
Globalization, as a process that strives for the universality and singularity of the world, raises the complex question of ways to confront economic inequalities as a consequence of the neoliberal ...model of world market integration. Bearing in mind the restructuring nature of this process, which takes place on several levels, it is concluded that the resulting relations in the world trade network diminish the importance of the financial sovereignty of national states. Given this, economic inequalities are perpetuated, and the social instruments of national states have been blocked due to networking in the global market that follows the pattern of the neoliberal paradigm. The paper presents the levels at which global market integration takes place (macro, meso, and micro), and highlights the various effects of the globalization process on developed (Western) democracies, emerging market economies, developing countries, and post-transition countries from socialism to democracy. In addition, the impact of economic processes, and crises on the constitutional order of national states is highlighted, which may result in “tacit” changes in the constitutional structures of individual states in the direction of dissolving the role of legislatures (as elected representatives of citizens) in creating economic, fiscal, and social policies. Finally, it is pointed out that, given the impossibility of unified regulation of the world market, mechanisms to combat the negative (social and economic) consequences of the globalization process need to be found within the framework of national states.
This article analyzes the relationship between the social and climate policies of the European Union member states and examines the concept of the eco–social state. In the climate crisis era, the ...need for a close link between social and climate policies is particularly acute. The European Green Deal and other EU strategies reflect a political agenda with a specific interest in social and ecological goals. We aim to answer whether more significant state efforts in the social field are related to a similarly more substantial commitment in climate policy or whether a greater focus on one means less attention on another.
On a theoretical level, we discuss the challenges of climate change for social policy and present the concept of climate justice. The similarities and differences between the ecological and the welfare state are also examined. We argue that the concept of climate justice highlights the phenomenon of a double and even triple injustice on a global level, which requires joint efforts in spheres of social and climate policy. Eco-social state combines social and environmental institutions intending to ensure welfare and sustainability and thus complements the traditional concept of the welfare state. The Koch-Fritz (2014) classification, which distinguishes between the established, deadlocked, emerging, and failing eco-social states, is presented in the paper and used for the empirical analysis.
The empirical part of the paper employs non-parametrical correlation and hierarchical cluster analysis. The former allows for exploring the links between the ecological and social indicators. The latter enables countries to be grouped according to social and climate indicators and compared to the traditional classification of welfare states and Koch-Fritz models of eco-social states. The analysis is based on social and climate indicators of the Europe 2020 strategy. The study found that countries that provide relatively more significant funding for traditional social problems also perform better in climate change adaptation and mitigation policies by reducing greenhouse gas emissions in an effort–sharing sectors and final energy consumption. We show that clusters of the EU member states in terms of social and climate indicators (eco–social state models) are very similar to their membership in the traditional welfare states’ classification.
Moreover, social democratic welfare states are better prepared to address climate change than countries representing other types of welfare states. Thus the analysis confirms the social democratic welfare states as established eco–social states, while the conservative-corporate and liberal welfare states can indeed be called deadlocked eco–social states with average results. We show, however, that Lithuania, together with other Eastern European and Southern European countries, fluctuates on both the best and the worst social and climate change mitigation outcomes. Hence those should be attributed to a group with the mixed results and can be named as failed-emerging eco-social states.
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