Regions and welfare expansion in the EU

Abstract

Welfare states in the post II World War (WWII) period have often deployed a centralized mode of policy-making, which has tended to make equality and homogenization synonymous notions. According to this view, citizens’ social entitlements ought to be provided in a unitary --and generally centralized-- administration of public services. In recent times, the centrality of the nation-state as the champion for the development of the modern systems of social protection has given way to a situation where both the supra-state and the sub-state welfare inputs are increasingly important in welfare development.