Different worlds of disability policy: a fuzzy set ideal type analysis of disability protection in Europe

Welfare state institutions function as core structures that positively or negatively impact the inclusion of people with impairments in society. Although disability protection is one of the traditional areas of social policy, it has, however, received relatively little attention of comparative welfare research. We want to contribute to the literature by assessing the variation in countries’ approaches towards the social inclusion of people with impairments in Europe. Based on the notion of active citizenship (AC) (and its sub-dimensions: security, autonomy and influence), we outline the core dimensions of disability policy. Next, we describe the fuzzy set ideal type analysis (FSITA) we perform. First results indicate that different approaches towards the inclusion of the social inclusion of people are present in contemporary Europe. No country truly adheres an approach that reflects the three dimensions of AC to a full extent. Countries that come rather close are Scandinavian countries, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands. Mostly the influence dimension is absent in these countries’ approaches. In contrast, we find that in most Eastern and Southern European countries does not fulfill the three dimensions of AC, or only provide opportunities within the influence dimension. Belgium, Luxemburg and France take a middle position. As such, we could tentatively say we perceive a North – South/East dived and continuum of approaches towards AC. The field of disability policy does not necessarily reflect the welfare regimes found in other research, but is a field with its own dynamics