Análisis de la evolución del Estado de Bienestar como elemento necesario para el desarrollo de la Economía Social y nexo para la implementación de economías alternativas: Índice de desmercantilización y reformas legales en España y Canadá en el periodo 2010 a 2015

The financial crisis that took place in 2008 revealed the fragility and deficiencies of the global economic system and, in particular, the tendency to capitalize on the social aspects of an economy. Criticism of capitalism, as the prevailing system, has been extensive and prolonged; however, the search for alternative economic models has intensified. The Social and Solidarity Economy, as a socializing element of the capital economy or as a point of departure towards a more socially responsible model, has emerged as a responsible, viable and scientifically supported alternative. Even so, this concept requires distribution mechanisms that allow economic actors to enjoy rights that protect them from the unbalanced tendencies typical of a capitalist system. This is where the policies that make up the Welfare State, which allow the expansion of democratic forces, become essential parts of models such as the Social and Solidarity Economy. There is extensive literature that analyzes, classifies and justifies the existence of the Welfare State, both from the legal point of view, and from the economic one. Nevertheless, and despite the fact that laws have a direct influence on social protection programs, quantifying the extent to which legal changes affect social benefits is complex. These processes of analysis are of great importance to objectively evaluate how laws alter protection programs, especially during times of crisis. Thus, the objective of this research work is to quantify the effects that the legal changes that were implemented between the years 2010 and 2015, in response to the financial crisis of 2008, had on the welfare state. This study focuses on two countries, Spain and Canada, because they are considered to be in different classifications of welfare states, both have different legal systems and have programs or protection benefits that seek to cover the same social risks. Although the Welfare State is an extensive set of public policies, this research focuses on those social protection programs that seek to maintain directly the consumption capacity of the individual and, thus, maintain the aggregate demand in situations of temporary or permanent loss of income from work. These programs are: retirement pensions (contributory and non-contributory or social), unemployment benefits and temporary disability benefits. This work begins with the First Chapter or Theoretical Framework, which focuses on the definition of certain concepts necessary to understand the matter to be later analyzed. Among the points exposed we can find the definitions of Social and Solidary Economy, the Welfare State, the conceptual and practical nexus that exists between them, public policies in both nations, among others. The analysis of this research is divided into two parts. The First Part focuses on the description of the aforementioned protection programs based on reading the laws that govern them in both countries. Within this section can also be found: The Second Chapter, which deals with contributory pensions; a subchapter of the same, which focuses on non-contributory or social pensions; the Third Chapter, focused on the insurance or unemployment provision; and a subchapter of the latter, which studies temporary disability benefits. The results of this analysis allowed, not only to study the evolution of the law during the study period, but also to determining the necessary information to define the variables used in the Second Part. It is important to mention that the legal measures implemented in both countries were different and had different objectives, affecting protection programs directly, to a greater or lesser extent. Thus, in Spain, more direct changes to the protection programs can be seen, especially on issues of access and generosity of benefits. The implementation of mechanisms to ensure budget sustainability is evident over the period of study. On the other hand, in Canada, the legislative changes focused on aspects of administration of the processes of appeals and indirect calculation of the requirements to access the benefits. The Second Part is focused on quantitative aspects by implementing the Decommoditization Index. As already mentioned, this section takes the information presented in the previous part and uses it to define certain variables necessary for the index. This measuring tool is composed of three sub-indexes: the first is responsible for pensions, the second deals with unemployment insurance or benefits and the third takes care of the temporary disability benefit. The Second Part contains two chapters: The Fourth Chapter, which is responsible for defining how the index functions, the variables for each sub-index and their values, and; The Fifth Chapter, focused on the interpretation of the results of each sub-index and the general index. After performing the analysis of the results produced in the last chapter, it can be concluded that legal interventions on the protection programs of the welfare state had different effects in each country. In Spain, changes in laws produced strong consequences in the values of pension and unemployment sub-indexes. In contrast, the Canadian case was the opposite since the legislative changes contributed to the increase in the values of the same sub-indexes. In 2010, Spain had higher values than Canada for sub-indexes, but at the end of the study period, the Canadian values exceeded the Spanish ones. An important conclusion that needs to be emphasized is that the trends of the sub-indexes, downwards in Spain and upwards in Canada, were already present and the legislative changes did nothing but exacerbate these tendencies, accelerating their progress. The difference present in the values of the general index, in 2010, was 8.64 points, being the Spanish values superior; however, and despite the fact that values for Spain continued to be higher, the difference present in 2015 was only 2.2 points. In addition to providing these results, the contribution of this research is to demonstrate that the effects of direct legislative changes in social protection programs can be quantified. This tool not only provides a retroactive vision of the legislative actions, but also allows us to evaluate the impact of potential future laws. This study provides a useful and necessary instrument for a better and more socially responsible design of legislation and public policies that may impact Welfare State social protection programs.

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