Challenges of the Welfare State: The Spanish Case

Abstract

Recent events - especially the economic crisis- have revealed the need to maintain the welfare state, especially in developed countries (the most attacked by the crisis) which are also hit the hardest by the recession and job losses. On the one hand, the increase in demand for social services joins the decreased capacity to collect taxes as a result of the fall in economic activity and declining social contributions because of the rising unemployment. On the other, economic difficulties to prop up the welfare of citizens have caused the most unrest and political debate about whether social spending is precisely that what must suffer cuts to balance the public accounts. The answer of each country to this question will depend on its ability to meet new challenges without compromising the future of younger generations. The objective of this paper is to discuss the Spanish model of welfare, taking into special consideration the demographic effects of an aging population and the reversal of migration flows in order to discern which direction and what concrete measures can answer the previous question. This has been a response that in the Spanish case, has highlighted the need to review the excessive benevolence in granting a benefits system and the existing pockets of fraud in the tax system.