Phone: 0034646159421 Address: Institute of Government and Public Policies
Universitat Autonoma Barcelona
Parc de Recerca MRA
Bellaterra 08193
Barcelona, Spain
Con una de las tasas de fertilidad más bajas de toda la Unión Europea y un retraso significativo ... more Con una de las tasas de fertilidad más bajas de toda la Unión Europea y un retraso significativo respecto a otros países europeos en la edad en la que las mujeres tienen su primer hijo, España es un interesante caso de estudio tanto en una dimensión temporal como comparada. En esta investigación profundizamos en la peculiaridad del caso analizando sus principales ámbitos...
The COVID lockdowns were characterised by new forms of governmentality as lives were disrupted an... more The COVID lockdowns were characterised by new forms of governmentality as lives were disrupted and controlled through the vertical transmission of biopolitics by the state. The paper considers how this was experienced by academics in 11 different countries through analysis of diaries written during the first lockdown. The paper asks if communities can offer an alternative to governmentality by looking at three levels: the national, the neighbourhood and the personal. Whilst at a national level the idea of community was instrumentalised to encourage compliance to extraordinary measures, at the local level community compassion through helping neighbours encouraged horizontal connections that could offer a “space” within the dominant logic of governmentality. At the level of personal communities, the digitalisation of social relationships helped to create supportive networks over widely dispersed areas but these were narrowly rather than widely focused, avoiding critical discussion.
This article investigates the delay in implementation and inadequacy of specific policy actions i... more This article investigates the delay in implementation and inadequacy of specific policy actions in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in nursing homes. The analysis focuses on Lombardy and Madrid, the two wealthiest regions in Italy and Spain. These were the most severely affected by the onset of the pandemic, both country-wise and at the European level. We compare the chronology of policy decisions that affected nursing homes against the broader policy responses related to the health crisis. We look at structural factors that reveal policy legacy effects. Our analysis shows that key emergency interventions arrived late, especially when compared to similar actions taken by the national health services. Weak institutional embedding of nursing homes within the welfare state in terms of ownership, allocation of resources, regulation and coordination hindered a swift response to the onset of the crisis.
By looking at the main welfare state reforms undertaken by the Italian and Spanish governments si... more By looking at the main welfare state reforms undertaken by the Italian and Spanish governments since the outbreak of the financial crisis, this article explores changes resulting from the implementation of austerity policies. In light of the way in which unpopular fiscal adjustment measures have been introduced in both countries, especially since 2010, we call for a revision of the existing literature on welfare retrenchment and political strategies. We argue in this article that under conditions of ‘permanent strain’, bold retrenchment policies and cuts in social spending have been justified by the Italian and Spanish governments through a ‘there is no alternative’ or TINA legitimation strategy, which creates limited interaction space between social and political actors. We tentatively conclude that this political strategy does not entirely fit the notions of blame avoidance or credit claiming as currently formulated in the specialist literature. We call for further empirical testi...
This article is contextualized within the recent evolution of household employment in Spain. In t... more This article is contextualized within the recent evolution of household employment in Spain. In the context of the strong demand for personal care services – due to rapid population ageing, mass incorporation of women into the labour market and insufficient collective provision of care services – the growth of domestic work is closely related to the overall social organization of care and specific migration policies that have eased, both implicitly and explicitly, the labour supply of foreign women into Spanish households. In line with ongoing debates in the academic literature as well as in the political sphere, this article seeks to explain the extent to which domestic work can or should be considered as any other job in terms of social and employment rights and obligations. To that end, it evaluates changes in the regulation of household employment in Spain since the creation of the Special Regime for Household Employees (SRHE) in 1969 until the most recent 2011 reform. Following...
Reseña de la obra de: PINO MATUTE, E. del y RUBIO LARA, Mª J. (EDS.) (2013) Los Estados de Bienes... more Reseña de la obra de: PINO MATUTE, E. del y RUBIO LARA, Mª J. (EDS.) (2013) Los Estados de Bienestar en la encrucijada. Políticas Sociales en perspectiva comparada, Madrid, Tecnos, 376 pp.
Abstract This paper aims to describe and discuss the significance of the social policy measures i... more Abstract This paper aims to describe and discuss the significance of the social policy measures implemented in Southern European countries?Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain?in response to the first wave of COVID-19 Our analysis covers interventions from 1 March to June 30, 2020 Despite significant differences in how the COVID-19 pandemic spread?with Italy and Spain experiencing much higher rates of infection and lethality?Southern European economies are among the most hard-hit?and are likely to find themselves in the eye of the storm, once more The paper shows that despite differences in how countries have countered the spread of COVID-19, there are important commonalities in the actions governments took to counteract the economic impact of the pandemic Foremost efforts were directed at wage subsidy schemes to contain mass job destruction, additional temporary benefits to compensate self-employed and other non-standard workers for the loss of earnings;the expansion of unemployment insurance;and finally, the introduction and/or strengthening of schemes to provide support to families with care responsibilities The scale of the social policy and employment protection response has nevertheless been constrained by the fiscal position of each individual country in the post-Euro crisis context We argue that, in the long run, the response capacity of these governments and the social and economic consequences of this crisis will need to be contextualised against the backdrop of the deep and prolonged impact of austerity-driven measures on public budgets, production and welfare regimes over the last decade
Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) has become a strategic component of the Social Investme... more Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) has become a strategic component of the Social Investment (SI) paradigm. Growth in this field of social policy – quantified as an increase in public spending and coverage rates – is often taken as indicative of a wider attempt to reformulate welfare state intervention through an SI approach. However, SI agendas have produced differentiated impacts in different contexts. In scenarios of budget restraints, some governments have increased coverage and controlled costs at the same time by allowing for higher staff-to-child ratios and group sizes, externalizing management costs or worsening the working conditions of professionals. These strategies can severely compromise the quality of the provision offered. This is likely to have more effect in those contexts in which provision needs to be developed under more stringent conditions of financial viability. The article analyses two such cases, Italy and Spain, where general conditions of permanent ...
Con una de las tasas de fertilidad más bajas de toda la Unión Europea y un retraso significativo ... more Con una de las tasas de fertilidad más bajas de toda la Unión Europea y un retraso significativo respecto a otros países europeos en la edad en la que las mujeres tienen su primer hijo, España es un interesante caso de estudio tanto en una dimensión temporal como comparada. En esta investigación profundizamos en la peculiaridad del caso analizando sus principales ámbitos...
The COVID lockdowns were characterised by new forms of governmentality as lives were disrupted an... more The COVID lockdowns were characterised by new forms of governmentality as lives were disrupted and controlled through the vertical transmission of biopolitics by the state. The paper considers how this was experienced by academics in 11 different countries through analysis of diaries written during the first lockdown. The paper asks if communities can offer an alternative to governmentality by looking at three levels: the national, the neighbourhood and the personal. Whilst at a national level the idea of community was instrumentalised to encourage compliance to extraordinary measures, at the local level community compassion through helping neighbours encouraged horizontal connections that could offer a “space” within the dominant logic of governmentality. At the level of personal communities, the digitalisation of social relationships helped to create supportive networks over widely dispersed areas but these were narrowly rather than widely focused, avoiding critical discussion.
This article investigates the delay in implementation and inadequacy of specific policy actions i... more This article investigates the delay in implementation and inadequacy of specific policy actions in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in nursing homes. The analysis focuses on Lombardy and Madrid, the two wealthiest regions in Italy and Spain. These were the most severely affected by the onset of the pandemic, both country-wise and at the European level. We compare the chronology of policy decisions that affected nursing homes against the broader policy responses related to the health crisis. We look at structural factors that reveal policy legacy effects. Our analysis shows that key emergency interventions arrived late, especially when compared to similar actions taken by the national health services. Weak institutional embedding of nursing homes within the welfare state in terms of ownership, allocation of resources, regulation and coordination hindered a swift response to the onset of the crisis.
By looking at the main welfare state reforms undertaken by the Italian and Spanish governments si... more By looking at the main welfare state reforms undertaken by the Italian and Spanish governments since the outbreak of the financial crisis, this article explores changes resulting from the implementation of austerity policies. In light of the way in which unpopular fiscal adjustment measures have been introduced in both countries, especially since 2010, we call for a revision of the existing literature on welfare retrenchment and political strategies. We argue in this article that under conditions of ‘permanent strain’, bold retrenchment policies and cuts in social spending have been justified by the Italian and Spanish governments through a ‘there is no alternative’ or TINA legitimation strategy, which creates limited interaction space between social and political actors. We tentatively conclude that this political strategy does not entirely fit the notions of blame avoidance or credit claiming as currently formulated in the specialist literature. We call for further empirical testi...
This article is contextualized within the recent evolution of household employment in Spain. In t... more This article is contextualized within the recent evolution of household employment in Spain. In the context of the strong demand for personal care services – due to rapid population ageing, mass incorporation of women into the labour market and insufficient collective provision of care services – the growth of domestic work is closely related to the overall social organization of care and specific migration policies that have eased, both implicitly and explicitly, the labour supply of foreign women into Spanish households. In line with ongoing debates in the academic literature as well as in the political sphere, this article seeks to explain the extent to which domestic work can or should be considered as any other job in terms of social and employment rights and obligations. To that end, it evaluates changes in the regulation of household employment in Spain since the creation of the Special Regime for Household Employees (SRHE) in 1969 until the most recent 2011 reform. Following...
Reseña de la obra de: PINO MATUTE, E. del y RUBIO LARA, Mª J. (EDS.) (2013) Los Estados de Bienes... more Reseña de la obra de: PINO MATUTE, E. del y RUBIO LARA, Mª J. (EDS.) (2013) Los Estados de Bienestar en la encrucijada. Políticas Sociales en perspectiva comparada, Madrid, Tecnos, 376 pp.
Abstract This paper aims to describe and discuss the significance of the social policy measures i... more Abstract This paper aims to describe and discuss the significance of the social policy measures implemented in Southern European countries?Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain?in response to the first wave of COVID-19 Our analysis covers interventions from 1 March to June 30, 2020 Despite significant differences in how the COVID-19 pandemic spread?with Italy and Spain experiencing much higher rates of infection and lethality?Southern European economies are among the most hard-hit?and are likely to find themselves in the eye of the storm, once more The paper shows that despite differences in how countries have countered the spread of COVID-19, there are important commonalities in the actions governments took to counteract the economic impact of the pandemic Foremost efforts were directed at wage subsidy schemes to contain mass job destruction, additional temporary benefits to compensate self-employed and other non-standard workers for the loss of earnings;the expansion of unemployment insurance;and finally, the introduction and/or strengthening of schemes to provide support to families with care responsibilities The scale of the social policy and employment protection response has nevertheless been constrained by the fiscal position of each individual country in the post-Euro crisis context We argue that, in the long run, the response capacity of these governments and the social and economic consequences of this crisis will need to be contextualised against the backdrop of the deep and prolonged impact of austerity-driven measures on public budgets, production and welfare regimes over the last decade
Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) has become a strategic component of the Social Investme... more Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) has become a strategic component of the Social Investment (SI) paradigm. Growth in this field of social policy – quantified as an increase in public spending and coverage rates – is often taken as indicative of a wider attempt to reformulate welfare state intervention through an SI approach. However, SI agendas have produced differentiated impacts in different contexts. In scenarios of budget restraints, some governments have increased coverage and controlled costs at the same time by allowing for higher staff-to-child ratios and group sizes, externalizing management costs or worsening the working conditions of professionals. These strategies can severely compromise the quality of the provision offered. This is likely to have more effect in those contexts in which provision needs to be developed under more stringent conditions of financial viability. The article analyses two such cases, Italy and Spain, where general conditions of permanent ...
this article firstly describes the emergence of multi-level governance in the context of European... more this article firstly describes the emergence of multi-level governance in the context of European integration. It also looks at the different alternatives that are being proposed to the historic hegemony of the central state. Secondly, it looks at the development of territorial devolution in Spain (the estado autonómico) since the beginning of democarcy and how it has run parallel to the consolidation of the Spanish welfare state. We use examples from education and social services to show the difference in terms of governance of policy fields that were previously competence of the central state but have now been decentralised (the case of education) and those which have emerged within a fully decentralisation of competences (the case of social services). In the third and final part of this paper we look at the tensions and dilemmas of multilevel governance in Spain in the current context of fiscal crisis and public debt.
ABSTRACT Family policies have traditionally been weak in Southern Europe. In the last two decades... more ABSTRACT Family policies have traditionally been weak in Southern Europe. In the last two decades, however, and following a ‘catching up’ course, Spain has created new family programmes and expanded existing ones. Meanwhile, the picture for Italy during the years preceding the crisis is more of a ‘frozen landscape’. However, the diverging paths of the two countries in terms of policy reform in the years preceding the crisis do not place them in substantially different positions. The economic crisis and the austerity measures that followed have aggravated the weaknesses of family and care policies in both countries.
ABSTRACT This article makes a comparative analysis of the trajectories of welfare change in Italy... more ABSTRACT This article makes a comparative analysis of the trajectories of welfare change in Italy and Spain since the outbreak of the financial crisis. We look at the differences in the types of institutional design to study of welfare reform in these two countries and assess how recent changes have affected welfare state institutions. The article also assesses the level of EU involvement not only through formal instruments around the European Semester, but also by means of agreements with the Troika and the European Central Bank. For this part of the analysis three sets of documents have been used: Commission Recommendations and Council Decisions in relation to Excessive Deficit Procedures; Commission country-specific recommendations based on Stability or Convergence Programmes; and Policy Measures to boost growth and jobs (National Reform Programmes). These documents allow an analysis of the contents of formal adjustment pressures. Other documents and sources (including newspaper articles) have also been analysed in order to look at the role of conditionality and ‘backroom’ diplomacy.
The Transformation of Care in European Societies, 2014
The main aim of this chapter is to provide contextual cross-national background information on ch... more The main aim of this chapter is to provide contextual cross-national background information on changes in care policies in a selected number of European countries that will be of relevance for the development of the overriding analytical framework of this volume as well as for setting up the grounds for comparison of national case studies. The chapter is divided into three main parts. The first part looks at trends in coverage and expenditure for early child care and education (ECEC) and long-term care (LTC) programmes in Europe over the last decade. The second part offers an overview of the main institutional set-ups for ECEC and LTC. The third and final part studies care as a labour market. Using data from the EU-Labour Force Survey and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), this third part analyses the care workforce in terms of occupations and professions and their working conditions.
This paper explores the increasing significance of domestic workers in Spain, a country that has ... more This paper explores the increasing significance of domestic workers in Spain, a country that has the highest figures of registered household employees in the EU, many of them female migrant workers. The paper focuses on how the domestic sector has grown in recent years along with mass migration flows. The growth of the household sector in Spain is situated within the context of the welfare and migration regimes. The household sector in Spain is currently absorbing a large part of the demand for childcare and elderly care provision. Although the domestic sector in Spain is more regulated than in many other countries, greater efforts to formalise and improve the labour and employment rights of household employees are needed to counterbalance occupational segregation and social inequality.
Con una de las tasas de fertilidad más bajas de toda la Unión Europea y un retraso significativo ... more Con una de las tasas de fertilidad más bajas de toda la Unión Europea y un retraso significativo respecto a otros países europeos en la edad en la que las mujeres tienen su primer hijo, España es un interesante caso de estudio tanto en una dimensión temporal como comparada. En esta investigación profundizamos en la peculiaridad del caso analizando sus principales ámbitos...
Este artículo hace un recorrido a través de las políticas de igualdad en España, en relación con ... more Este artículo hace un recorrido a través de las políticas de igualdad en España, en relación con las políticas sociales, desde su origen, desarrollo, y desmantelamiento en un contexto de crisis económica. Las políticas de igualdad de género han tenido un desarrollo espectacular en España desde principios de la democracia. Se han institucionalizado gracias a la creación de organismos de igualdad en todos los niveles de gobierno, han diversificado sus instrumentos incluyendo planes, leyes y unidades de género, y han generado unos avances que desde 2004 hasta 2008 indicaban cierta consolidación. Sin embargo, el retroceso provocado por las políticas de ‘austeridad’ adoptadas a partir de 2008 en respuesta a la crisis económica ha mostrado una falta de priorización de las políticas de igualdad cuando estas entran en conflicto con otras prioridades económicas. En este contexto, a pesar de la movilización de la sociedad civil, las políticas de igualdad en España tienen por delante un camino tremendamente incierto. Palabras clave: Políticas de igualdad de género; Políticas sociales; España; Crisis económica; Políticas de austeridad.
El presente artículo describe en primer lugar la emergencia de la gobernanza multinivel en el con... more El presente artículo describe en primer lugar la emergencia de la gobernanza multinivel en el contexto de la integración europea y las distintas alternativas que se proponen a la hegemonía de una autoridad única. A continuación analizamos el desarrollo del estado autonómico en España desde comienzos de la democracia y cómo éste ha corrido en paralelo a la consolidación del Estado de Bienestar. Utilizando ejemplos de la política educativa y los servicios sociales vemos cómo la transferencia de poderes desde el nivel estatal al autonómico en ámbitos previamente centralizados presenta unos componentes que son distintos a los casos de desarrollo y creación de políticas sociales descentralizadas desde su origen. En la parte final del artículo atendemos a las tensiones y los dilemas a los que el estado autonómico parece estar expuesto en el actual contexto de crisis financiera y endeudamiento de las administraciones. Palabras Clave: descentralización, gobernanza multi-nivel, políticas sociales, crisis económica.
¿Qué aspectos principales deberíamos repensar en el modo de funcionar de las administraciones púb... more ¿Qué aspectos principales deberíamos repensar en el modo de funcionar de las administraciones públicas para que puedan seguir manteniendo su necesaria e imprescindible labor de regulación, protección y prestación de bienes y servicios a la ciudadanía, en pleno momento de cambio de época?
En este libro se combinan reflexiones más generales (Fernando Vallespín y Quim Brugué), que ponen de relieve la difícil sincronización entre valores democráticos, ciencia y política en estos momentos de crisis, con otras más centradas en la ya mencionada necesidad de reforma de las administraciones públicas (Eloísa del Pino- César Colino), acentuada con la COVID (Víctor Lapuente), los impactos en los distintos niveles de gobierno (Joan Subirats). Hemos querido reforzar, asimismo, la reflexión sobre el ámbito de las políticas sociales, combinando tanto aspectos generales como específicos puestos de relieve con las situaciones de emergencia que atravesamos (Fernando Fantova, Marga León).
Uploads
Books by Margarita Leon
Papers by Margarita Leon
Palabras clave: Políticas de igualdad de género; Políticas sociales; España; Crisis económica; Políticas de austeridad.
europea y las distintas alternativas que se proponen a la hegemonía de una autoridad única. A continuación
analizamos el desarrollo del estado autonómico en España desde comienzos de la democracia y cómo éste ha corrido
en paralelo a la consolidación del Estado de Bienestar. Utilizando ejemplos de la política educativa y los servicios
sociales vemos cómo la transferencia de poderes desde el nivel estatal al autonómico en ámbitos previamente centralizados
presenta unos componentes que son distintos a los casos de desarrollo y creación de políticas sociales descentralizadas
desde su origen. En la parte final del artículo atendemos a las tensiones y los dilemas a los que el estado
autonómico parece estar expuesto en el actual contexto de crisis financiera y endeudamiento de las administraciones.
Palabras Clave: descentralización, gobernanza multi-nivel, políticas sociales, crisis económica.
En este libro se combinan reflexiones más generales (Fernando Vallespín y Quim Brugué), que ponen de relieve la difícil sincronización entre valores democráticos, ciencia y política en estos momentos de crisis, con otras más centradas en la ya mencionada necesidad de reforma de las administraciones públicas (Eloísa del Pino- César Colino), acentuada con la COVID (Víctor Lapuente), los impactos en los distintos niveles de gobierno (Joan Subirats). Hemos querido reforzar, asimismo, la reflexión sobre el ámbito de las políticas sociales, combinando tanto aspectos generales como específicos puestos de relieve con las situaciones de emergencia que atravesamos (Fernando Fantova, Marga León).