Street‐level discretion,emotional labour and welfare frontline staff at the Australian employment service providers

Despite the current controversial debates about discretion in public bureaucracies in general, and in welfare agencies in particular, the current literature on street‐level bureaucracy mainly assumes that discretion is a distinctive feature of the daily work of public servants. Nonetheless, a pertinent question has not specifically been asked in this literature, that is, given the context of privatisation and increased welfare conditionality in the welfare sector that are seriously challenging welfare frontline staff's commitment to social justice and human rights‐based practices, what are forms of street‐level discretion likely to contribute to improving the quality of welfare services? In this study, we attempt to address this question by exploring discretion displayed by welfare frontline staff in four Australian employment service providers. We argue that emotional labour, especially when being informed by critical empathy, is an important and effective form of street‐level discretion that welfare frontline workers can perform to better support welfare recipients and minimise the punitive aspects of welfare policy.     

Do Public Officials Trust Citizens? A Welfare State Perspective

In this exploratory study, we investigate whether public sector officials and non‐public sector officials differ in the trust they have in members of society and whether this difference is associated with the welfare regime in which they work. Using survey data from the sixth round of the European Social Survey, we compare public sector officials' trust to that of non‐public sector officials in 13 countries with four different forms of welfare regimes. Our results demonstrate that public officials have a higher level of trust than non‐public officials do. Furthermore, trust among both public and non‐public sector officials is much higher in social‐democratic regimes, followed by corporatist countries, liberal regimes, Israel (as a unique case) and, lastly, southern European regimes. As expected, public officials' degree of trust reflects the general trends of their societies. Interestingly, in social‐democratic regimes, differences between trust among public and non‐public officials are the highest compared to the other regimes. In addition, an individual‐level analysis in five countries illustrative of each welfare regime indicates that while income, belonging to a minority group, and age are significant factors in explaining public officials' trust, socio‐demographic variables contribute little to the differences between public and non‐public officials. Given the critical role of trust in the functioning of the welfare state, our results imply that further awareness and mechanisms for increasing the degree of trust of citizens among public officials are warranted.     

Organizational Form as a Mechanism to Involve Staff,Public and Users in Public Services: A Study of the Governance of NHS Foundation Trusts

In addition to introducing markets and market‐like structures into public services, New Labour wished to promote the involvement of users and the public in decision‐making in other ways than as individual consumers. One way was to involve the public in the governance of organizations. This could be done by removing public services from state control, and transferring them to mutual ownership; or by increasing public involvement in the governance of public bodies. NHS foundation trusts (FTs) were presented as mutuals. Our study shows FTs are not mutuals, as they continue to be owned by the state. Moreover, staff of FTs were generally not engaging with the new governance structures. In general, there was mixed experience of the new structures enabling governors to increase accountability of the hospitals to the public. On the other hand, having a membership did enhance the legitimacy of FTs, as opposed to other NHS organizations. The findings of the study are of current interest as the coalition government is continuing with the policy of FTs, and also encouraging mutuals and other forms of public involvement.     

Public housing and the politics of stigma

This paper considers the problem of stigmatisation towards tenants residing in public housing. It draws on the findings of a research panel investigation set up to explore the opportunities available for activists and campaigners to address stigma and engender a more positive understanding of public housing and its contribution to ameliorating economic disadvantages. The deliberations of the panel highlighted that, even within a forum sympathetic to the goal of addressing stigma, many conceptual, strategic and practical differences arise and need to be worked through. The paper reviews these challenges through a discussion of recent academic literature and a commentary on the contributions made by participants in the panel discussions. It concludes with the argument that the problem of stigma needs to be contextualised in a wider political setting that takes account of the contested aspects of the policy process and the role that powerful interest groupings have in agenda‐setting, alongside material factors such as poverty. The stigmatisation of public housing tenants is best understood as a symptom of systemic forms of inequality and asymmetrical power relationships. These difficulties also apply to campaigns to tackle the problem. Supporting forums that allow these power relationships to be interrogated is the first step towards change.     

Down and Down We Go: Trust and Compliance in South Korea*

Objective Sociopolitical value orientations in South Korea have changed dramatically throughout the post‐World War II period, primarily as a function of intergenerational change and rising levels of education. This article investigates the impact of value change on political cynicism and noncompliance. Methods This research analyzes data from the three waves of the World Values Surveys from 1982 to 1995. Results The findings indicate that there had been a general pattern of spreading public distrust of both social and political institutions between Koreans and that more elite‐challenging forms of political participation showed the predicted increase as well. Also found are different predictors of our two dependent variables: for political cynicism, those with a higher education and/or more libertarian values were more cynical of political institutions; for protest potential, citizens who are better educated, young, more libertarian, and more active in the political process were more likely to exhibit a greater potential to involve themselves in protest activities. Conclusions The research findings conclude that value change has played a central role in interpreting the sociopolitical world, and thus in minimizing the public's faith in key political and private institutions in Korea.     

Commercial,non‐profit and governmental residential elderly care in Flanders: Differences in client selection and efficiency?

Verschuere B, Moray N, Decramer A. Commercial, non‐profit and governmental residential elderly care in Flanders: differences in client selection and efficiency? Inspired by New Public Management, governments have stimulated competition, outsourcing and privatisation in the public sector. Also, in care of the elderly, there has been a substantial increase in commercial provision. The present study explored the presumed differences in the performance of public (governmental), private non‐profit and private commercial elderly care organisations. We used quantitative indicators on the population of residential elderly care organisations in Flanders (Belgium). Although we found that commercial elderly care facilities tended to be more input‐efficient while non‐profit and public elderly care facilities tended to be more attentive to recruiting and housing residents with high care needs, these results need to be interpreted in light of the regulatory framework in which the different types of elderly care facilities operate.     

A Critique of the Concept of Social Exclusion and its Utility for Australian Social Housing Policy

The paper reviews the usefulness of the concept of social exclusion for Australian social housing policy. We draw on recent theoretical and empirical research from Europe and the UK to develop a critique of the concept of social exclusion. It is argued that any assessment of social exclusion needs to distinguish between its utility as an academic explanatory concept and its political deployment to justify new forms of policy intervention. Policy targeting anti‐social behaviour through increasingly more punitive means, for instance, is often justified on the basis that it ameliorates the problems of social exclusion experienced by tenants residing in public housing estates. We conclude that, in spite of the limitations of social exclusion as an analytical concept, for political and pragmatic reasons it is likely to become an important component of the emerging Australian housing policy agenda.     

New Models of Contracting in the Public Sector: A Review of Alliance Contracting,Prime Contracting and Outcome‐based Contracting Literature

The coordination of public services is an enduring challenge and an important policy priority. One way to achieve collaboration across organizational boundaries, which is being considered in public services such as the English National Health Service (NHS), is through the adoption of alliance contracting, prime provider contracting and outcome‐based contracting. This article reviews the cross‐sectoral literature concerning the characteristics of these new contractual models, how they function, their impact, and their relation to public sector governance objectives. These new contractual forms are characterized as models which, in line with the New Public Management (NPM)/post‐NPM agenda, seek to incentivize providers through the transfer of risk from the commissioners to the providers of services. Key findings are that the models are likely to incur high transaction costs relating to the negotiation and specification of outcomes and rely heavily on the relational aspects of contracting. There is also found to be a lack of convincing cross‐sectoral evidence of the impact of the models, particularly in relation to improving coordination across organizations. The article questions the reconciliation of the use of these new contractual models in settings such as the English NHS with the requirements of public sector governance for transparency and accountability. The models serve to highlight the problems inherent in the NPM/post‐NPM agenda of the transfer of risk away from commissioners of services in terms of transparency and accountability.     

Public Opinion against Markets? Attitudes towards Market Distribution of Social Services – A Comparison of 17 Countries

This article studies how citizens view the appropriateness of market criteria for allocating services commonly associated with social citizenship rights and welfare state responsibility. The article focuses specifically on a potential role for the market in the provision of social services. The relationship between welfare policy institutions, socio‐economic class and attitudes is explored by comparing attitudes across 17 countries of the Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development, using multilevel modelling and data from the 2009 International Social Survey Programme. Results show that public support for market distribution of services is relatively weak in most countries, a result suggesting that public opinion is unlikely to pose a driving force within ongoing processes of welfare marketization. Still, attitudes are found to vary a lot across countries in tandem with between‐country variation in welfare policy design. First, aggregate public support for market distribution of services is stronger in countries with more private spending on services. Second, class differences in attitudes are larger in countries with more extensive state‐led delivery of services. Together, these results point to the operation of normative feedback‐effects flowing from existing welfare policy arrangements. The theoretical arguments and the empirical results presented in this article suggest that future research exploring the relationship between welfare policy and public opinion from a country‐comparative perspective is well advised to place greater focus on the market institutions that, to varying extents in different countries, act as complements to the state in the administration of social welfare.     

Changing Healthcare System Types

This article classifies 32 Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development (OECD) healthcare systems based on data from 2001 and 2007. It shows that European countries are clustered in different types of healthcare systems and that traditional typologies are only partially represented in the four types of healthcare systems identified in this study. Type 1 represents countries with low total health expenditure (THE), high public financing, and low out‐of‐pocket payment (OOP). In‐patient healthcare is higher and out‐patient healthcare lower than the OECD average. General practitioners (GPs) are paid by capitation, and patients' access to healthcare is strictly regulated. Type 2 represents countries with an average level of THE, high public financing, above‐average OOP, and high in‐patient and out‐patient healthcare. GPs receive a salary, and access regulation is strict. Type 3 is characterized by very low THE, low public financing, and very high OOP. Both in‐patient and out‐patient healthcare is well below average, and GPs are paid a salary. Type 4 includes systems with the highest THE, the highest public financing, and the lowest direct payments by patients. In‐patient healthcare is below the OECD mean and out‐patient healthcare is well above it. GPs are paid by fee‐for‐service, and most countries offer free choice of medical doctors. The clusters for the years 2001 and 2007 are quite robust. During this time period, THE increased, and patients' access to medical doctors has since become more regulated.     

Recognising the face of the other: Difference,identity and community

Social work's role in creating social solidarity requires an engagement with identity politics through careful negotiation of the boundary between the private and the public spheres and hence ensuring a balance between personal freedom to define one's specific identity and the public entitlement to belong to a political community as citizens. Current political and cultural trends, reflected also in social policies, impact severely on that boundary maintenance task inasmuch as privatisation encroaches on formerly public domains while simultaneously details of private concerns receive public attention through their commercialisation by the new media. It is suggested that social work's political role be asserted more explicitly in terms of the application of the Global Agenda which needs to penetrate to the level of person‐to‐person interaction.     

Cross‐National Gender Variation in Environmental Behaviors*

Objective. This article presents a cross‐national examination of gender variations in environmental behaviors. Research on environmental concern reveals modest distinctions between men and women, with women typically displaying higher levels of environmental concern and behavioral adjustments relative to men. Additionally, some prior research suggests that women appear more engaged in household‐oriented (private) pro‐environment behaviors (e.g., recycling), and men in community/society‐oriented (public) pro‐environment behaviors (e.g., protests). The analysis provided here offers an important extension to existing research through its cross‐cultural, comparative perspective. Method. We make use of the 1993 International Social Survey to explore gender differences in “private” and “public” environmentally‐oriented behaviors across 22 nations. Results. It is shown that women tend to engage in more environmental behaviors than men in many nations, particularly private behaviors. In addition, both women and men tend to engage in relatively more private environmental behaviors as opposed to public ones. Conclusion. The cross‐national analysis provides support for gender distinctions with regard to some environmental behaviors within most of the incorporated 22 national contexts. Gender differences in level of private environmental behaviors tend to be more consistent within nations at the upper end of the wealth distribution.     

Living in a Wittgensteinian World: Beyond Theory to a Poetics of Practices

As human beings, we share many historically developed, language-game interwoven, public forms of life. Due to the joint, dialogically responsive nature of all social life within such forms, we cannot as individuals just act as we please; our forms of life exert a normative influence on what we can say and do. They act as a backdrop against which all our claims to knowledge are judged as acceptable or not. As a result, it is not easy to articulate their inadequacies in a clear and forceful manner. However, within most of our forms of life, we have a first-person right to express how our individual circumstances seem to us. And by the use of special forms of poetic, gestural talk—talk that can originate new language-games—we can offer to make our own 'inner lives' public. In this paper, I want to claim that this is just what Wittgenstein is attempting to do in his later philosophy: by use of the self-same methods that anyone might use to express aspects of their own world picture, he is offering us his attempts to make the background 'landscape' of our lives more visible to us. These methods are explored below.     

Tentative evaluation of the impact of public transfers on the dynamics of poverty: The case of Russia

The aim of this article is to offer a dynamic impact analysis of the system of transfers in Russia, based on a comparison of indicators of well‐being measured before and after state intervention. We shall begin by assessing the impact of public transfers on different forms of poverty and demonstrate that, while the system is seeing a fall in chronic and transitional poverty, there is very little movement between categories. We shall then evaluate the capacity of the system to keep non‐poor households from falling into poverty (protection) and to help poor households escape poverty (promotion). Several studies suggest that the Russian system of transfers is well suited to protection but has proved incapable of attaining the goal of promotion. In other words, in its current form it cannot claim to be an effective tool to combat long‐term poverty.     

The Influence of Spanish‐Language Media on Latino Public Opinion and Group Consciousness*

Objective. This article determines if the use of Spanish‐language media among Latinos influences public opinion on various policy issues and group consciousness. Methods. Using a 2004 national public opinion survey of U.S. Latinos, a multivariate analysis is run to determine the effect of language media preference on immigration policy, abortion, same‐sex marriage, and three measures of group consciousness. Results. I find more frequent use of Spanish‐language media leads to more liberal attitudes toward immigration, but has no effect on opinions toward abortion and same‐sex marriage. I also find increased use of Spanish‐language media leads to increased levels of group consciousness. Conclusions. The differences in attitudes are due to the diverging goals of Spanish‐language and English‐language media. The effect of using Spanish‐language media serves to promote a sense of group consciousness among Latinos by reinforcing roots in Latin America and the commonalities among Latinos of varying national origin.     

Anglo and Latino Differences in Willingness to Pay for Urban Public Services*

Objective. This research explores Anglo and Latino differences in willingness to pay for urban public services, assuming differences will impact service delivery in local government as the Latino population increases and becomes more visible. Methods. Survey data from a probability sample of Phoenix residents, now the nation's fifth largest city, are analyzed across 28 city services using multiple mechanisms that included a logit multivariate model. Results. Latinos are substantially more likely than Anglos to report willingness to pay for urban public services. These differences cut across services and are not mitigated by Latino income levels. Conclusions. Latinos are prepared to be full partners in improving service delivery in local government, even at the expense of out‐of‐pocket payment for services. Moreover, while increases in the Latino population will carry greater demand for more and high‐quality city services by Latinos, it is unlikely to alter the menu of preferred services along class or race/ethnic lines. The fact that Latinos seem generally more willing to pay for services also raises the possibility that Latinos are interested in investing in their communities, seeking more opportunities, and perhaps remaining in those communities.     

Has the Nordic Welfare Model Been Transformed?

The Nordic welfare model is undergoing a fundamental transformation. Using Denmark we show how a universal welfare state model is gradually being transformed into an emergent multi‐tiered welfare state. Whereas the Danish pension system's having become multi‐tiered in the 1990s, with private schemes – collective and individual – supplementing public schemes is well documented, scant attention has focused on more recent developments in other areas of the welfare state. This article shows how the multi‐tiered welfare state spread in the 2000s to policies for families, the unemployed and the sick. Although Denmark still offers universal coverage in core welfare state areas, the increased use of occupational and fiscal welfare as well as changes in public schemes has gradually transformed the nation into a multi‐tiered welfare state that is more dualistic and individualistic, with participation in the labour market becoming still more important for entitlement to benefits. These profound changes have taken place in such a way that although core characteristics are still in place, new structures and understandings of the welfare state are also developing. Thus classical typologies need revision, so that they include more focus on this combination of universality and institutional attachment to the labour market. Moreover, measures of what welfare comprises should include not only public but also private elements.     

Are Quasi‐markets in Education what the British Public Wants?

In the context of inconclusive evidence on the extrinsic successes of quasi‐markets, policy defences of school choice and competition in education have often discussed the intrinsic, empowering value of choice for consumers, arguing that school choice for parents is ‘what people want’. Discourses often imply that choice is desired for its own sake rather than merely as a means by which families can escape what are deemed to be poor quality schools. Support for an idealistic, abstract notion of ‘choice’ is also taken to imply support for quasi‐markets overall and is not considered alongside possible competing values that people may hold at the same time as they value choice. Additionally, views of parents are often examined without considering possible differences in views between parents and non‐parents. Contributing to debates about how far a public desire exists for quasi‐markets in education, this article draws on data from newly designed questions fielded as part of the 2010 British Social Attitudes survey. The article finds that while choice ‘in the abstract’ is supported widely by both parents and non‐parents (albeit slightly more so by parents), a valuing of choice among the British public appears to be more instrumental than intrinsic – potentially problematic given evidence on the extrinsic benefits of quasi‐markets is mixed. Support for choice is tempered among parents and non‐parents by clear opposition to vouchers, school diversity, government spending on transport costs to facilitate choice and by strong support for the idea of sending children to the ‘nearest state school’.     

Agenda Setting,Public Opinion,and the Issue of Immigration Reform*

Objective. Agenda‐setting theory is used to motivate hypotheses about how media coverage of immigration influences public perceptions of its importance. The authors seek to offer a more complete explanation of public opinion on immigration by exploring differences in the effects of immigration news in border and nonborder states. Method. This article employs content analyses of newspaper coverage of immigration and Gallup public opinion data over a 12‐month period (January–December 2006). Respondents' identification of immigration as a “Most Important Problem” is modeled as a conditional relationship between border state/nonborder state residence and media coverage, ethnic context, and individual‐level demographics. Results. Media attention to immigration is greater in border states than in nonborder states; as a result, residents of border states are more likely to identify immigration as a most important problem than are residents of nonborder states. Conclusions. The analyses point to the importance of geography and news coverage in explanations of public opinion on immigration.