Currently, various contradictions challenge the evolution of a European space in social policy. Across Europe, income distribution has become increasingly unequal since the “Golden Age of the Welfare State” after World War II. Rising market inequalities posed new challenges to the welfare-state. In many European countries, internationalization and privatization of governance changed structural patterns of state transformation, such as core institutions of the classical nation-state and thus the process of social policymaking. The EU’s deepening and widening require considering supranational policymaking for redesigning national welfare-states. What are the distributional consequences of this welfare-state transformation in different EU countries?

The study of comparative and empirical approaches of welfare-state policies has remained at the sidelines of public policy and Europeanization studies. However, welfare-state research could profit from more theorized analyses, enriched by general European studies and comparative perspectives. By analyzing social policy as a sector still understudied by Europeanists, we aim to discuss how welfare-state research can be successfully linked with Europeanization literature. Including sociological, political, and economic perspectives, the panel explores how the reorganization of the welfare-state affected economic, socio-economic, and political disparities in EU countries. It deals with classical welfare-state pillars such as pensions and labor market, but also adjacent fields like family/gender, taxes and migration. We focus on following questions: How have welfare-state changes influenced the rise in net inequality in European countries? Which role did privatization or the economic crisis play in developing these tendencies? How can welfare-state research and Europeanization studies contribute to knowledge on social inequality?