La descentralización de las políticas sociales en el Estado del Bienestar

This work analyses the problems that arise in the provision of social policies of the Welfare State in a fiscal federalism context. While both the Welfare State and decentralisation processes have separately deserved a great attention of the literature, the mutual implications of both issues have been scarcely treated. However, the reality shows that some of the common expenditure of the Welfare State (e.g., Health and Education) are strongly decentralised. First, this work deals with the theoretical arguments in favour and against of the decentralisation of that policies. Next, the degree of decentralisation of the main social policies is examined: health, education and social services and security. It is important to stress the confluence of provision and financing of that policies. Following this argument, the degree of expenditure decentralisation does not necessarily match the degree of decentralisation in the definition of the public policies. Finally, we carry out a detailed examination from the experience of several countries of the problems caused by the decentralisation of the main functions.