Responsibility and the demands of solidarity - Defending the welfare state in hard times

Antwerp, Belgium, 21 January 2026

European welfare states are under pressure: increasing defence spending adds to budgetary pressures confronting many European governments, whilst new social and health-related challenges require new reform efforts (such as the growing number of citizens living with incapacity benefits). In this lecture, I will return to fundamental questions that shaped social policy in European welfare states and the EU over the last 40 years, notably the issue of ‘personal responsibility’ versus ‘solidarity’ and ‘moral hazard’ as a limit to the organisation of solidarity. These questions apply both to interpersonal relations between citizens in a welfare state and to relations between political entities, such as the EU and its member states. I shall highlight long-term trends and swings in the ideational debate on welfare state solidarity, personal responsibility and moral hazard. On that backdrop, the question is: what is an adequate conception of responsibility and solidarity that answers the challenges of contemporary welfare states and allows a robust defence of welfare state solidarity?

Watch the full lecture here​

The Antwerp Interdisciplinary Platform for Research into Inequality (AIPRIL) seeks to advance our understanding of how socioeconomic inequalities are changing, what is driving such trends and what, if anything, can be done.

An undertaking of such ambition and complexity requires state-of-the-art research from several disciplines. To that end, the Centre for Social Policy Herman Deleeck has joined forces with the Centre for Urban History and the Institute of Development Policy.

Our 7 year research project will seek to make methodological, theoretical, and empirical advances in this rapidly evolving research field, building on insights from economics, sociology, economic history and development studies.

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