Bruno Palier (Sciences Po Paris)

Politics and Society special lectures: Citizenship and welfare in a changing Europe

“The Age of Dualization”

abstract

Inequality in most European societies has increased during the past decades. Contrary to those who claim that inequalities are primarily the result of economic trends and necessities, we show that policies matter. Rising inequality is not a direct result of liberalization processes, achieved through a gradual retrenchment of labor market regulation and of social protection across-the-board. Rather, we argue that some portions of the society are insulated from these processes through various labor market and social policies. In a nutshell, we claim that the last two to three decades can be characterized in many countries as “the age of dualization”. Processes of dualization, i.e. the process of treating different groups differently, have led to the creation of new groups of “insiders” and “outsiders”, which qualitatively and quantitatively differ from the insider-outsider divides witnessed during the golden age of welfare state capitalism. In this paper, we analyze how different types of institutional dualization processes and insider-outsider divides are interrelated, and to what extent the various types of exclusion have contributed to the increase in inequality. Our comparative perspective provides insights into why some countries witness lower levels of insider-outsider divides, whereas for others, it has become a core characteristic.