28
T
ABLE
7:
T
OTAL
E
XPENDITURES ON
S
OCIAL
P
ROTECTION
AT
C
URRENT
P
RICES
,
AS A
%
OF
GDP
1990
1998
Portugal
15.8 %
23.4 %
Spain
20.5 %
21.6 %
EU - 15
25.4 %
27.7 %
Eurostat Yearbook 2002, p. 186.
I also argue that certain crucial features of the Portuguese welfare state, indirectly linked
to the country’s revolutionary legacy, have contributed to success in the field of employment.
Following work on the welfare state and labor markets
35
, I assume that the size of the welfare
state, the nature of its expenditures and crucially the structure of its fiscal base are all relevant for
aggregate employment levels. By the late 1980s the Portuguese welfare state
36
was significantly
smaller than its Spanish counterpart as a percentage of GDP but this imbalance reflected, in a
sense, the reverse of the contrast between the two cases at the time in state ownership of
enterprises. The social mark of the Portuguese revolution was imprinted on that country’s
economy in the form of extensive public ownership until a broadly supported constitutional
35
See Esping-Andersen et. al. Why We Need a New Welfare State.
36
On the Portuguese welfare state in English see Pierre Guibentif, “The Transformation
of the Portuguese Social Security System”, pp. 219 - 239 in South European Society & Politics,
Volume 1 N 3, (Winter 1996), as well as Guillen, Alvarez and Adao e Silva. This is not the
place to discuss at length the larger literature on the Spanish welfare state.
Convention