Social Work, Asset-based Welfare and the Child Trust Fund

Asset-based welfare represents a new departure in British incomemaintenance policy and the Child Trust Fund is its most importantcontemporary example. This Research Note explores the claimsmade for asset-based welfare in general and for the Child TrustFund in particular. It sets out the results of an investigationinto the views of young people into potential uses which individualsmight make of the Fund. It then suggests a series of reasonswhy social workers ought to take a particular interest in thedevelopment of asset-based welfare policies and the benefitswhich might flow from them.     

Social Policy for Social Work: A Teaching Agenda

Though social justice is a central goal of the social work profession,the actual involvement of social workers in social change isvery limited. Moreover, training in social policy and policypractice in schools of social work is minimal. As such, practitionerslack the tools needed to analyse existing social problems andpolicies and to enable them to intervene in the policy processin order to better serve the needs of service users. This articleseeks to further social policy teaching within social work educationby engaging in a survey of the existing literature on the subjectand by offering a detailed programme for integrating this subjectinto the social work training system. The literature surveythat serves as a basis for this programme includes a reviewof studies on the dilemmas linked to social policy teaching,on the goals and content of social policy courses in socialwork and on preferred teaching methods in this field.     

Toward universal,progressive, and lifelong asset building: introduction to the special issue on inclusive child development accounts

ABSTRACT

Child Development Accounts (CDAs) are subsidised savings or investment accounts that enable families to accumulate assets to invest in children’s long-term development. Ideally, CDAs are universal (everyone participates), progressive (greater subsidies for the poor) and lifelong (beginning at birth). This introduction provides a theoretical and policy background of CDAs in the global context, summarises seven papers in this volume and creates a vision for future CDA development.     

协商民主视域下的政策议程设定

在目前中国的体制下,阻碍社会问题进入政策议程的因素主要有以下几个方面：政府主导型的议程设置模式、特殊利益集团对政策议程的不公平的干预、片面追求GDP的经济发展模式。这些因素只能导致社会问题的积蓄和扩大,不利于矛盾的解决。而作为决策形式的协商民主理论,强调公民参与的议程设定模式,体现公民参与的公平、效率、自由和安全,以保证公共政策所应有的价值和目标取向。     

Child Support: The Limits of Social Policy Based on Assumptions of Knavery Extending the Pillars of Social Policy Financing to Aged Care

Julian Le Grand has argued that a key component of welfare reform involves changes in the assumptions about human behaviour which are embedded in social policies. Policy assumptions have been transformed from espousing a belief that social service providers act as well-intentioned knights and recipients as passive pawns, to a stance in which all participants are regarded as self-seeking knaves. These ideas are particularly pertinent to policy developments concerning financial obligations for children, and this paper examines these issues in relation to child support policy in New Zealand. It highlights the evident and inevitable failure of this policy to meet its primary stated aim of revenue generation. In New Zealand this failure is compounded by the creation of parallel systems for dealing with children and families, one for financial obligations and the other for care and development, which are founded on diametrically opposed assumptions about human behaviour and capabilities. This confusion is symptomatic of a wider failure in government policy towards families in New Zealand.     

Social Policy in a Cold Climate: Health and Social Welfare in Russia

The Russian Federation faces multiple challenges for its health and welfare systems and for the development of social policy responses. This article provides a review of some of the key challenges for social policy in Russia and assesses the adequacy of the responses to date. The author surveys recent developments in health and social welfare and makes recommendations on priorities for Russia's policy‐makers and international funders. A range of public health challenges including drug and alcohol misuse, health in prisons and mental health is discussed; HIV/AIDS is singled out for particular attention. While Russia is increasingly attracting the attention of social scientists in the West, there is uncertainty about models and concepts suitable for the analysis of this complex society. Although empirical trends are largely discussed in this article, it is argued that theoretical development is required and some suggestions are made about concepts of the ‘middle range’ to assist in future analyses. Intermediate theories, such as those relating to the management of personal welfare, and development of resilience in a formerly collectivized context, are identified as having explanatory potential for this task.     

Redefining Welfare: Australian Social Policy and Practice

The present paper outlines and analyzes Australia's welfare reform policies as they have been implemented over the past decade. While there have been numerous social policy initiatives over this period, welfare reform provides an interesting site for analysis and review. This suite of policies and programs is of particular importance from several standpoints. First, its target groups – those needing income security assistance, including the unemployed, people with disabilities, and single parents – are historically and traditionally of concern to social work and social welfare. Second, welfare reform policies have had significant impact on social welfare agencies, and the social workers and welfare workers employed in them. Finally, welfare reform has had a wider impact on inequality in Australia and our attitudes to those in need. This paper first provides a brief overview of the context of Australian social policy and welfare, its origins and current situation. It then outlines the key operational elements of welfare reform and how it has been implemented. The third section of the paper offers a critical analysis of these policies and programs and finally poses some questions and issues requiring further discussion and research.     

Transformation: Canadian Social Policy Since 1985

This paper sets out to document and explain the major structural changes which have taken place in Canada's social security system since the mid-1980s. Most major programs have been cut back one way or another, in response to a combination of pressures. Foremost amongst these has been the commitment to reduce federal and provincial government deficits. In addition there have been the consequences of high unemployment and increasing job insecurity, demographic and social changes, and "tax fatigue" on the part of the public. The paper documents major recent changes of social policy both in general—with regard to the changed approach evident at federal level and its effect on social transfers to the provinces—and in respect of key programs, including unemployment/employment insurance, old age pensions/the Canada Pension Plan, and child benefits. The paper next identifies "currents and undercurrents" common to all of the developments commented on: the decline of universality, the practice of "social policy-making by stealth", the evidence of the contemporary Canadian public's "collective ambivalence and loss of memory" in respect of the major, historic social programs. It concludes by urging the case for social reinvestment in genuinely sustainable social policy, in the currently more favourable fiscal climate.     

发展型社会政策及其对我国政府政策制定的启示

20世纪90年代以来,社会政策的理念和实践模式发生了巨大的变化,这集中表现在发展型社会政策理论的形成和实践。发展型社会政策的核心理论是将社会政策看成是一种社会投资行为,注重对人力资本的投资,强调经济发展和社会发展的整合性。本文回顾了发展型社会政策产生的背景,指出发展型社会政策的重要理念,最后指出发展型社会政策对我国政府政策制定的启示。     

Child Poverty and Ecological Contexts of Deprivation and Well‐being: A Critical Review of Budgeting and Social Policy in India

In the context of global developments in the measurement of child poverty, this article critiques the limited success of the Indian government to develop a comprehensive social policy approach to address multi‐faceted deprivation suffered by Indian children. Since independence in 1947, Indian governments have focused on childhood deprivation through various programmes to improve food security, education and health. However, these programmes have functioned in siloes without any linkages to each other, along with poor budgetary commitment which has resulted in sub‐optimal policy outcomes. Based on the theoretical approaches of Amartya Sen's capability approach and Townsend's consensual approach to poverty measurement, this article highlights the intrinsic importance of child well‐being to society. To achieve its objectives, the article is organized into four main parts. First, the article provides an overview of Indian children's deprivation and poverty, and the policy approach. Second, it provides conceptual advancements globally on the measurement of child poverty and deprivation. Third, it highlights the importance of utilizing these indicators to measure child poverty in the Indian context. Fourth, it concludes with a critical analysis of children's budgets and social policy in India to highlight that the Indian government's approach towards child well‐being is not only conceptually flawed, but that its commitment is extremely poor.     

Governmental Rationales for Installing Electronic Information Systems: A Quest for Responsive Social Work

Various authors have argued that electronic information systems (EIS) do not necessarily improve the responsiveness of social work. One of the main reasons given for these failings is the flawed implementation of EIS by professionals. However, we argue that the ongoing debate fails to be explicit about governmental rationales for installing EIS. This article presents the findings of a content analysis that aimed to uncover the governmental rationales for installing EIS in the Flemish child and welfare protection (CWP) system. Our analysis revealed three clusters of rationales. The first cluster supports the use of EIS as an instrument to better match supply and demand. The second cluster shows that the gathered data also serve as an instrument for accountability. A third cluster focuses on the aim of creating more uniformity. Based on our analysis, we argue that it is not flawed implementation that impedes the development of responsive social work; rather, the governmental rationales themselves are flawed.     

Social Policy in Greece: Rhetoric versus Reform

This paper reviews the major social policy developments in Greece during the 1980s and 1990s, focusing on social security, health and employment policies. It argues that the concept of social policy and the practice of politics have been distorted in this country. Social policy reflects the legacy of a heavily politicized and centralized policy‐making system, an impoverished administrative infrastructure and poorly developed social services. Its emergence is characterized by the pursuit of late and ineffective policies. It lacks continuity, planning and coordination, being oriented towards short‐term political expediency. It is largely insurance‐based, reproducing huge inequalities and institutional arrangements which are behind the times. It provides mainly cash benefits, low‐quality but rather expensive health services and marginal social welfare protection. Moreover, the lack of a minimum income safety net confirms the country's weak culture of universalism and social citizenship. By implication, complex policy and interlocking interest linkages have tarnished the “system” with a reputation for strong resistance to progressive change. At the same time, sources of change such as globalization, demographic developments, new household and family/gender patterns, unstable economic growth, fiscal imperatives, programme maturation, as well as persisting unemployment, changing labour markets and rising health care costs, have produced mounting pressures for welfare reform.     

The Search for Coordination: The Case of the Central Policy Review Staff and Social Policy Planning, 1971–77

The Central Policy Review Staff (CPRS) attempted to create an ambitious strategy for the horizontal coordination of social policy in the UK during the early 1970s. The attempt – inspired largely by planning, programming and budgeting systems – was a failure, and gave way to a much modified ‘joint framework for social policies’ in 1975. Recent research has compared the CPRS's joint framework approach to the Labour government's promotion of ‘joined‐up government’ (JUG) in the 2000s. This article provides a case study of the CPRS's work on social policy planning, using archival sources. The case study addresses themes that remain significant, particularly approaches to and the politics of horizontal coordination. Finally, the article makes a modest attempt to signal the differences between the 1970s' approach and ‘JUG’.     

Social Politics and Policy in an Era of Globalization: Critical Reflections

This paper critically examines the ways in which social policy is said to be affected by globalization. The prevailing approach has been framed in terms of the impact of "external" economic forces on national welfare states. Globalization is said to undermine the economic and political conditions on which welfare states were built, erode national policy autonomy and force the marketization and residualization of welfare states. These predictions are found wanting on the grounds that they share many of the assumptions, and therefore also the faults, of "strong" globalization theory. A more nuanced account of the way in which social politics and social policy are affected by globalization is needed and a global governance perspective is outlined. This, it is argued, better captures the political and institutional environment in which social policy is formulated and implemented. It also recognizes the importance of "local" factors and their interaction with global ones in shaping political responses, including social policy, to globalization. The discussion highlights the enduring power of "local" forces—those which are at the level of and internal to states—and of politics and ideology in shaping the process of globalization and ultimately its implications for welfare states and social policies.     

嵌入社会框架的社会福利模式：理论与政策反思*

20世纪90年代，在福利国家危机重重的背景下，吉登斯的第三条道路的超越构想理论应运而生。该理论首先解构了后传统社会，由此而提出了六个面向社会框架的超越构想；其次，吉登斯将社会福利模式的超越构想嵌入到社会框架中，界定了外部风险和人为风险，由此而提出了消极福利转化到积极福利的超越构想。借鉴嵌入社会框架的社会福利模式的超越构想，本文反思中国社会政策，提出了中国社会政策的新社会框架，即责任提倡、多元部门发展、社会政策议题对话等，提出了中国社会福利模式转化与社会政策改革的原则。     

The "Europeanization" of Spanish Social Policy

The principal features of Spanish social policy are examined since the transition to democracy in the mid-1970s. The period has been dominated by the four governments of the Socialists under Felipe Gonzalez. It will be argued that in terms of the reform of welfare goals and institutional arrangements, as well as welfare inputs and outputs, a significant degree of “Europeanization” has been achieved. This is especially true of the later period of Gonzalez's premiership in which this process, initiated during the Transition, was accelerated.     

Knowledge Communities, Spatial Theory and Social Policy

This paper uses the concept of knowledge communities to account for the relatively low impact of spatial perspectives on welfare policy (marginalization in the economic sphere; limited uptake in the social sphere). However, recent developments in the social sciences include a growing recognition of relationships between discourse, knowledge and power. Central to this work is a recognition of the territorialized nature of knowledge. These developments suggest that social policy has the potential to be reconfigured in a much more geographically sensitive manner.     

The Dynamics of Welfare Policy‐Making in South Korea: Social Movements as Policy Entrepreneurs*

This paper analyzes the role of social movements in the creation and evolution of a welfare state in South Korea. We begin with a theoretical overview of the existing works on policy change, highlighting concepts such as ideas, policy paradigms, and windows of opportunity. We then examine state institutions, hegemonic policy paradigms, and the specific dynamics of welfare policy‐making during South Korea’s authoritarian period (1961–1987). Next, characterizing the democratic transition in 1987 and the economic crisis of 1997–1998 as “windows of opportunity,” we probe how social movements emerged as “policy entrepreneurs” and played crucial roles in building welfare institutions and promoting welfare policies. In particular, we focus on the role of social movements in legislating the National Basic Livelihood Security Act in 1999 and consolidating fragmented health insurance systems in 2000. We conclude that social movements in democratized South Korea have assumed the role of policy entrepreneurs, filling the vacuum left by the central government and elite bureaucrats in the field of social welfare policy‐making.     

Electoral Politics, Ideology and American Social Policy

This article addresses the politics of social policy in the context of the 2004 American presidential election. It examines the divisions in American society and their distinctive agendas. It also explores the record of the Bush administration on key social policy issues and shows how it relates to the broader conservative tradition as well as to the Clinton administration's reform of welfare. Finally, it examines the election results. The article argues that the Bush administration has a distinctive agenda on social policy issues and that its approach is likely to reduce further the role of the social government in the provision of social policy, by emphasizing market forces and philanthropy as well as cutting taxes. It also notes, however, that the Bush administration has taken a strong stance on traditional moral values and that its opposition to abortion and homosexuality is an important part of its political strategy.     

社会政策与社会工作的议题

社会政策与社会工作的研究共同点在于其目的是解决社会问题,从而改善和提高社会福利,一般的研究基于中国背景,更注重实务性;而本文则基于国外发展状况,旨在从理论层面探析影响二者发展的因素。