Transnationalization and the judicialization of welfare

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Susanne K. Schmidt
• Subject Area: Political Science
• Term: from 2014 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 260385625

TransJudFare deals with two challenges for welfare states in the European Union (EU): the transnationalization of citizenship and welfare rights and the judicialization of politics. European case law significantly broadens the eligibility of non-economically active EU nationals to non-contributory welfare services. Yet while these rights and their potential are widely discussed, there has been no systematic study of their actual impact on member states welfare states, the gap that this project aims to fill. TransJudFare focuses on social assistance measures and study grants and asks how member states respond to European case law at the level of lower courts, the administration, and the legislature. Teams of political scientists and lawyers in four member states will map changes in five western EU member states according to a unified approach, joining forces in the analyses along different dimensions. Austria, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK are chosen as they are all targeted by migration flows but differ in important respects such as welfare state type and judicial system. By mapping and explaining reactions to case law, TransJudFare will enrich the political science literature on Europeanization, and law scholars analyses of the workings of the integrated European court system. It will give a systematic account of the relevance of judicialization and EU citizenship rights for member states welfare state reforms. TransJudFare cuts across several core themes outlined in the Welfare State Futures call, addressing the question of social citizenship, increased heterogeneity among EU member states, the new politics of the welfare state, and potential shifts of welfare responsibility to the European level.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Austria, Denmark, Netherlands
• Participating Persons: Professor Dr. Michael Blauberger; Professor Gareth Davies, Ph.D.; Professorin Dorte Martinsen, Ph.D.