From the poor-relief tradition to the social citizenship-based development of the welfare state, the question of available social supports for people with disability has been one of the central issues of welfare reform agendas. Under the increasing influence of neoliberal rationalities, many welfare states have engaged in the redefinition of capacity and incapacity to work in an attempt to manage the fiscal cost of a growing number of people on disability pension and work incapacity benefits. These reconfigurations of income transfers have significant implications for the social and economic participation of people with disability. This article seeks to build knowledge about the policy implications of these changes by comparing recent disability policies in two very different welfare states—Australia and Denmark—who have contrasting approaches to activation measures concerning people with disability. This article examines how these welfare states have reconfigured the meaning of disability, thereby either restricting further or relaxing the conditions of labour market activation. Through these two cases, we argue that there is a case for labour market participation insofar as rights to work through improved employment opportunities take precedence over punitive regimes that reduce access to income support.

中文翻译：

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残疾、就业和福利改革：澳大利亚和丹麦的比较分析

从扶贫传统到以社会公民为基础的福利国家发展，残疾人的社会支持问题一直是福利改革议程的核心问题之一。在新自由主义理性日益增强的影响下，许多福利国家开始重新定义工作能力和无工作能力，试图管理越来越多的人领取残疾养老金和无工作能力福利的财政成本。这些收入转移的重新配置对残疾人的社会和经济参与具有重大影响。本文旨在通过比较两个截然不同的福利国家（澳大利亚和丹麦）最近的残疾政策，了解这些变化的政策影响，这两个国家对残疾人的激活措施采取了截然不同的方法。本文探讨了这些福利国家如何重新定义残疾的含义，从而进一步限制或放宽劳动力市场激活的条件。通过这两个案例，我们认为，通过改善就业机会获得工作的权利优先于减少获得收入支持的惩罚性制度，因此劳动力市场参与是有道理的。