
The Case Against Trading Europe’s Welfare State for Warfare
Anton Hemerijck and Sven Schreurs
A decade of evidence shows Europe’s welfare state drives growth – making calls to cut it for rearmament self-defeating.
Author profile

Anton Hemerijck is Professor of Political Science and Sociology at the European University Institute. He researches and publishes on social policy, social investment and the welfare state and is a frequent adviser to the European Commission.

Anton Hemerijck and Sven Schreurs
A decade of evidence shows Europe’s welfare state drives growth – making calls to cut it for rearmament self-defeating.

Anton Hemerijck and Manos Matsaganis
Amidst geopolitical shifts, the notion that Europe must choose between security and social support is not only politically dangerous but also economically unsound.

Anton Hemerijck, Azizjon Bagadirov and Robin Wilson
Rather than a ‘burden on the taxpayer’, the welfare state should be understood in normative terms as productive social investment.

Anton Hemerijck and David Bokhorst
A vast untapped potential for improving economic progress and social well-being across the EU needs to be unlocked through social investment.

Anton Hemerijck, Luís Russo and Philipp Genschel
Say it quietly but adversity is bringing Europe together.

Anton Hemerijck and Robin Huguenot-Noël
The temptation to cut welfare expenditures to reduce deficits inflated by the pandemic must be resisted.

Anton Hemerijck and Robin Huguenot-Noël
A ‘just transition’ must replace fear of, and resistance to, brown job losses with consensus behind social investment. Pension reform provides parallels and pointers.

Anton Hemerijck and Massimiliano Santini
The welfare state in Europe must become a social-investment state if the broken European social contract is to be renewed.

The European welfare state and the European Union (EU) find themselves caught up in a double bind in the aftermath of the global financial crisis.