The Recalibration of Public Social Spending in Spain: Towards a Social Investment State?

Abstract

Social investment has become the dominant paradigm guiding the reform of European welfare states. Beyond its normative postulates, social investment is a useful analytical framework for the study of ongoing changes in social policy. From this perspective, this article finds evidence of a turn toward social investment in the welfare budget in Spain that began in the mid-nineties. In addition, it shows that the development of new policies linked to social investment have not occurred at the expense of traditional social protection policies. Lastly, it is found that the impact of austerity differs for the different dimensions of social policy.