Welfare State and Growth. Beyond Activating Social Policies

The last few decades have witnessed the diffusion, within Europe, of a new "activating" vision of social policy centred on supporting employment and promoting human capital. This vision has many attractive features in terms of both growth and equality of opportunity. Nevertheless, the article draws attention to two shortfalls: 1) the risk of institutional incoherence and 2) the risk of weakening social justice. Remedying these shortfalls requires a more comprehensive view of the connections between social policies, markets and growth.