Alike but not alike: Welfare state and unemployment policies in Southern Europe. Italy and Portugal compared

Although Italy and Portugal are considered to be part of the same welfare state family – the Southern European one – analysis of a key component of the welfare state, namely, unemployment policies and regulations, reveals a different evaluation. A comparative analysis of a series of specific indicators of Italian and Portuguese unemployment regimes shows that they represent two different models. Portugal appears to be a more inclusive system, closer to continental or Northern European countries than it is to Italy, or at least representing a hybrid system that combines characteristics of continental European welfare states with characteristics that are more typical of Southern European welfare states. Italy, on the contrary, is much more clearly a Southern European welfare state.     

Portuguese healthcare reforms in the context of crisis: External pressure or domestic choice?

As a result of the recent economic crisis, in 2011, Portugal signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the European Central Bank, the European Commission, and the International Monetary Fund (the “Troika”). In exchange for Troika's financial assistance, the Memorandum required the implementation of a specific set of reforms targeted at the healthcare sector. The literature on policy reforms in the context of crisis and conditionality argues that governments have restricted room to manoeuver in responding to external pressure. We challenge this view, finding that even in cases of conditionality and strong external pressures, crisis can be used as a window of opportunity for reforms substantially shaped by domestic policy choices. In the case of Portuguese health reforms, these choices were based on pre‐existing reform plans aimed on resolving country‐specific deficiencies of the healthcare system and were enabled by the two main political parties' strategies of tacit cooperation and blame avoidance. The article emphasizes the need for more fine‐grained analysis of welfare reforms in the crisis that pays equal attention to the institutional characteristics and the political context of the affected countries.     

Messiahs, Pariahs, and Donors: The Development of Social Representations of Organ Transplants

This longitudinal, qualitative study investigated the genesis and transformation of the social representations of organ transplants. A search of the West Australian newspaper, from 1954 to 1995 found 672 articles pertaining to organ transplants. Two distinct, but conflicting, representations emerged in the analyses. In the first representation, found from 1967/68, the surgeon was paramount and organ transplants were iconised as 'spare part surgery'. In the second representation, found from 1984/85, the role of the donor was emphasised and transplants iconised as a 'gift of life'. Both representations were discernible in 1994/95. We consider the question whether there are now two conflicting representations or one representation with two conflicting sets of beliefs at its core. The results are discussed in terms of anchoring, objectification, transformation, and structure, as well as Moscovici's (1993) notion of canonic themata.     

Bringing Indonesia into the global welfare regime debate: A literature review and future research agenda

Studies on welfare state regimes have been dominated by consideration of rich OECD/European and increasingly East Asian countries/territories, leaving South Asian cases such as Indonesia underexplored. The few existing studies that have explicitly tried to conceptualize the Indonesian welfare regime have resulted in little consensus. To address the resulting lack of clarity, this article reviews scholarly articles relevant to bringing Indonesia into the global welfare regime debate, specifically encapsulating how the country has been classified compared with its East Asia counterparts. Accordingly, we find that existing studies have mainly concentrated on the Indonesian health care and social protection expansion, which has led authors to conclude that this evolution demonstrates Indonesia's transition away from welfare productivism. By contrast, we argue that Indonesia's productivist characteristics have largely prevailed while informal networks, clientelism, strong families, and the limited effectiveness of the civil society movement created a specific social politics in Indonesia. We thus conclude that the causal mechanisms typically attributed to welfare development in more developed welfare geographies, including East Asia, cannot fully explain the evident institutional formation in the Indonesian case. The future research agenda for studying the welfare regimes in Indonesia and other Southeast Asian countries is discussed.     

Sensitising Concept, Themata and Shareness: A Dialogical Perspective of Social Representations

This article aims at clarifying some critical, yet under-explored, conceptual issues of social representations from a dialogical perspective. The article recasts the notion of social representations as a sensitising, rather than a definitive, concept, based on the distinction between dialogical and monological epistemologies. It is argued that the introduction of the concept of themata into the theory suggests the dialogical interdependence between common thinking and social morphology, between the genesis and structure of social representations, and between implicit underlying themata and their pragmatic manifestations in structuring social representations. At the same time, the concept of themata implies that a social representation may be, at one and the same time, shared and communicated in hegemonic, emancipated and polemical ways in a complementary manner. These three ways of "sharing" are dialogically interrelated to each other.     

Democracy, Social Relations and Ecowelfare

Like Marxists before, greens are trenchant critics of the commodification of human life by consumer capitalism. They have been persistent advocates of less materialistic ways of living but, as such, have been easily dismissed as champions of frugal, small‐scale community living. This essay argues that a society which fostered non‐materialistic ways of living could offer more rather than less to its citizens if it put at the centre of its vision the quality of human and social relations. A relational perspective insists that human capacities—aesthetic, spiritual, practical/intellectual, ethical and convivial—are developed through our relations to others and to nature, including the nature and otherness in ourselves. The primary aim of an ecowelfare society should be to create the conditions for such human capacities to flourish in a balanced way. The essay frst describes four areas of our everyday social relations where qualitative change is necessary if a democratic culture is to flourish. Capitalism privileges the development of the practical/intellectual and, in consequence, our over‐extended technical powers now put the world at risk. Green democracy must be approached in this light. Participation in political discussion and decision making at all levels of society enhances individual and collective ethical and convivial capacities and therefore fosters citizens who have the capacity to respond to social and ecological insecurity. To be convincing, green democracy needs to recognize the actual complexity of society, a complexity that direct, face‐to‐face models of democracy cannot deal with. In opposition to the markets and managerialism of existing governments greens should develop a vision of the extended democratization of all levels and institutions of society, from housing estates and health centres to universities and non‐departmental public bodies like the Arts Council. In doing so it must recognize the differences, tensions and conflicts in all communities irrespective of whether these are generated around place, identity or lifestyle. It must therefore promote the maximum diversity of democratic forms.     

The potential power of social policy programmes: income redistribution,economic resources and health

Lundberg O, Fritzell J, Åberg Yngwe M, Kölegård ML. The potential power of social policy programmes: income redistribution, economic resources and health Int J Soc Welfare 2010: ??: ??–??© 2010 The Author(s), Journal compilation © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and International Journal of Social Welfare. This Supplement includes a number of articles dealing with the role of social policy schemes for public health across the life course. As a key social determinant of health, poverty and its consequences have historically been at the forefront of the public health discussion. But also in rich countries today, economic resources are likely to be important for health and survival, both on an individual and an aggregate level. This introductory article serves as a background for the more specific analyses that follow. The focus is on why income and income inequality could have an effect on individual and population health. We discuss relationships between the individual and population levels and between income and health, and some of the possible mechanisms involved. We also present arguments for why welfare state institutions may matter.     

Social stability challenged by Covid-19: Pandemics,inequality and policy responses

The public health measures implemented to limit the COVID-19 pandemic are likely to affect economic inequalities. In this paper we first provide a theoretical framework to analyse how income inequality contributes shaping the trade-off between economic lockdown and contagion. Our empirical analysis on EU countries shows that the lockdown is likely to significantly increase inequality and poverty and that the magnitude of the change is larger in more unequal countries. To avoid social collapse, countries must consider inequality as an additional source of fragility, while supranational, coordinated health and fiscal policies are needed in the interest of all European economies.     

Restructuring Long-Term Care in Spain: The Impact of The Economic Crisis on Social Policies and Social Work Practice

ABSTRACT

Care needs of the aging population are increasing in Southern European countries. The purpose of this article is to explore the implications of meeting these needs while taking into account the recent economic crisis, which has deeply affected countries such as Spain. This study is part of a European project (ISCH COST Action IS1102) and is based mainly on qualitative information that focuses on in-depth interviews with social service workers (n = 19) who provide the service and program recipients or their caregivers (n = 14). In addition, two discussion groups were conducted with professionals (n = 9) and program volunteers (n = 5), as well as a workshop/discussion group (n = 28) with politicians, service providers, and participants. Six thematic premises were identified with differing views being highlighted relevant to the participants' roles in the program. Future research should explore social service strategies to deal with the increase in care needs as well as community-based responses.     

气候变化与人权：何种温室气体排放权

气候变化会对基本人权,如生命权、健康权、食物权、住房权、财产权、文化权、迁移定居权、安全权等,造成许多严重的伤害。可从生存排放权、人均排放权和发展排放权三个方面对温室气体排放权进行分析与考查。在保护人民的气候权利方面,国家和政府负有不可推托的责任。在当前的背景下,提出气候权利问题的直接目的就是保护发展中国家与弱势群体的利益,并促使发达国家和富人承担更多的减排义务。     

The Construct of Mindfulness

After mindfulness is defined, a brief history of the research on the topic to date is reviewed. This work essentially falls into three categories: health, business, and education. Considerations of mindlessness as a social issue are then addressed. A brief introduction to the articles in this issue follows. These articles speak to mindfulness as it relates to potential solutions to social problems.     

What Can We Afford For the National Health Service?

The annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is here used as a standard measure against which to compare expenditure on Health & Welfare and Defence budgets, between Conservative and Labour governments and the four largest EC countries 1973/4-1993/4. An analysis of Mrs Thatcher's governments’ expenditure shows that proportionately less GDP went to General Government Expenditure (GGE) than all the other European Community countries. Mrs Thatcher's first government maintained the unprecedented level of GDP devoted to Health reached in 1978/79, but successive administrations began to reduce, and, plan further reductions of GDP for the NHS. Relative decreases of GDP were also found in relation to expenditure on Social Security, Housing, and Personal Social Services and Defence. The governments of France, Germany and Italy provided more of their GDP to health than Britain, whilst at the same time we spent more on Defence and Law & Order & Public Safety. This raises the question: what can we afford for the NHS? A review of demographic changes shows that the British infant and elderly population, who are associated with demands for health, were proportionately more numerous than in France, Germany and Italy. This suggests the need for more UK health expenditure if Britain is to meet current and future needs.     

Gaps in social protection for health care and long‐term care in Europe: Are the elderly faced with financial ruin?

While public expenditure on health care and long‐term care (LTC) has been monitored for many years in European countries, far less attention has been paid to the financial consequences for older people of private out‐of‐pocket (OOP) expenditure necessary to access such care. Employing representative cross‐sectional data on the elderly populations of 11 European countries in 2004 from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), we find that OOP payments for health care and LTC are very common among the elderly across European countries and such expenditures impact significantly on disposable income: up to 95 per cent of the elderly make OOP payments for health care and 5 per cent for LTC, resulting in income reductions of between 5 and 10 per cent, respectively. Failure to prevent financial ruin, as a consequence of excessive OOP payments, is evident in 0.7 per cent of elderly households utilizing health care and 0.5 per cent of elderly households utilizing LTC. Those particularly concerned are the poor, women and the very old.     

Solidarity towards immigrants in European welfare states

The concern that immigration could threaten the sustainability of the European Social Model is a reason to have a closer look at popular images of immigrants in the context of European welfare states. The focus is on Europeans' informal solidarity towards immigrants relative to other vulnerable groups in society. Using data from the European Values Survey 1999/2000 we find that in all European countries the public is least solidaristic towards migrants, in comparison with elderly people, sick and disabled people and unemployed people. Contrary to expectation, there is little relation between welfare state characteristics and people's solidarity, while the relative solidarity towards immigrants is higher in culturally more diverse countries. As expected, the relative solidarity towards immigrants is lower in countries with a more negative opinion climate towards immigrants and in poorer countries of Europe.     

The welfare state in liquidation?

This paper is about the most recent reforms of cash benefit systems and the sociopolitical debate in eight European countries. The welfare state and the social security system rank high on the political agenda. After many years of economic crisis, with increasingly widespread unemployment and changed family patterns, the welfare system that developed in most western European countries since the end of the Second World War is the focus of attention. In a world of increasing international trade, with competition from countries — in eastern Europe and Asia as well as the United States — which have not developed such comprehensive systems of social security, one of the main issues in the debate is whether western Europe can afford to maintain welfare at the existing level, or whether it is necessary to make fundamental changes. But the discussion also centres on what can be called the welfare state's own internal problems.     

European Health Care Costs

The rising cost of health care in Western European countries is now seen by many governments as a problem, and attempts are being made to find a solution by introducing cost-containment policies.
The author begins by reviewing trends in health care expenditures, and examines some of the underlying reasons for the upward trend.
He then considers some of the more important differences in the organization and financing of Western European health care systems, before surveying the different kinds of cost-containment policies which are being, and could be, pursued.
The conclusion is that present cost-containment policies do not take sufficiently into account the underlying reasons for rising costs, and that the criteria for evaluating the success of these policies are inadequate. To be successful, the policies will have to be altered, and the objectives and means of evaluation reconsidered.     

Gender and health among older people: What is the role of social policies?

The study investigated how social policies moderate the association between gender and health among older people across European countries. The study is the first to take a comprehensive view on the role of social policies in connection with gender inequality in health among older Europeans. The association between gender and poor self‐rated health and limiting long‐standing illness was investigated in a multilevel framework. Cross‐level interaction effects showed that more generous minimum pensions, higher spending on eldercare and a higher degree of eldercare formalisation are associated with relatively better health among women, while more generous standard pensions are associated with relatively better health among men. The conclusion is that policies directed towards older people are not gender neutral; rather they are likely to affect men and women differently. By shaping the distribution of resources as well as of unpaid work, social policies can contribute to either strengthening or weakening the link between gender and health.     

Do public pensions matter for health and wellbeing among retired persons? Basic and income security pensions across 13 Western European countries

Esser I, Palme J. Do public pensions matter for health and wellbeing among retired persons? Basic and income security pensions across 13 Western European countries Int J Soc Welfare 2010: ??: ??–??© 2010 The Author(s), Journal compilation © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and International Journal of Social Welfare. Mortality rates suggest that elderly people in the advanced welfare democracies have experienced dramatically improved health over the past decades. This study examined the importance of public pensions for self‐reported health and wellbeing among retired persons in 13 Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development countries in 2002–2005. New public pension data make it possible to distinguish between two qualities of pension systems: ‘basic security’ for those who have no or a short work history, and ‘income security’ for those with a more extensive contribution record. For enhanced cross‐national comparison, relative measures of ill‐health and wellbeing were constructed to account for cultural bias in responses to survey questions and heterogeneity among countries in the general level of population health. Overall, better health is found in countries with more generous pensions, although the results are gendered; for women's health, high basic security of the pension system appears to be particularly important. Women's wellbeing also tends to be more dependent on the quality of basic security.     

Health and Social Policy Responses to Unemployment in Europe

This paper analyzes health policy development in Europe in response to economic instability, and describes agreements and declarations at a European level as well as commitments in some selected countries. One significant example is the European Health for All Strategy, which encompasses 38 operational targets agreed upon by all 32 member states of the European region. The Council of Europe and the Commission of the European Communities have instituted study groups on psychosocial and health effects of long-term unemployment, and on intervention measures taken or contemplated. This paper discusses interventions such as psychological and socio-pedagogic training schemes, measures for long-term unemployed, and a "social guarantee" of employment or training, as well as prevention of unemployment and empowerment of the unemployed. A local approach in a region of the Federal Republic of Germany illustrates the need for political involvement and strategies.