“Europe has to be ‘Triple A’ on social matters”, Jean-Claude Juncker said when he became EU president. In 2017, European leaders solemnly put signatures to a European Pillar of Social Rights. Principle 14 of that Social Pillar states “Everyone lacking sufficient resources has the right to adequate minimum income benefits ensuring a life in dignity at all stages of life, and effective access to enabling goods and services.” Earlier, in 2010, the European Parliament had already passed a Resolution calling for adequate minimum incomes.
Needless to say, Minimum income schemes (MIS) are among the most important social protection institutions in modern welfare states. Marcello Natili plausibly claims that we still know relatively little about the dynamics of institutional change in this policy field. His book sets out to offer insight into the conditions under which and the political mechanisms through which minimum income schemes are introduced, expanded or retrenched.
Natili presents a comparative analysis of the policy trajectories of minimum income schemes in Italy and Spain between the mid-1980s and 2015. That is very useful because Italy and Spain were among the last countries in the old EU to institutionalize minimum income schemes. Before that they had only existed at the local level and not even everywhere. Italy now has a national scheme, Spain a diverse set of regional minimum income schemes. Although the two countries faced comparable pressures and institutional constraints, they experienced different developments. In short, Spain is a story of gradual expansion at the regional level. Italy’s trajectory is more erratic and includes episodes of retrenchment.
The central narrative is about credit-claiming dynamics resulting “from the interaction of socio-political demand with political supply.” That is a complicated way of saying that politics is a messy and sometimes erratic business that does not lend itself easily to grand, neat theories. Natali struggles to explain the different paths taken in Spain and Italy. It is understandable that the author looks for an overarching account, as that is what academics are paid to do. (This book emerged from his doctorate). That is not to say it always works out.
There is much to like about this book. For a start, it is by and large well-written. The book starts with a nice and useful overview of competing theoretical accounts. (This is particularly useful for graduate students looking for concise introductions to theories of welfare state development.) It then delves into policy developments in Italy and Spain in considerable detail. It is clear that quite a bit of research went into this book. The book is absolutely packed with detailed references, interview material and other evidence. As if this is not enough The Politics of Minimum Income also looks, albeit more briefly, at reform processes in other countries that introduced MIS in the age of austerity (such as Portugal) and in countries that retrenched them during the same era (Austria and Denmark).
I am impressed by the effort that went into this book. It does the invaluable job of chronicling key episodes of welfare state development in Italy and Spain. Whether the theoretical contribution will be a lasting one remains to be seen. That is no criticism. The book just shows how inherently muddled and erratic political processes are. The book even provides a refreshing antidote to accounts that see the development of minimum income schemes in Italy and Spain as evidence of Europeanization. If Europe was a factor, it percolated through numerous layers of other political processes at the national and regional level. That, by the way, holds an important lesson. If we want a stronger Social Europe, we should perhaps not invest too much hope in “soft” coordination. Its impact essentially remains in the eye of the beholder. And this book demonstrates it.
