Determinants of welfare service provision after the Golden Age

Jensen C. Determinants of welfare service provision after the Golden Age Int J Soc Welfare 2011: 20: 125–134 © 2009 The Author, International Journal of Social Welfare © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare. The welfare state literature exhibits a ‘transfer bias’ in the sense that very little research exists on welfare services or benefits in‐kind. This article presents one of the first systematic studies on the determinants of welfare service provision since the end of the Golden Age of welfare expansion. The article concludes that partisan factors do not drive change, although historically they may have been pivotal. Instead, new factors, including deindustrialisation, female labour force participation and rising public attention appear to be highly significant. It is argued that new studies need to take seriously both the individual characteristics of services as well as the changing social demands that the services are supposed to meet.     

Giving money to strangers: European welfare states and social trust

Jensen C, Svendsen GT. Giving money to strangers: European welfare states and social trust Int J Soc Welfare 2011: 20: 3–9 © 2009 The Author, Journal compilation © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare. Why would you give money to strangers? That is the fundamental question posed by a new body of research into the relationship between social trust and willingness to accept high taxes and extensive welfare states. The literature argues that generalised trust causes and upholds universal welfare state institutions, an entirely plausible explanation of the Scandinavian social democratic welfare states. However, it cannot explain the presence of very large welfare states in Continental Europe, where the level of generalised trust is much lower than in Scandinavia. The article adds to the existing literature by arguing that the ‘bumblebee’ of conservative welfare states is characterised by particularistic trust and familiaristic welfare institutions, which are functional equivalents to the mechanisms found in Scandinavia. Future research into the trust–welfare state relationship should therefore focus on the trust profile of a country to understand how the welfare state provides its citizens with benefits.     

Discerning self‐interested behaviour in attitudes towards welfare state responsibilities across Europe

Baslevent C, Kirmanoglu H. Discerning self‐interested behaviour in attitudes towards welfare state responsibilities across Europe Int J Soc Welfare 2011: 20: 344–352 © 2010 The Author(s), International Journal of Social Welfare © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare. This article reports on an investigation into the influence of individual characteristics on attitudes to government responsibility for welfare‐related tasks using data from the European Social Survey. The main finding of this investigation was that socio‐demographic characteristics, basic personal values, a left–right ideological position and religious affiliation were all associated with attitudes towards welfare policies. An item‐by‐item examination of the six issues enquired about in the survey revealed that people tended to hold the government responsible for tasks that would benefit them more directly. Taken as a whole, the empirical findings were interpreted to mean that individuals' tastes for welfare state policies were driven, at least partially, by self‐interest, but it was also noted that further work was needed to disentangle the potential role of group loyalty effects.     

The forgotten half: analysing the politics of welfare services

Jensen C. The forgotten half: analysing the politics of welfare services Int J Soc Welfare 2011: 20: 404–412 © 2010 The Author(s), International Journal of Social Welfare © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare. This article discusses the welfare state and argues that the service component has been neglected in the mainstream literature. A main reason for the neglect is the lack of theorising on the distinction between the politics of welfare services and the politics of transfers. An analytical framework that may help overcome this problem is presented.     

Traits of a representative welfare state: the Swedish example

Järkestig Berggren U, Blomberg S, Petersson J. Traits of a representative welfare state: the Swedish example Int J Soc Welfare 2010: 19: 402–411 © 2009 The Author(s), Journal compilation © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare. The care manager reform and the case manager reform are new reforms in the social care services in Sweden, which are evolving during the 2000s. Together they shape the social care services introducing a new way of decision‐making where representatives for the organisation (care manager) and the users (case manager) negotiate. The reforms have been analysed in two studies with results presented in this article. Using the concepts of role, orientation, function and assignments, it is argued that the managers come to the negotiations on rights from different positions that are both conflicting and complementary. They further mediate the development towards a welfare mix, where the market, social networks and users interact to obtain the public welfare provision. Through this negotiated rights model, it is argued that traits of a representative welfare state emerge, with the distinction of moving the focus to the administrative practices and their differences away from political ideologies.     

From welfare state to welfare society: toward a viable system of welfare in Japan and England

Laratta R. From welfare state to welfare society: toward a viable system of welfare in Japan and England
Int J Soc Welfare 2010: 19: 131–141 © 2009 The Author(s), Journal compilation © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare. This article compares the impact that public welfare reforms during the 1980s and 1990s had, and are still having, on the relationship between statutory organisations and the non‐profit sector in two developed countries, England and Japan. The author argues that the failure of these reforms clearly shows that, although non‐profit organisations may not be able to effectively replace the state in the provision of welfare services, they can contribute, working closely with the statutory organisations, to the shaping, financing and delivery of public services in a variety of ways. It is also interesting to note that, while the public welfare reforms of the late 1990s in England produced a shift away from a culture based on privatisation and contracting‐out toward a partnership culture of collaboration between state and non‐profit entities, similar reforms in Japan have resulted instead in an uncertain area of deregulation and privatisation.     

The Argentine welfare state: enduring and resisting change

Isuani EA. The Argentine welfare state: enduring and resisting change
Int J Soc Welfare 2010: 19: 104–114 © 2009 The Author(s), Journal compilation © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare. It is widely accepted that during the 1990s, the Argentine state experienced a general retrenchment. This article shows that, though this may have been true in the economic realm, this retrenchment did not take place in the diverse arenas of social policy. While privatisations and labour market flexibility dismantled the foundations of Keynesianism, the components of the welfare state experienced substantial growth. At the same time, the changes experienced by the welfare state in the past quarter century have not included a transformation of its basic principles, despite the profound changes experienced by Argentine society during this period.     

Hong Kong: workfare in the world's freest economy

Chan CK. Hong Kong: workfare in the world's freest economy Int J Soc Welfare 2011: 20: 22–32 © 2009 The Author(s), Journal compilation © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare. Workfare was introduced in many countries to suppress welfare dependency and reduce social security expenditures. However, workfare was launched in Hong Kong when there was only a relatively small social security budget and its citizens still strongly adhered to the ideologies of self‐reliance. It was found that workfare has performed several functions in Hong Kong. First, by forcing unemployed claimants to give up benefits, Hong Kong has been able to save on social security expenditures. Second, workfare has combined with Hong Kong's semi‐democratic polity so that extremely stigmatising welfare measures have been implemented. Third, it has pushed poor citizens into the labour market without having any protection over wages and working hours. Thus, the combination of workfare and a semi‐democratic polity has successfully suppressed Hong Kong's welfare demands and strengthened its self‐help spirit. As a result, Hong Kong's minimal social security scheme and its low tax policy have been maintained.     

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.     

Childcare: welfare or investment?

Conley A. Childcare: welfare or investment? Int J Soc Welfare 2010: 19: 173–181 © 2009 The Author, Journal compilation © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare. Childcare (also called day care or preschool) has generally served three purposes: to care for children while parents are employed; to provide early childhood education; and to cater to the needs of poor and disadvantaged children. This article proposes that the welfare approach to childcare be augmented by a social investment approach to enhance human and social capital investments among low income families and communities and to contribute to wider social development goals. The Head Start program in the United States and the Integrated Child Development Scheme in India are used to illustrate this argument.     

One hundred years of money,welfare and death: mortality,economic growth and the development of the welfare state in 17 OECD countries 1900–2000

Kangas O. One hundred years of money, welfare and death: mortality, economic growth and the development of the welfare state in 17 OECD countries 1900–2000 Int J Soc Welfare 2010: ??: ??–??© 2010 The Author(s), Journal compilation © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and International Journal of Social Welfare. The article focuses on the role played by the welfare state vis‐à‐vis GDP in the increase of life expectancy in 17 OECD countries 1900–2000. The article shows that money matters, war kills and the welfare state is good for health. There is a curvilinear relationship between prosperity and longevity: after a certain level, the marginal utility of an extra dollar levels off. In the longer run, growth is a necessary but not sufficient condition. The welfare state plays its role, too. Bigger is better, be it with regard to social spending or the generosity or coverage of social protection. For the life expectancy of a population to increase, it is better to have broader coverage or universal access to care than to have more generous benefits, which are channelled to a limited circle of citizens. It is better to give adequately to all than lavishly to too few.     

Putting the ‘public’ into public service delivery for social welfare in South Africa

Mubangizi BC, Gray M. Putting the ‘public’ into public service delivery for social welfare in South Africa Int J Soc Welfare 2011: 20: 212–219 © 2010 The Author(s), International Journal of Social Welfare © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of SocialWelfare. The privatisation of some essential services in South Africa has raised severe difficulties for those for whom the idea of fees for services is quite foreign and who, in any case, cannot afford to pay for services. The government has developed several initiatives to educate people about the need to pay for services provided by local government, the largest of which was the Masakhane fees‐for‐services campaign. This article describes two recent initiatives that seek to engage local citizen participation, namely, Integrated Development Plans and izimbizo (or traditional forums). These are examined along with the challenges faced by local government in promoting citizenship participation in service delivery within a decentralised system of governance. The article concludes with some recommendations on how citizen participation can be enhanced so as to make the ‘public’ visible in public service delivery and thus improve social welfare services.     

Controlled and dependent: experiences of living on social assistance in Sweden

Marttila A, Whitehead M, Canvin K, Burström B. Controlled and dependent: experiences of living on social assistance in Sweden
Int J Soc Welfare 2010: 19: 142–151 © 2009 The Author(s), Journal compilation © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare. This study explored experiences of people receiving social assistance in 21st‐century Sweden, based on 33 in‐depth interviews conducted in 2005 and 2006. Two overarching themes emerged from the accounts, encompassing both a material and a psychosocial dimension of living on social assistance. Recipients reported that social assistance was generally sufficient for their basic material needs but allowed for no extras. It was possible to live on social assistance for a short time, but became difficult in the longer term. Perceptions of powerlessness, hopelessness and dependency were common and had the most damaging consequences for the recipients' perceived wellbeing. Some recipients believed that society at large had negative perceptions of people living on social assistance; it was something to be ashamed of but, at the same time, it was the recipients' only possible source of income. Findings of this study are partly similar to previous studies conducted in Sweden, suggesting that improvement in services should take into account the experiences of social assistance recipients.     

Protective legislation: The “third pillar” of the welfare state

Welfare states are built upon three central social policy pillars: (1) income programs, including an assortment of income maintenance and security benefits; (2) social services, comprising a diverse constellation of provisions, which furnish care such as health care and education, and “in kind” benefits; and (3) protective legislation, encompassing a dense web of proactive and preventative laws, rights, and entitlements, such as health and safety legislation, minimum wage laws, child protection acts, rent controls, and laws governing evictions and foreclosures. Despite its centrality to the welfare state and to our well‐being, this third pillar has received considerably less attention in comparative social policy research. The dominant welfare state typologies have focused almost exclusively upon income measures and, more recently, on social services, to construct their welfare state categories or “worlds” of welfare while largely neglecting this crucial third pillar. A greater focus on protective welfare legislation can help sharpen the distinctions among welfare states within and across the welfare worlds, which is particularly valuable in light of the ongoing erosion of the other two pillars over the past few decades.     

Promoting the concept of prevention in social security: issues and challenges for the International Social Security Association1

McKinnon R. Promoting the concept of prevention in social security: issues and challenges for the International Social Security Association Int J Soc Welfare 2010: 19: 455–462 © 2009 The Author, Journal compilation © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare. The history of the relationship between institutional social security and the concept of prevention is a chequered one. Across much of the 20th century, the imputed importance in social policy agendas accorded to prevention, alongside protection and rehabilitation, was only rarely, and somewhat inconsistently, matched in practice. Currently, efforts are underway internationally to promote the importance of the concept in social security more systematically. A key actor in this regard is the International Social Security Association (ISSA). Focusing on the role of the ISSA, the article argues against any possible endeavours, no matter how tentative, that might seek to mainstream the concept of prevention in social security, and concludes as preferable a narrower, but more vigorous, selective approach based on institutional practice to date.     

Lagging behind in good times: immigrants and the increased dependence on social assistance in Sweden

Mood C. Lagging behind in good times: immigrants and the increased dependence on social assistance in Sweden Int J Soc Welfare 2011: 20: 55–65 © 2009 The Author, Journal compilation © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare. After the 1990s recession in Sweden, social assistance (SA) recipiency decreased to levels that were clearly lower than before the recession. However, this decrease masked a strong polarisation: the number of short‐term recipients fell, but the number of long‐term recipients was higher than before the recession. This article shows how SA recipiency and dependence changed over a whole economic cycle in Sweden's largest city, Stockholm, and asks whether the increasing dependence can be explained by immigration. It is shown that the relative increase of long‐term SA is similar among immigrants and native‐born, but decomposition analysis reveals that the increase among native‐born is of minor importance for the overall increase. Nearly half the increase can be attributed instead to the increased representation of immigrants in the population, and another 38 per cent to increased dependence among immigrants. Only 15 per cent of the total increase in long‐term SA is a result of increased dependence among native‐born.     

The welfare politics of Charles Murray are alive and well in the UK

Prideaux SJ. The welfare politics of Charles Murray are alive and well in the UK
Int J Soc Welfare 2010: 19: 293–302 © 2009 The Author(s), Journal compilation © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare. This article takes a historical look at the ‘underclass’ debate that was prominently provoked and perpetuated in Britain by the American Charles Murray. It does so because the recent protestations about gun crime, welfare dependency and lone parenthood by David Cameron and the Conservative Party have not only echoed New Labour's New Deal logic, but have also reignited an argument that furiously raged in British policy debates during the 1980s and 1990s. Despite numerous criticisms and critics questioning Murray's selection of evidence, methodology and use of anecdotal vignettes, it is still apparent that the stereotypical assumptions about a section of British society who choose not to work, live a life of crime and produce inadequately socialised illegitimate children still persist. Consequently, the article revisits these arguments so that lessons from the past can now be brought to the fore and, hopefully, taken on board academically if not politically.     

Improving the lives of Ghanaian children: complementing the global agenda with a structural social work approach

Manful SE, Manful E. Improving the lives of Ghanaian children: complementing the global agenda with a structural social work approach Int J Soc Welfare 2010: 19: 115–123 © 2009 The Author(s), Journal compilation © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare. In principle, Ghana's commitment to the global agenda for improving the welfare of children cannot be disputed. Globalisation has advanced changes in the country's institutional landscape with the introduction of economic reforms and administrative institutional frameworks to improve the welfare of children, amongst others. This article discusses the impacts of two global agendas, the Structural Adjustment Program and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. It argues that the economic reforms and the legal framework to ensure the welfare of children have not achieved their envisaged goals, because the global initiatives focused on institutional changes, neglecting social factors that cause inequalities. Consequently, these factors have contributed to the inability of adequate service provision for children. To alleviate the problem, this article suggests that a structural social work approach be adopted in Ghana as a complementary strategy to improve the welfare of children.     

The impact of social transformation on the non-government welfare sector and the social work profession

This article examines changes to non-government social welfare, their impact on service delivery and on the social work profession. To redress the legacy of the past and the consequent inequalities in social welfare, in the first decade of democracy the government allocated the bulk of its welfare resources to transforming the social security system at the expense of social service delivery. As a result, South Africa has a costly social security budget with social services on the brink of collapse, leaving social workers and other social service professionals with low morale in the face of the huge challenge of providing welfare services with scarce resources, especially in the non-government sector. Nevertheless, social work remains an important role player in social development. From its marginalised position in the first decade of democracy, in the second decade it is repositioning itself as a recognised contributor to reconstruction and development in South Africa.