Corona Study on Protecting Livelihoods Updated
The second wave of the coronavirus has Europe in its grip. Governments have again imposed lockdowns and, as a result, have prolonged and/or increased financial assistance programmes. The legal research team led by Prof. Dr. Ulrich Becker has now updated the study "Securing Existence in the Corona Crisis", which was presented in May. The newly published follow-up volume "Protecting Livelihoods in the COVID-19 Crisis: Legal Comparison of Measures to Maintain Employment, the Economy and Social Protection" from the series Working Papers Law contains an evaluation of the measures adopted until the beginning of November to cushion the economic consequences of the pandemic in five selected European countries with different welfare state arrangements: Germany, Denmark, France, England and Italy.
All countries have reached deep into national budgets to provide support to people and businesses particularly affected by the crisis through a variety of social policy instruments. Given the urgency with which the measures had and still have to be executed, difficulties in implementation have often been encountered, not least due to systemic contradictions. In this respect, the pandemic highlights the weaknesses in the respective welfare state architecture of the countries studied as if under a magnifying glass. By pointing these out, the study can provide important impulses for a new discussion of fundamental questions concerning the guiding principles and structures of the welfare state.
To the series Working Papers Law