Welfare cuts

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Poster of the SPÖ Vienna

“Social cutbacks” is a negative political catchphrase , the use of which assumes that there is a reduction in previously existing social benefits for its members in a system. It was named word of the year in 1993 in Germany by the Society for the German Language .

classification

The catchphrase belongs to the group of catchphrases that generally criticize a real or alleged reduction in benefits or deterioration in terms of reference for social benefits. Comparable buzzwords are “social dismantling” (used in the 1970s), “social deforestation” , “destruction of the welfare state ” , “social cold” , “social desert” , social injustice , social dumping .

The most objective indicators of the extent to which there might be a reduction or increase in social benefits in a state are the development of social expenditure, the social quota or the overall accounts for social security .

In the political discourse, depending on the political orientation of the observer and the current government, there is usually a different view of whether there is a "social cut" or "social build-up". To justify the different points of view, different observation periods, different social benefits or weightings of social benefits and different evaluations of these social benefits are usually undertaken.

Word of the year

In 1993, “Sozialabbau” was voted “Word of the Year” by the Society for the German Language. It opposed a number of other proposals such as "Location Germany", " Blood scandal ", " Amigo affair ", "Care" ( long-term care insurance ), "Rethink", " Big bugging ", " Asylum compromise ", " Ostalgie " and " Dino " through.

The background was the discussion about the social policy of the time . As a result of German reunification , the social systems of the Federal Republic of Germany were also introduced in the former GDR from 1990 onwards. As a result of this and the collapse of many socialist businesses after the introduction of the market economy and the resulting rise in unemployment , the social benefit rate rose from 30.7 percent in 1989 to 34.1 percent in 1994. The federal government subsequently cut social benefits. The opposition, trade unions and social associations were opposed to these cuts under the slogan of "social cuts".

literature

Web links

Wiktionary: Social dismantling  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Word of the Year. Society for the German Language
  2. ↑ Social cuts. In: duden.de , accessed on April 26, 2013
  3. ↑ Georg Stötzel (Ed.): Controversial Terms: History of Public Language Use in the Federal Republic of Germany , 1995, ISBN 9783110141061 , p. 81 ff, online
  4. ↑ Detlef Grieswelle: Political Rhetoric: Power of Speech, Public Legitimation , Consensus Foundation, 2000, ISBN 9783824443895 , p. 135, online
  5. ↑ Christoph Butterwegge : Crisis and Future of the Social State , 4th Edition, 2011, ISBN 9783531933108 , p. 120, online
  6. ^ Sozialpolitik.com
  7. ↑ 'Social cuts' is the word of the year. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , December 21, 1993, No. 296, p. 9 (Germany and the world)