Chinese seniors’ attitudes towards government responsibility for social welfare: Self‐interest,collectivism orientation and regional disparities

Government responsibility for social welfare remains a significant issue in the field of social welfare. Public welfare attitudes not only refer to the social needs of members of society, but also are viewed as the basis for government responsibility for social welfare. Data used in this study came from the Moderate Universalist Social Welfare Survey with a final sample of 1,166 seniors from four Chinese cities in 2012. This study examined seniors’ attitudes towards government responsibility for providing specific welfare and mixed welfare. It concluded that seniors’ welfare attitudes share the traits of self‐interest in general. Seniors’ perception of social rights and cities of residence were two important factors associated with welfare attitudes in both aspects of specific and mixed welfare. The stronger seniors’ social rights perception was the more favourable were the attitudes they held towards government responsibility for social welfare, indicating the collectivism orientation of their welfare attitudes.     

Effects of Conservative Sociopolitical Attitudes on Public Support for Drug Rehabilitation Spending

Objective . In this article we investigate why traditionally conservative social groups show less support for spending on drug rehabilitation programs than for drug control spending in general. Methods . Using data from the 1984 through 1998 General Social Surveys, we first estimate logistic regressions of support for drug control spending across five sociopolitical cleavages. We then estimate effects of three types of sociopolitical attitudes on support for drug spending within traditionally conservative groups. Results . Resistance to rehabilitation spending among conservatives is related to their opposition to the welfare state, punitive attitudes toward criminals, and among whites, racial attitudes. Conclusions . Our findings suggest that citizens may withhold support for a social policy to the extent that it evokes negative associations with other salient sociopolitical issues or attitudes. We discuss the importance of these associations for understanding the relationships among political debate, public opinion, and policy outcomes.     

Industrial Relations as a Source of Social Policy: A Typology of the Institutional Conditions for Industrial Agreements on Social Benefits

The article's starting point is that the now‐conventional conceptualization of welfare state retrenchment as a shift from state provision of income support to market processes is misleading. Rather, state provision may be replaced by benefits negotiated collectively by trade unions and employers. As a first step to further investigate this development the article suggests a typology of institutional contexts within which industrial agreements on social benefits emerge. This typology is based on Thomas H. Marshall's distinction between political and industrial citizenship. Following the comparative method of the ‘parallel demonstration of theory’, the typology is applied to four countries where collective agreements on social benefits have recently been concluded, namely Denmark, France, the Netherlands and Germany. It is argued that, on the one hand, the state's activity or passivity in labour relations and, on the other hand, the timing of the institutionalization of political and industrial citizenship is decisive for the development of collectively negotiated benefits. The conclusion for comparative welfare state research is that, when viewing policies of welfare state retrenchment, the research should systematically include industrial relations and their historical trajectories in its frame of reference.     

From Enlightened Self‐interest to Welfare Coalitions: Overcoming Identity‐based Tensions in the Israeli Welfare State

A common argument in the social policy literature is that ethnic and identity‐based heterogeneity undermines the welfare state. In part, this happens because of difficulties in the generation of broad social solidarity in diverse societies: solidarity which is allegedly necessary for sustaining public support for the welfare state. This study explores this argument's logic in the context of welfare state politics in Israel. Israel would appear to be a near‐perfect example of how heterogeneity strains social solidarity and, in turn, undermines the welfare state. Quite differently from most studies, however, this work's emphasis is not on public attitudes or voting, but on the political interaction between economically disadvantaged identity‐based minorities – specifically Arabs on the one hand and religious Jews on the other – in the welfare field. It is argued that shared interests enable extensive co‐operation among political elites in the welfare field despite religiously‐ and nationally‐based antagonism.     

Social workers' attitudes towards social welfare policy

As social workers are widely called upon to take an active role in influencing social welfare policy, a better understanding of their views on the welfare state is crucial. This study examines the attitudes of 422 Israeli social workers from diverse social welfare agencies regarding social welfare policy. The framework for understanding these attitudes includes the notions of professionalisation processes, social work values, and the class position of social workers. The study's findings indicate that support for the welfare state is quite moderate and these reflect more the class affiliation of social workers than their professional values and the professionalisation process.     

The Heterogeneity of Socially Isolated Older Adults: A Social Isolation Typology

Recent statistics show a growing number of older adults who are living alone and are socially isolated. It is against this background that, in recent years, many interventions have been developed to address social isolation among the elderly. Evaluative studies show that most interventions are hardly effective, though. An important reason for this is the heterogeneity of the socially isolated. This article offers insight into this heterogeneity by presenting a typology with different profiles of socially isolated older adults and the intervention implications of this typology. The typology is derived from an extensive qualitative study on socially isolated elderly individuals in the Netherlands. The typology imposes some degree of order to a diversity of circumstances, ambitions, and possibilities of the socially isolated elderly, thereby deepening the understanding of the heterogeneity of this population. The definition of social isolation used in this study starts from a societal angle of incidence, namely the current policy context of Western European welfare states, in which governments emphasize the importance of independence and self-reliance of their citizens. Developed from that perspective, the typology provides a theoretical basis for applying interventions aimed at increasing self-reliance of social isolated elderly. This perspective on social isolation also has consequences for the way in which the effectiveness of interventions to alleviate social isolation is assessed.     

Worlds of Welfare Services: From Discovery to Exploration

A recent thread of debate in social policy research has been the ‘discovery’ of welfare services. Previous comparative studies in this field have been largely erratic and have led to different results. This ambiguity is mainly due to flaws inherent in the data sets. In order to overcome these problems, this article uses an alternative approach of operationalizing welfare services. Employment patterns in the welfare sector provide a holistic picture of welfare services regarding quantity, kind, and organization. Cluster analysis leads to a four‐cluster structure that bears high resemblance to the conventional welfare regime typology by Esping‐Andersen and its subsequent advancements. These findings are set in the context of the welfare regimes literature in order to enhance our understanding of the functioning of welfare regimes. The study suggests that the ideological orientation of the welfare state is a good starting point for a holistic framework of welfare regimes combining the transfer and the service component.     

Welfare attitudes and social class: the case of Hong Kong in comparative perspective

Based on a survey of Hong Kong residents, this article explores the attitudes towards the welfare state and whether or not there are significant differences between different social classes with regard to their approval of the welfare state. The findings were then compared with those for Sweden and the USA. The study shows that Hong Kong residents strongly approve of the welfare state. The strength of their support is similar to that in Sweden and is far stronger than in the USA. In Hong Kong, the influence of social class on attitudes towards the welfare state is negligible. In some cases, the privileged classes expressed greater approval for the welfare state than the underprivileged classes. This is in striking contrast to the experiences in Sweden and the USA where the underprivileged classes are more supportive of the welfare state than are the privileged classes.     

Effects of Right-Wing Authoritarianism and Threat from Terrorism on Restriction of Civil Liberties

In an Internet survey (N = 275), we investigated how right-wing authoritarianism (RWA), social dominance orientation (SDO), personal values, and political ideology predicted attitudes toward restriction of civil liberties and toward surveillance measured one year later. Feelings of threat from terrorism were also taken into account. RWA, SDO, political ideology, security values, and self-direction values were significant predictors. In addition, RWA interacted with threat from terrorism, in that threat reinforced the positive effect of RWA on support for surveillance measures. Thus, the study contributes to the understanding of psychological reasons for support for political measures related to civil liberties.     

Moral Emotions and Social Activism: The Case of Animal Rights

Why do some people and not others become involved in social movements? We examined the relationships between a moral emotion—disgust—and animal activism, attitudes toward animal welfare, and consumption of meat. Participants were recruited through two social networking websites and included animal activists, promoters of animal use, and participants not involved in animal-related causes. They took an online survey which included measures of sensitivity to visceral disgust, attitudes toward animal welfare, and frequency of meat eating. Animal activists were more sensitive to visceral disgust than were promoters of animal use or nonaligned participants. Disgust sensitivity was positively correlated with attitudes toward animal welfare but not with meat consumption. The relationship between animal activism and vegetarianism was complex; nearly half of animal activists ate meat, and half of the vegetarians did not consider themselves to be animal activists. We argue that conflicts over the moral status of animals reflect fundamental differences in moral intuitions.     

Lithuania's children's policy in the period of transition

The article investigates the welfare regime of the free Lithuanian Republic from the perspective of children's policy. The main principles of the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child – child protection, child provision and child participation – serve as indicators for the level of child orientation. The article analyses legal and institutional issues related to the implementation of the Convention in Lithuania in the first decade of Independence 1990–2001. Furthermore, it compares Lithuanian policy with the three welfare regimes identified by Esping-Andersen. Our results indicate that Lithuanian policy shows a low level of child orientation and that the Lithuanian welfare regime does not correspond to any of the welfare regimes in Esping-Andersen's typology. Lithuania still shows traits from the former Soviet regime. The new liberal extreme market orientation is not modified by social support institutions, and is combined with conservative ideologies on women and family.     

Role of social welfare in European suicide prevention

Yur'yev A, Värnik A, Värnik P, Sisask M, Leppik L. Role of social welfare in European suicide prevention The aims of this study were to assess the relationship between suicide mortality and social expenditure in 26 European countries, explore attitudes towards welfare systems and their relationship with suicide mortality, and compare attitudes towards welfare provision in Eastern and Western Europe. The World Health Organization suicide data and Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development social expenditure data for 1980–2005 were used. Data on attitudes towards welfare systems were taken from the European Social Survey. Differences between mean scores for attitudes in Western and Eastern European countries were calculated. Correlations between social expenditure and suicide trends were negative in most countries for both genders. Inverse correlations between attitudes towards welfare provision and suicide mortality rates were demonstrated for males only. Differences in attitudes were found between Eastern and Western European countries; for example, confidence in the welfare system was found to be stronger in Western Europe. Higher social expenditure and greater confidence in welfare provision appear to have suicide‐preventive effects.     

Digging their Own Graves: Unexpected Consequences of Institutional Design and Welfare State Changes

This article proposes a theoretical mechanism for explaining why various components of a welfare state may develop differently, given similar economic, political and ideological contexts. Evaluating welfare state plans as products of political processes, the article looks at the role of political actors and their mistakes, considering how these mistakes shape future social policy-making. The article identifies 'unexpected consequences' of institutional design: situations where the decisions of powerful actors lead to the empowerment of their rivals, which in turn may change policies to their advantage. Drawing on a case study from the Israeli welfare state, namely, the introduction and then abolishment of income testing in the Children's Insurance Plan, the article demonstrates how this mechanism may have allowed certain political actors to protect welfare state plans in the face of neo-liberal pressures. It discusses how other political actors can take advantage of similar situations and notes the conditions needed for success.     

Do Attitudes and Personality Characteristics Affect Socioeconomic Outcomes? The Case of Welfare Use by Young Women

Objective . We estimate a model of social-psychological determinants of entry into Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), the primary cash welfare program in the United States until 1996. Methods . Using information from the youngest cohorts of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, we estimate logit models of the probability of ever participating in AFDC and hazard models of the timing until first use of AFDC. Results . We find strong associations between welfare use and several attitudes and personality characteristics, but with two exceptions, most of the associations are not robust to the inclusion of exogenous background characteristics. There is consistent, strong evidence that positive attitudes toward school lower the likelihood of using welfare and increase duration until first receipt. Family background and social environment characteristics show strong robust effects. Conclusions . Our results point to relatively weak evidence for the hypothesis that individual attitudes in adolescence have a significant impact on initial welfare receipt.     

Personal values and support of welfare policy among undergraduate students in Israel

Sociological and socio‐psychological theories maintain that values play an essential role in predicting attitudes. Most research portraying the effect of a single value on various attitudes claims that the effect of values on attitudes increases if the attitudes and the specific values are related or if the attitudes involve objects or situations that reflect specific values. This exploratory study examined the relationship between personal values, considered as components of an individual's mindset or psychological structure, and attitudes supporting social welfare policy. The participants in the study were Israeli Bachelor of Arts students from four institutions of higher learning. The students' personal values were measured, and the effect of their values (beyond the students' socio‐demographic characteristics such as gender, religiosity etc.) on social support for welfare policy was tested.     

The contributions of welfare typologies to international social work practices

This paper is concerned with the link between studies of welfare typologies and studies of international social work. Its objective is to show how welfare typologies could be used to strengthen the role of international social work practices to support international exchange of ideas on welfare issues. To meet this objective, three analytical tasks are implemented. The first task is to show that professional imperialism could weaken the potential of international social work practices to promote international exchange of ideas on welfare issues. The second task is to discuss the importance of welfare typologies in supporting the development of international social work by challenging professional imperialism. The third task is to discuss a research project on a defamilization typology. This project provides empirical evidence of the contributions made by welfare typologies to international social work practices.     

Activation and Local Welfare in Italy: Trends and Issues

This article deals with the development of local welfare in Italy and is grounded on a research project focusing on activation as a main feature of change in Italian social policies. Along with decentralization processes, many Italian regions have been acting as policy laboratories, developing and testing very different approaches according to their political attitude. On the one hand this results in a fragmented policy landscape which is difficult to recompose, and, moreover, in growing inequalities in the Italian welfare system. On the other hand, it opens opportunities for experimentation on institutional and organizational structures on a regional scale, creating a variety of practices for research and policy analysis. In the article we first describe the main trends in national social policies, with a specific focus on the dynamics of change referring to activation. We will then focus on a pilot programme which is aiming at the promotion and implementation of innovative practices in health and social care services in Friuli‐Venezia Giulia, a region in which there is a significant orientation towards enhancing social citizenship and enforcing the central position of the public actor. We investigate how the dynamics of territorialization and personalization, implied by the programme, trigger specific logics and practices of activation. Finally, referring to this case study, we propose an analytical overview of some relevant issues in the development of ‘local active welfare’ in Italy.     

Political Feasibility Analysis of the New Financing Scheme for the National Health Insurance Reform in Taiwan: An Application of Stakeholder Analysis

This study carries out in‐depth political feasibility analysis of the prospective health financing reform currently taking place in Taiwan. The National Health Insurance (NHI) Program, which was established in Taiwan in 1995, covers virtually all of the island's citizens. Between the years 2001 and 2004, the Taiwanese Government organized a taskforce to carry out the wholesale reform of the NHI program into the so‐called ‘Second Generation NHI Program’. This study is part of the comprehensive review, focusing on the preferences and positions of key policy stakeholders with regard to the financial reform proposals, as well as their network relationships. The approach of stakeholder analysis was employed to conduct this empirical study. The results reveal that the new financing scheme has a certain degree of support from the policy stakeholders participating in this study, and that in particular, the measures concerning equity and sustainability were most welcome. However, controversy remains with regard to the issue of the equitable sharing of contributions. It is clear that there is much strong support for the new scheme amongst the administrative and legislative elite, although the same level of support is not evident amongst the social elite affiliated with employees' associations and welfare groups.     

New social risks in postindustrial society: Some evidence on responses to active labour market policies from Eurobarometer

One result of the complex economic and social changes currently impacting on state welfare is the emergence of what may be termed "new social risks" as part of the shift to a postindustrial society. These concern access to adequately paid employment, particularly for lower-skilled young people, in an increasingly flexible labour market, and managing work-life balance for women with family responsibilities engaged in full-time careers. They coexist with the old social risks that traditional welfare states developed to meet, which typically concern retirement from or interruption to paid work, in most cases for a male "breadwinner". New social risks offer policymakers the opportunity to transform vice into virtue by replacing costly passive benefits with policies which mobilize the workforce, arguably enhancing economic competitiveness, and reduce poverty among vulnerable groups. However, the political constituencies to support such policies are weak, since the risks affect people most strongly at particular life stages and among specific groups. This paper examines attitudes to new social risk labour market policies in four contrasting European countries. It shows that attitudes in this area are strongly embedded in overall beliefs about the appropriate scale, direction and role of state welfare interventions, so that the weakness of new social risk constituencies does not necessarily undermine the possibility of attracting support for such policies, provided they are developed in ways that do not contradict national traditions of welfare state values.     

Welfare Attitudes of Singaporeans – Ambiguity in Shifting Socio‐political Dynamics

This article presents findings from a survey of 440 Singaporeans on their attitudes towards welfare and welfare recipients. Attitudes were generally favourable, but sentiments towards higher taxes to help the poor were ambivalent. Controlled for demographic characteristics, ‘poverty sympathizers’ and affiliates of opposition political parties held the most liberal views, but were not more willing to pay higher taxes. Instead, poor respondents on the one hand and highly educated respondents on the other hand were more willing to pay higher taxes. Knowledge accumulation and beliefs about causes of poverty were strong predictors of attitudes. Effects of personal values and self‐interest were less evident. Couched against the backdrop of an economy that has experienced rapid transformation and one of the widest income inequality in the developed world, the article discusses the critical juncture of social response and policy choices that Singapore finds itself.