Old and new risks
Postwar welfare states built social insurance against 'old social risks' in which an industrial male breadwinner lost income through old age, sickness, injury or temporary unemployment. But the shift to a service economy and the rise of female employment, divorce and single-parent families created new risks. Taylor-Gooby (2004) listed work-family reconciliation, elder care, obsolete skills, insecure employment and the risks of privatized services. Family change and the socialization of care, emphasized by Esping-Andersen (1999), are at the core.
Who is exposed
Bonoli (2005) found that new social risks fall mainly on the young, women, low-skilled workers and single parents. These groups are weakly organized politically, and existing social insurance assumes stable full-time careers, so they are poorly protected. This echoes the individualization of risk described in risk society theory. In the climate of permanent austerity noted by Pierson (2001), welfare states struggle to fund responses to new risks while maintaining spending on old ones.
Welfare state responses
Bonoli (2007) argued that countries that postindustrialized later had already committed heavily to pensions and other old risks, leaving less room to address new ones, whereas Nordic countries expanded childcare, parental leave and active labor market policies early. Armingeon and Bonoli (2006) compared diverse national adaptation paths. These policies fed into the social investment state debate, and responses were found to differ by welfare regime.
FAQ
- What are new social risks in simple terms?
- New life risks that older welfare systems do not cover well, such as care problems in dual-earner families, long-term unemployment from outdated skills and insecure jobs.
- How do they differ from old social risks?
- Old risks centered on old age, sickness and unemployment of male full-time workers; new risks center on care and insecure work faced by women, the young and the low-skilled.
Sources reviewed: 2026-10-26
References
- Taylor-Gooby, P. (Ed.). (2004). New risks, new welfare: The transformation of the European welfare state. Oxford University Press. The key edited volume defining the concept.
- Bonoli, G. (2005). The politics of the new social policies: Providing coverage against new social risks in mature welfare states. Policy & Politics, 33(3), 431–449. Politics of new social policies.
- Bonoli, G. (2007). Time matters: Postindustrialization, new social risks, and welfare state adaptation in advanced industrial democracies. Comparative Political Studies, 40(5), 495–520. Timing of postindustrialization.
- Esping-Andersen, G. (1999). Social foundations of postindustrial economies. Oxford University Press. Postindustrial background.
- Pierson, P. (Ed.). (2001). The new politics of the welfare state. Oxford University Press. Permanent austerity context.
- Armingeon, K., & Bonoli, G. (Eds.). (2006). The politics of post-industrial welfare states: Adapting post-war social policies to new social risks. Routledge. Comparative adaptation cases.
- Beck, U. (1992). Risk society: Towards a new modernity. Sage. Sociological context of risk.