A ‘Fairweather Welfare State’? Formal and Informal Social Protection and the Greek Crisis

Abstract

A deep crisis constitutes a severe strain on an ailing economic system. It serves as a formidable challenge to all certainties attached to the workings of production as well as to redistribution mechanisms. In particular, it questions the continuing ability of social protection systems to cope with the pressures generated by the recession and by rapid retrenchment. The fear is that support mechanisms developed and designed at the times of plenty can find coping difficult when social problems become generalised and social exclusion ceases to be a (regrettable) exception. Safety nets — as all insurance mechanisms — may work smoothly as long as social risks affect isolated individual cases. Once social risks become correlated, the economic, financial and administrative limits of social systems are tested, with possibly severe social consequences.