Unemployment Insurance in Two Countries: a Comparative Analysis of Great Britain and West Germany in the 1980s

Abstract

Persistently high jobless figures and a rising proportion and absolute number of long-term unemployed workers in Great Britain and West Germany throughout the 1980s have contributed to an erosion of unemployment insurance as a form of income maintenance. As a consequence, means-tested social assistance benefits have garned in importance as a last resort of income support for jobless people. This paper examines political reactions to this trend. It shows that in both countries the shift to assistance benefits was politically reinforced in the first half of the decade. Thereafter, attempts were made in West Germany to stop the decline of insurance coverage while policy changes in Great Britain fostered the continuous trend towards assistance benefits. These outcomes, the article argues, can partly be explained with reference to political and ideological factors. However, policies were also strongly influenced by different welfare state traditions, principles and institutional arrangements ('welfare state legacies'; Skocpol 1985).