The Southern European welfare model

A growing corpus of literature has analysed the main features, modes offunctioning as well as the logics of institutional reproduction and change of welfare(and welfare state) arrangements in the four countries clustered in the Southern Eur-opean model of welfare (Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain). The chapter reviews suchliterature identifying three main phases of welfare state development in the last threedecades: early-1990s–2007; the global crisis and Great Recession 2008–2014; a post-crisis period 2015–2019–characterised by substantially different social challenges,policy responses and underpinning political dynamics. In doing so, it shows that SEwelfare states deeply transformed in the last three decades, and yet maintained somecore features that still differentiate them from the rest of European countries, asadopted reforms have only partially addressed its main weaknesses. Against suchbackdrop, the article outlines the main challenges for existing welfare arrangementsin Southern Europe which mostly relate to: i) the need to fully develop welfareservicesin key policy fields such as childcare, labour market policies, long-term care; ii) re-duce labour market segmentation and welfare dualism(s); iii) reconcile both pensionsand healthcare sustainability with adequacy, and especially equity; iv) possiblechanges in welfare financing in order to effectively pursue these goals.