Jorge Garcés, Francisco Ródenas and Carla Vidal, from the Institute of Social Welfare Policies (Polibienestar) of the University of Valencia, conclude that more effort is needed in social policy and to increase public awareness to make the Mediterranean welfare state sustainable. In an article published in the journal Social Indicators Research, they note that Spain does not reach the European average in the value of the Social Policy Index (IPS), a tool that compares the population's trust in governance and commitment to security social of governments.

According to Jorge Garcés Ferrer, director of Polibienestar and full professor of Social Policy, "in Spain we currently have the highest population aging rate in Europe and the resources we are investing are below the continental average. To make the Mediterranean model sustainable, a greater effort is needed in public social policies. If we don't change the system, it won't be viable in 20 years."

In this sense, the use of both massive data (Big Data) and Information and Communication Technologies (TICS) by governments, "will have a very large influence in determining the sustainability of social models, including the Mediterranean model", says the researcher.

The article "Application of Social Policy Index (SPI) Amended in Three OECD Countries: Finland, Spain and Mexico" has compared the social policies of the Nordic model (Finland), the Mediterranean (Spain) and the Latin American model (Mexico) between the years 2005 and 2010 with the Social Policy Index (IPS). The experts point out that the model of the Nordic countries is characterised by a large expenditure on social protection and a very high tax regime compared to the Mediterranean, where expenditure is mainly on pensions for the elderly and social protection. As it is also characterised by high unemployment, the result is an average IPS. The Latin American model, on the other hand, is characterised by an unregulated labor market, low social benefits related to employment and the abundant presence of private pensions, so that it obtains the lowest score of the three models compared.

Jorge Garcés and Francisco Ródenas, from Polibienestar, and Carla Vidal, from the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Concepción (Chile), have also analysed the situation in which public opinion is in relation to the policies of each country. The confidence of the population regarding the governability of their countries is reflected in the study, which is based on OECD data from 2014. According to the article, “there are big differences between all three models; in Finland we find 82% of the population who say they trust their rulers, in Spain this percentage drops to 50%, and in Mexico this percentage drops to 38%. The average offered by the OECD is 56%, so that both Spain and Mexico are below it".

In terms of social security, the work establishes a common pattern in European countries, since they have a contributory model. However, Norway has a mixed model that guarantees a minimum income for pensioners, while Spain has a predominantly contributory scheme linked to the income of each worker. According to the article, in the Mexican model the social security value is much lower (it has a tendency towards the privatisation model). "Within the Latin American context, despite the fact that inequality is considerably high and the social protection systems have a low capacity, the economic and social impact of the global crisis was less than in the OECD area", emphasiae Garcés, Ródenas and Vidal.

Comparing the Social Policy Index (IPS) of the three countries during the five years analysed, Finland obtains as a result a great effort in its policies, although despite having a high score its IPS value decreases between 2005 and 2010. For Spain, the highest value of this indicator is in 2008 and drops substantially during the following two years due to the economic crisis, while Mexico has the lowest IPS of the three countries and records its maximum in year 2006.

The experts' explanation for the differences in priorities in terms of social spending is given by the different distribution of populations in relation to age. Thus, Mexico is considered a "young country", since only 6% of the population is over 65 years old, while at the other extreme is Norway, where this percentage is 18.5%. These differences are reflected in each country's GDP, as investment in pensions and education in Norway and Mexico are different because they have very different social contexts.

Polibienestar is a public institute of the University of Valencia, specialised in research, innovation and social technology, technical advice and training in the field of social policies, which aims to improve the well-being and quality of life of society.

Article:

Garcés Ferrer, J., Ródenas Rigla, F. & Vidal Figueroa: «Application of Social Policy Index (SPI) Amended in Three OECD Countries: Finland, Spain and Mexico». C. Soc Indic Res (2016) 127: 529. doi: 10.1007/s11205-015-0988-4