How Social is Social Policy? Fiscal and Market Discourse in North American Welfare States

Long regarded as a 'laggard' among welfare states in advanced industrial countries, the USA may be emerging as a 'leader' in the reformation of social programmes and the relationship between government, the market economy, and civil society. The dissemination and impact of this new orthodoxy is realized, in large part, through discursive practices. Fiscalization and marketization are two processes central to this growing influence of American social policy. Fiscal and market discourse, while not new, have increased in acceptance and influence, and are changing the welfare state from within by altering perceptions of issues, vocabularies used and programme reforms adopted.     

Choosing Welfare or Losing Social Citizenship? Citizens' Free Choice in Recent Italian Welfare State Reforms

In the past fifteen years, the Italian welfare state has gone through various important reforms. Almost all social policy fields have been significantly challenged by the presence of both national and European constraints, and in different policy fields some fundamental principles of the welfare state have been questioned and changed. The purpose of this article is to present an analysis of the most recent arguments used for welfare state reforms in Italy, focusing in particular on one key question: have the reforms been formulated and implemented in order to increase the freedom of choice of Italian citizens with respect to social protection? After a brief introduction and conceptual clarification, each section of the article will focus on one social policy field (employment, pensions, health care) and discuss the origins and consequences of the reforms with respect to the freedom of choice of citizens. The main argument is that very limited attention has been paid in the national political discourse and reform design to the freedom of choice for citizens in welfare state policies, since other goals (such as cost containment) were much more crucial. The article will end with an overall assessment of the evolution of freedom of choice in the Italian welfare state setting.     

Social Welfare in Vietnam: A Curse or Blessing for Poor Children?

Despite a rapid increase in economic growth accompanied by the rise of living standards over the last two decades in Vietnam, there is still a considerable proportion of the population that lives in poor and vulnerable conditions. Children in particular are disproportionately affected by poverty. The country employs a broad range of social protection programs that tend to be regressive in effect rather than supportive of the poor. The present paper evaluates the social welfare scheme in Vietnam in terms of child poverty. We use the Vietnam Household Living Standards Survey (VHLSS) 2006 and identify and quantify child poverty in monetary as well as multidimensional terms. We consider the link between social welfare receipt and poverty and evaluate coverage, exclusion, and inclusion errors. Furthermore, we use benefit incidence analysis to evaluate the impact of social welfare on monetary child poverty. Findings suggest that coverage of the social welfare scheme is limited and that the scheme suffers from considerable exclusion and inclusion errors. Furthermore, we find that social welfare only slightly reduces the incidence and depth of monetary poverty.     

Low Public Expenditures on Social Welfare: Do East Asian Countries have a Secret?

This paper explores the sources of low public expenditures on social welfare in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. Six factors are analysed based on aggregate data: the public/private mix of welfare programmes, the age structure, the maturity of old-age pension schemes, the population coverage of social security, the relative generosity of social security and the role of enterprises and families as alternative providers of welfare. The evidence allows putting some conventional statements about the virtues of East Asian welfare states into questions. Public expenditures on welfare are bound to rise a lot in Japan, Korea and Taiwan, while the level of protection in Hong Kong and Singapore is well below the standards of Western countries.     

Rise of the Regulatory Welfare State? Social Regulation in Utilities in Israel

This article explores the relation between economic liberalization, regulation and welfare. It asks how the state regulates, delays or prevents service disconnection due to debt and arrears, and what this kind of policy implies regarding the use of regulation as a form of social policy. This is done through a comparative study of the electricity and water sectors in Israel after liberalization. It finds that after initial economic reform, both sectors saw a growth in regulation intended to compensate for the social effects of reform, in what may be termed the ‘regulatory welfare state’. However, this form of social protection has been residual and incoherent. The article argues that trying to separate economic reform from its social consequences is unrealistic and may lead to adverse social and economic results. Second, findings raise concerns regarding the potential of the regulatory welfare state to deliver effective and fair social policy.     

Social Enterprise – A New Phenomenon in the Field of Economic and Social Welfare?

Drawing upon insights from historical institutionalism, this article critically examines the origins of social enterprise and its emergence into the mainstream policy arena. It begins by relating the social enterprise idea to major non‐state/non‐private institutional traditions, including the European social economy, US non‐profits and the UK charitable sector, and places it within the specific field of economic and social welfare. In so doing, the article contests the idea that social enterprise is a new phenomenon in the social welfare field and proposes instead that the supposed ‘novelty’ of social enterprise as an organizational form and a subject of public policy lies primarily in the nature of the socio‐political and economic context of the 1980s–1990s, during which time it became ‘en vogue’. The process of institutionalization of social enterprise and its ascension into the mainstream policy arena is examined in more detail in the case of England during the time New Labour was in office and beyond, and lessons are drawn from this experience concerning both the role that social enterprise plays or is expected to play as a vehicle to address economic and social needs, and how this is intertwined with both a dominant neo‐liberal discourse, as well as alternative perspectives that emphasize more equalitarian and sustainable development paths. The article concludes with some reflections in relation to the apparent consensus that seems to exist around social enterprise as a legitimate subject of public policy and the resulting social enterprization of public services which is currently taking place in England.     

Social Security in Australia and New Zealand: Means-tested or Just Mean?

The social security systems of Australia and New Zealand have traditionally rejected social insurance in favour of a means-tested categorical safety net approach that provides considerable scope for targeting. The experience of both countries provides many examples of how targeting can be used to constrain social security spending, and these have attracted interest in other countries keen to contain the growth in their social security budgets. However, although there are many similarities between the two systems, there are also many differences and these have become greater as targeting has gathered momentum over the last two decades. This paper analyses how targeting has been used in each country as a way of illustrating the different approaches adopted. Attention is focused on how the retirement income systems of the two countries illustrate an increasing policy divergence, with the planned Australian transition to a multi-pillar approach in contrast to the constant (and continuing) reform of New Zealand superannuation. Household data on the pattern of receipt of transfer incomes and their impact on the distribution of income are then used to explore the impact of targeting since the early 1980s. This analysis suggests that, in practice, targeting has had a far smaller impact on income inequality in both countries than is often claimed.     

Social cohesion in rural Australia: Framework for conformity or social justice?

While social cohesion has become a commonly accepted policy goal and framework in many ethnically diverse societies, there is a general concern in some academic literature that it can be a form of governmentality that constructs manageable subjects and communities, represses diversity and distracts attention from the social, political and economic production of inequalities. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in two rural Australian towns with ethnically diverse populations, this article engages with these criticisms of social cohesion while simultaneously asserting that social cohesion is viewed by local practitioners as a desirable objective for both strengthening intercultural community and addressing issues of social justice and inequality. We also aim to bring some needed clarity to relevant debates in the literature in distinguishing between social cohesion discourses used for normative and/or homogenising purposes versus frameworks developed in the academic literature with a concern for social justice and equality among diverse populations.     

After Safety,What is the Goal of Child Welfare Services: Permanency,Family Continuity or Social Benefit?

Child welfare services have multiple goals, including child protection, family continuity, and achievement of legal permanency so children can end their involvement with child welfare services and have a lifetime family. These goals are not all achievable to the same extent in all cases. American child welfare policy has, in the last few years, become more definitive about the priority of child protection above family preservation. Now, situations which involve safety risks that are too great do not require any efforts at reunifying children to their biological homes. Less clear in American child welfare policy and practice is the value to be placed on other factors – particularly when a child cannot return home and will need an alternative adoptive family. Practitioners often emphasize family continuity – that is, the opportunity to maintain contact with the biological parent and extended family members – as a key decision making consideration. Yet, family continuity does not necessarily predict a successful transition to adulthood that is healthy for children or provides social benefits to the community. This paper explores the rationale for expanding child welfare decision making criteria by adding longer-term outcomes and the likelihood that children will eventually generate social benefits.     

High Employment and Social Security: Vision or Illusion in a Globalized World?

This article addresses two issues in the context of globalization. First it considers whether the goals of successful employment policy and social equilibrium are at all reconcilable. Second it looks at ways in which the labour market prospects of workers who are at a competitive disadvantage, prospects which are poor in many countries, can be improved on a lasting basis. Using the example of export-oriented countries such as Denmark or the Netherlands, it shows that a social State which offers help but expects something back can be an integral part of an effective strategy to generate jobs. This is particularly true where earlier generous transfers are maintained while targeted incentives create the conditions for a flexible economy and a flexible labour market.     

Social Policy Excellence – Peer Review or Metrics? Analyzing the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise in Social Work and Social Policy and Administration

A metrics‐based assessment can predict reasonably well the overall outcome of the Research Assessment Exercise 2008 for social work and social policy and administration in terms of research environment, but not in terms of research outputs. It is not possible to replicate peer review of the research outputs using existing data. It is sometimes argued that citation counts provide an alternative approach that might help research assessment, but it is one fraught with difficulties. Academics did not, in fact, routinely chose to submit their most cited work. At least in this subject, metrics are more suited as handmaiden to peer review than its replacement.     

Using Private Social Care Services in Finland: Free or Forced Choices for Older People?

ABSTRACT

Use of private social care services among older people is increasing in Finland. This study aims to understand why older people choose private care in a comprehensive tax-subsidized social care system and examines whether people choose private service as a free choice or a forced choice as well as what factors contribute toward making these choices. Data for this study (N = 1,436) were gathered in 2010 from people aged 75 and above living independently at home in two Finnish cities: Tampere and Jyväskylä. Data were analyzed with several quantitative tests: chi-squared tests, multinomial regression analysis, and qualitative content analysis (for the open-ended responses from the survey questionnaire). Findings reveal that people chose private services mostly because of the effortlessness involved in its use and of the need for additional services that are unavailable through municipality; for example, cleaning. Majority of the respondents performed a free choice to use private services. People who lived in a city center with a higher level of income and who needed more services were more likely to be constrained toward using private support. Major concern, due to diminishing public service provision, is about service accessibility of economically disadvantaged groups; therefore, more research is required to understand the effects of the growing care market in Finland.     

Social security reforms in Kenya: Towards a workerist or a citizenship‐based system?

With social security provisions in Kenya remaining under‐reported in the more recent literature, this overview covers recent reforms in key areas of the country's social security system. In the health sector and in old‐age pension provision social security is still mainly workerist (biased toward those in formal employment), and attempts to expand coverage have had limited effect only – cash transfer programmes, for instance, have been expanded but in practice they do not universally cover the entitled categories. Thus, although the Kenyan social security system now has a considerable pro‐poor social assistance component it remains biased toward those in formal employment, to the benefit of the highest income quintile.     

Social Inclusion or Market Competitiveness? A Comparison of Rural Development Policies in the European Union and the United States

The language of EU rural development policy appears more interested in social inclusion and that of US policy more interested in market competitiveness. We seek to determine why policies directed at rural development in the EU and the USA differ. In both contexts new rural development policies emphasize partnership and participation but we find local participation is used to promote social inclusion in the EU and market competitiveness in the USA. An examination of these dimensions illustrates important transcontinental differences and similarities in rural development policies. We explore the socio‐historical reasons for differences in the commitment to social inclusion, while also noting similarities in the priority of market competitiveness.     

Racial Threat or Racial Contact? How Race Affected Third‐Party Presidential Voting in the Antebellum North*

Objective. In this study, the “racial threat” and “racial contact” hypotheses are evaluated in relation to voting for the Liberty and Free Soil Parties in the North during the 1840s. Methods. Regression models are used to predict the effect of county‐level black populations on Liberty and Free Soil vote percentages in relation to types of employment. Results. Racial threat occurred in high manufacturing counties, but racial contact/threat emerged in more agricultural counties. The effects vary by party and region of the North. Conclusion. The effects of racial context on political behavior during this era are mixed, much like modern political studies have uncovered.     

Assimilation,control, mediation or advocacy? Social work dilemmas in providing anti‐oppressive services for Traveller children and families

This paper explores dilemmas facing social work in England in providing anti‐oppressive services for Travellers, particularly those who lack secure sites. A context is provided by outlining the conflict between Travellers and the majority society, and its expression in oppressive legislation, policy and practice. The implications of the corporate local authority role for relationships between Travellers and social services, and the specific history of Travellers and welfare, are also explored. The remainder of the paper draws on findings from a Nuffield‐funded study of policy and provision by English social services departments for Traveller children and families. Provision is undermined by mutually difficult relationships between Traveller communities and social services, and competing demands on social services in relation to professional values and support of Travellers’ rights, and their simultaneous contribution to local authority control of unauthorized camping. However, newer developments in some social services departments may be able to generate more positive relationships with Travellers, to promote their individual and cultural rights, and build partnerships with voluntary agencies which have a significant role in work with Travellers. The implications for social services departments wishing to develop their policies and practice with Traveller families are outlined.