The social impact of the global financial crisis in Australia

The Australian economy has weathered the storm that followed the global financial crisis (GFC) better than most other OECD countries. The reasons for this are complex, although the fiscal stimulus measures introduced by the federal government in 2008 and 2009 boosted domestic consumption and investment and helped to sustain economic growth. However, even with these measures, concerns have been raised over the social impact of the financial crisis, with a number of studies suggesting that those with lowest incomes and/or reliant on welfare services for support were most adversely affected. This paper presents new estimates of the social impact of the GFC using data from two national surveys, conducted in 2006 and 2010 – before and after the crisis hit Australia. The impact is assessed using a range of different approaches, including people's own perceptions of the impact, changes in their subjective wellbeing, reported changes in financial stress and changes in deprivation and economic exclusion. The results suggest that the social impact of the crisis has been small, although some evidence suggests that those already facing the most severe levels of social disadvantage were most adversely affected. In this sense, the GFC may have led to greater inequality in living standards, at least in some dimensions.     

年龄间的社会分化和农村家庭养老制度的资源困境

本文关注的是中国农村社会和农村家庭中不同年龄和代际间的社会平等问题。文章描述了农村老年人的物质生活和社会生活状况,指出农村老年人群体性的相对贫困现状,以及老年人生活质量和社会经济地位的弱化与农村整体生活水平逐步提高之间存在结构性矛盾,认为农村以年龄和代际为界的社会分化业已形成。文章还通过对家庭养老制度面临的资源困境的分析,进一步解释了经济、社会和文化变迁是如何通过改变农村的家庭制度和家庭中的代际关系对老年人的生活及其权力和权利状况产生影响的。     

The End of the Rollercoaster? Growth,Inequality and Poverty in Central Asia and the Caucasus

This paper examines the impact of a decade of transition on living standards and welfare in Central Asia and the Caucasus. Following independence in 1991 all countries suffered a sharp decline in GDP per capita, with levels in some countries falling to below a quarter of the pre‐transition level. Since then, all countries have experienced positive economic growth. The key questions are whether this growth has been accompanied by declines in inequality and poverty and, if so, how sustainable are these improvements. There is some evidence that recent growth has benefited the poor. However, at the start of the new century, an estimated 39 million people in Central Asia and the Caucasus were living in poverty, of whom over 14 million were living in extreme poverty. Moreover, there is evidence of growing inequalities in terms of access to health and education services, with implications for future human development. Continuing poor governance within the region represents a major barrier to future poverty reduction.     

Singapore: social development, housing and the Central Provident Fund

The high rates of economic growth and significant improvements in standards of living recorded in East-Asian nations such as Singapore in recent decades has attracted increasing attention from social policy scholars in the industrial countries. Many believe that the experiences of these countries offer useful lessons for the Western welfare states. This article examines social security and housing policies in Singapore and shows how both were an integral part of a wider commitment to promote economic development. The article suggests that Singapore provides a good example of a developmentalist approach to social welfare that successfully harmonises economic and social objectives.     

Risk of a ‘revolution of rising expectations’ in China?

This article analyses developments in Chinese living standards with special focus on urban-rural inequalities. The analysis and discussion target the rapid economic lift, accompanied by inequalities and the risk of revolution of rising expectations in the last three decades. Although this economic lift brings China from one of the poorest countries in the world to the second largest economy globally, many are also concerned about social instability as a result of increasing inequalities and social gaps. We have examined existing data, including international statistics and Chinese national sources. It shows that average Chinese citizens, in general, have enjoyed improvements in their living standard, but an increasing gap in per capita disposable income between urban and rural residents is observable. The discussion section connects to results from secondary surveys. The conclusion is that conditions for feelings of relative deprivation are diminutive and so is the risk of a forthcoming revolution of rising expectations in China.     

Urbanization, caring for elderly people and the changing African family: The challenge to social policy

An inquiry into the role of social welfare in the development process in Africa must start by determining the position of the family in the face of all the social changes that are taking place. The role of the traditional African family may be broadly subdivided into its social role, its economic role and its role as an agent for the transmission and renewal of sociocultural values. Intraditional African societies, there is a complex interaction between the members of the family and the community. Social organization centres on the kinship group and the age group. The economic, political and sociocultural values of present-day Africa, with its sprawling urban centres and industrial zones, differ increasingly from its traditional values. In Africa, the concept of development has been greatly influenced by the colonial experience and Western modernization theory which posited that economic development and growth, mainly through industrialization, would automatically raise the living standards and meet the social needs of the population. Social welfare was viewed as a non-productive activity and therefore accorded a low priority in national development planning and resource allocation. In such a context, the scope of social policy is limited and cannot deal with the critical problems of mass poverty and deprivation afflicting the majority of African peoples, especially in rural areas. The family is disintegrating and social change has brought in its wake a host of new social problems which remedial social welfare services are not adequate to meet. Using Ghana as an example, this paper will critically examine these key issues and make recommendations for effective social policies and programmes that must be incorporated centrally into national development plans.     

Democracy and poverty: The implementation of social reforms in the countries of central and eastern Europe

Why has the political and economic transformation in Russia and central and eastern Europe been accompanied by deteriorating living standards? Many of the reform programmes have contained social elements, but these have been neglected in the implementation process. Certain barriers to change – mental, cultural, political and economic – have made the implementation difficult. Russia and central and eastern Europe have to pass through a problematic dual transformation, from authoritarianism to democracy and from centrally planned economies to market economies. Experiences from Latin America show that such transitions are virtually impossible. The social results from the transformations in central and eastern Europe have been disappointing, which has been documented by scholars in this field. Nevertheless, if the political and economic transformation processes continue, the prospectes for the future are relatively bright. But there is also a negative scenario with authoritarianism and civil war as endpoints. A more cautious transition to a market economy might improve social welfare and living standards.     

The Computerized System for Optimal Foreign Trade Planning: Objectives,Tasks, and Structure

Improving the effectiveness of social production and securing high rates of economic growth and rises in the standard of living of workers are today connected with the extensive utilization of external economic relations. The Report of the Central Committee of the Communist Party to the Twenty-Fourth Congress states:

One of the major resources to be drawn on in improving the economic effectiveness of the economy is further elaboration and perfection of external economic relations. Political factors, having to do with strengthening socialist fraternity and fortifying the economic basis of peaceful coexistence, and economic factors, stemming from our economic needs, both make it important that we expand the production of goods for export in all branches of industry. This will also help to increase the import of needed goods. There can be no doubt that the expansion of international exchange will have a favorable effect on improving the performance of our industry as a whole. Of course, certain specific measures must be taken to improve the control of all external economic activity if we are to increase the role of economic and scientific-technological relations with other countries in our economic progress.     

Trends in Social Security in East Africa: Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda

As elsewhere in the world and in Africa in particular, social security in the member countries of the East African Community (Kenya, United Republic of Tanzania, and Uganda) has long been provided through voluntary assistance under the traditional extended family system. Later, and more specifically after independence in the early 1960s, when the region had a major increase in the number of employees in the formal sector — both public and private — who were mainly located in urban centres, formal social security schemes started to gain recognition among employed workers. Thus over the years, the urban population became increasingly detached from rural communities where the traditional extended family system was most effective. In addition, their general standards of living rose to such levels that if they ceased to earn employment income for one reason or another their livelihood could not be sustained through the extended family system. The above social security development trends have resulted even today in societies examining and determining ways to improve social protection beyond the formal sector so as to ensure arrangements are put in place for a large part of the working population to be provided with social security insurance during their working life and after retirement.     

代际支持关系在老人养老模式选择中的创新作用

随着社会经济结构和家庭结构的变迁,家庭养老功能逐渐弱化,过去由家庭承担的赡养功能逐渐由社会功能来取代。调查证明,老人与子女之间在经济上、求助方式上、精神慰籍上、居住方式上仍然存在着明显的代际支持关系。在进行现代社会养老模式的选择中,应当在充分肯定和发挥家庭养老功能的基础上,积极建立和发展社会养老支持体系。     

Revisiting the welfare state system in the Republic of Korea

Abstract   The Republic of Korea's welfare system has undergone radical institutional expansion since the 1990s, largely as a consequence of the financial crisis of 1997. In spite of these changes, public social expenditure remains extremely low — particularly with regard to all other OECD countries — with the result that the overall social insurance system and social welfare service sector remain underdeveloped. Thus, the current welfare system can best be characterized as a residual model, in that state intervention as a provider of welfare remains highly limited and the family and the private market economy play the central roles in offering a social safety net. This situation is largely the legacy of the so-called 'growth-first' ideology, which has remained the dominant approach favoured by the majority of the country's political and economic decision-makers since the period of authoritarian rule (1961-1993). The adoption of Western European-style neo-liberal restructuring, implemented following the 1997 financial crisis, has also played a role.     

Towards New Indicators of Disadvantage: Deprivation and Social Exclusion in Australia

Concern over the reliability of conventional poverty studies has focused attention on the need to demonstrate that those identified as poor are actually experiencing hardship. This paper takes a step in this direction by examining poverty using a living standards approach derived from the literature on deprivation and social exclusion. Deprivation – defined as an enforced lack of socially perceived necessities – has emerged as a way of identifying who is missing out on what the community regards as the necessities (or essentials) of life. Social exclusion – which exists when individuals do not participate in key activities in society – has opened up new areas of inquiry relating to a lack of connectedness between individuals, the communities in which they live, and key economic and social processes. The findings indicate that many Australians face deprivation and exclusion in numerous aspects of their lives, and that those defined as poor in income terms are different from those who are deprived or excluded. The low overlap between the three indicators implies that they all have a role to play in documenting the extent of social disadvantage and helping to identify the factors that contribute to its various manifestations.     

加深对转变经济发展方式的理论认识

转变经济发展方式是党的十七大提出的重要战略任务,是实现经济良性发展、积蓄后劲的紧迫要求,也是在正确认识和把握我国自身经济发展规律基础上作出的必然选择。要保证经济又好又快发展,在遵循一切社会形态共有的经济规律的同时,还必须遵循我国自身经济发展规律。具体为:速度、质量和效益相统一的规律;保持社会供求总量基本平衡,避免大起大落的规律;经济发展与人口、资源、环境相协调的规律;依靠科技进步和提高劳动力素质,把握引进、消化、吸收和提高创新能力的规律;梯度推移、统筹区域协调发展的规律;以人为本,不断提高人民生活水平为最高目的的规律。这些规律表明,转变经济发展方式较之转变经济增长方式,其内容更全面,更广泛,更加注重结构的变革和"质"的提高,更加注重统筹兼顾和协调发展。因此,实施转变经济发展方式这一系统工程,必须抓住重点,从七个方面"转轨变型"、总体推进:从数量型向质量型转变;从外延型向内涵型转变;从速度型向效益型转变;从高耗型向节约型转变;从线性型向循环型转变;从守业型向创新型转变;从政府主导型向市场主导型转变。     

论"契约性整合机制"的历史生成及其对公共行政的功能意义

中国传统的行政性整合机制,是以政府的权力运作为主体。国家通过垄断社会资源和严格的身份制度来实现对个人的全面控制。市场经济的发展,为契约性整合机制的诞生提供了经济基础。契约性整合机制作为一种根本的交往规范,能够使社会成员按一定的规范行事,是降低公共行政交易成本的重要途径,因而对现代公共行政的发展,将产生重要的功能意义。     

Population education: a new strategy for India

Hamstrung by excessive population growth which has absorbed economic gains and faced with the prospect of even greater population gains due to the fact that 45% of her people are under 15 years of age, India must take bold steps to change fertility patterns. The best way of achieving this is to adopt a strong program of population education to convince young people to have small families out of a concern for the threat to the quality of life posed by excessive population. The objectives of population education, as defined by the National Seminar of Population Education in 1969, "should be to enable the students to understand that family size is controllable, that population limitation can facilitate the development of a higher quality of life in the nation and that a small family size can contribute materially to the quality of living for the individual family." The improvement in the health and welfare of individual family members was also emphasized. 3 major elements of population education are 1) determinants of population growth; 2) demography; and 3) consequences of population growth. 2 other aspects, generally called "sex education," can be added: human reproduction and family planning policies and programs. Inclusion of the latter items is highly controversial. Some maintain that the passions aroused by sex education can destroy the entire education program before it has a chance. Before launching an extensive program, the author recommends studying the social norms and constraints of the community, ensuring that the program is in competent hands, and instituting and evaluating pilot programs.     

以人为本,坚持科学的发展观

发展中国家经济发展的趋势表明 ,人均GDP到 10 0 0美元后是个关键时刻。因此 ,强调以人为本、坚持科学的发展观 ,目的是 ,既要让经济持续发展 ,又要能满足人民群众不断增长的多方面需求。文章从不断提高经济增长质量、城乡协调发展与农民增收的关系、缓解就业、政府职能的转变、北京的发展等几个方面做了具体论述     

北京郊区农村固定资产投资分析研究

本文分析了北京郊区农村固定资产投资的基本情况,认为尽管近年来北京对郊区农村固定资产投资逐年增加,促进了农村经济的发展和农民生活水平的提高,但还存在着投资比重低、来源单一、区域分布不平衡、用于公共服务设施的比重低等问题,需要进一步加大公共财政投入,调整投资结构,提高资金使用效率,吸引社会资金投入农村。     

Financing urban growth in China: A case study of Guangzhou

Rapid urban growth has become a global phenomenon. As these city populations expand, urban governance is even more of a daunting challenge in many countries. China is not an exception. It is at once a transitional state still undergoing urbanization and economic development; it is also currently experiencing a slowing economy. China's cities must simultaneously continue to improve the quality of urban life while maintaining social stability. Using the city of Guangzhou as an example of China's mega-cities, this study explores the financing strategies used by Chinese cities to manage urban growth. While economic growth has always been the main priority, Guangzhou's strategy has not followed China's traditional approach of growth for growth's sake; instead, it is relying on investment in innovation and transportation to promote the local economy. Education is also being stressed as a means of fostering human resources. However, undisciplined infrastructure financing and ineffective intergovernmental fiscal relations are jeopardizing the city's fiscal sustainability. To correct this will require further reforms of China's fiscal system and a careful sequencing of reforms to maintain a sustainable growth in the urban area.     

Ageing and the changing role of the family and the community: An African perspective

Global ageing, the major social issue of the twenty-first century, will have greater social repercussions for developing countries. The fastest increase of older persons in terms of ratio in relation to younger people is happening in developing countries, and in Africa segregation of older people in rural areas will become manifest. While beneficial changes for women have accompanied modernization in many of the developing countries, the situation of older women appears to be particularly precarious. Social changes brought about by modernization are also profoundly affecting the traditional systems of care for older people. Even though most older people requiring care are still looked after within the informal structures of the family, this can no longer be taken for granted as we move into the new century. This paper critically reviews social protection systems and the resource constraints which characterize developing countries and warns against blind development of social security systems based on those of the industrialized countries. The paper argues for the design of intergenerational support back into mainstream social relations so that older persons are not marginalized and put at risk through social protection programmes which reinforce physical vulnerability stereotypes and stress welfare needs over and above older people's social and economic contributions to society     

The life satisfaction of elderly Chinese widows living alone and those living with adult children

Care of China's elderly population is of concern due to its projected growth as well as to changes in elder care patterns related to shifting social and economic conditions. Increases in life expectancy and, therefore, in the duration of widowhood, particularly for women, magnifies this concern. Studies that examine the living arrangements and life satisfaction of elderly widows in China are limited. This study of 147 elderly widows, both men and women, examined differences in the life satisfaction of those who live with their adult children and those who live alone. This study also examined whether the relationship between living arrangement and life satisfaction was moderated by levels of family and community support. According to study findings, elderly widows living alone have higher life satisfaction than those living with their adult children, and this effect remains with the introduction of controls for health status, family support, community support, gender, age, income and educational level. Further, neither family nor community support moderate the relationship between living arrangement and life satisfaction, although each exerts a direct effect on life satisfaction.