Fondements et dynamique de l’Etat-providence

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the foundations and dynamics of the Welfare State. Our approach does not rest on the usual distinction between Bismarckian and Beveridgian social models but on the ternary opposition between ?free agent?, ?equal citizenship? and ?multi-solidarist? philosophies. Also, our focus is less on historical trends than on the possible futures of national Welfare States, whose financial sustainability is threatened by population aging and the economic crisis. The most likely change in continental Europe is perhaps the transition from a dominant multisolidarist philosophy to that of equal citizenship, or even to dominant free agent views of the world in the case of a retrenchment of the Welfare State. The paper considers whether such a hypothetical scenario is more likely to happen in Belgium than in France ? provided that the two social models are close enough to allow such a comparison.