The Welfare State between Retrenchment & Resilience: An Integrated Approach to Social Protection

This chapter explores the interplay between retrenchment and resilience within the welfare state through an integrated legal, political, and social sciences approach. The author highlights the often-overlooked con" tribution of legal reasoning, introducing the concept of “legal resilience”, understood as the capacity of the welfare state to resist dismantlement through constitutionalisation and the recognition of social rights as hu" man rights. Central to this analysis is the notion of legal sustainability, understood as the predictability and stability of entitlements, yet inherently tied to the allocation of financial resources. The author also examines various modes of funding, such as self-financing, public expenditure, and redistributive mechanisms, and argues that state intervention reshapes the nature and sustainability of welfare regimes. Only a welfare system ground" ed in enforceable social rights and supported by economically sustainable structures can ensure collective resilience against both foreseeable and unforeseen risks, including those linked to climate change. In this light, structured social protection must replace fragile individual resilience with legally and financially robust mechanisms of solidarity.