Online journal Re-public invites contributions for its upcoming special issue titled “Welfare beyond the market and the welfare state”. The welfare state is widely considered to be in crisis for, at least, over a decade. Possible remedies have varied: the search for more efficient or equitable state tax systems that could fund increasing welfare costs; the implementation of reforms on welfare institutions that could cut their growing expenses; the privatisation of certain sectors of welfare services; the connection of welfare benefits to the labour market and to lifelong job training. What has been the central assumption of this debate is the pivotal role of the state (or the market, in cases when the state fails or is unwilling) as the donor of welfare and of the notion of the citizen in need as its bearer. more .. »

Online journal Re-public invites contributions for a second special issue on the public debt crisis titled “Beyond the public debt crisis: Europe at a crossroads”. The public debt crisis facing Greece and other peripheral eurozone countries is casting doubts upon the viability of the current institutions and mechanisms of the European Union. The global financial crisis of 2007-2009 has been primarily addressed through the state provision of liquidity and capital.The relative financial stabilisation and easing of the crisis in 2009 has struck peripheral European states at a critical moment: with their public revenues collapsing because of the recession and their public expenditure rising in order to rescue financial institutions and to raise demand. This new wave of the crisis is now located at the heart of the Europe and is characterized by what can be called ‘a crisis of public debt’. more .. »