Towards inclusive service delivery through social investment in Flanders. An analysis of five sectors, with a particular focus on water provision

Is Belgium (and Flanders in particular) a ‘social investment state’? Belgium is a solid welfare state, with moderate income inequality and generous social expenditure. Never­theless, due to the ‘conservative-corporatist’ tradition, many services of general interest are actually provided either by local authorities, or by private (mainly not-for-profit) stakeholders, with government subsidies. This has probably led to a better match between the quality of services and the needs of consumers, but also to cream-skimming (e.g. in childcare), exclusion of households that are unable to pay (e.g. in... Mehr ...