Social Policy in Harsh Times. Social Security Development in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden during the 1980s and 1990s

For the past two decades, Nordic social policy has been subject to a range of serious challenges, among which economic problems and critiques by neo-classical economists have been most prominent. This article raises the question whether Nordic social policy has significantly changed during this period of challenges. Based on an empirical analysis of social expenditure data and three central social security programs, this article provides evidence that changes in Nordic social policy over this period have, in fact, been relatively minor. Indeed, the four welfare states of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden have shown remarkable resilience considering the harsh challenges that they have been exposed to since the early 1980s.     

The Politics of Social Policy Language

A number of scholars have recently shown that key social policy concepts like ‘welfare state’ are both vague and problematic. Drawing on the international literature on the role of ideas in social policy, this article compares the development of two major policy concepts in two countries where the language of social policy is openly contentious: the USA and France. Focusing on the last three decades, the article discusses the meaning and development of the concepts of ‘social security’/‘sécurité sociale’ and ‘welfare state’/‘État‐providence’ in both countries. As suggested, these two concepts have long been controversial, in part because they are typically involved in the inherently political drawing and redrawing of the contested boundaries of state action. Overall, the article explains how the comparative analysis of social policy language can help scholars adopt a more reflexive approach.     

Social Policy and Development in Latin America: The Long View

In the new development strategy currently shaping Latin America, alternative social policy models have emerged. This article argues that far from being rival alternatives, each of these models considers the wide differences among countries. The region is emerging from a century of transformation – from a traditional agrarian economy to an urban industrial one – in which countries have taken diverse historical paths. Some have almost completed this transformation, others are taking early steps, and the vast majority are living through it. State‐led transition has followed two successive development strategies. From the 1920s up to the 1980s, state developmentalism has mostly successfully assumed the twin challenges of economic and social progress. In the last two decades of the century, Latin American states adopted the policies of the Washington Consensus, which emphasized the importance of business in the framework of globalization and benefited the affluent few. However, an unambiguous shift in direction has been taking place in Latin America since the 1997 economic crisis. This article suggests that a new developmental welfare state model seems to be in the making. How will it evolve over the wider space of an increasingly integrated Latin America?     

社会工作视角下的城市居民最低生活保障制度

我国经济发展和社会转型时期,城市居民最低生活保障被称作是城镇居民的“最后一道安全网”。本文阐述了中国城市居民最低生活保障制度实施的历史和现状．在对城市居民最低生活保障政策实施过程中出现的问题进行分析基础上,探讨运用社会工作的方法实施城市居民最低生活保障政策。     

China's social assistance policy: experiences and future directions

The Minimum Living Standard Guarantee System (MLSGS) forms the core of China's current social assistance policy, and special assistance programmes are used to supplement this policy. This paper scrutinizes the evolution and achievements of the social assistance policy, and analyses the challenges and problems that the policy faces. In this paper, we argue that the international trend of social assistance reforms, institutional background changes and the problems of social assistance in China require a developmental model to guide the future development of the social assistance policy. Therefore, social assistance policy should not only fulfil the basic living requirements of the underprivileged and enable underprivileged people to share the outcomes of economic and social development, but also should enable the underprivileged to develop human capital and participate in the labour market. To move towards developmental social assistance, this article proposes several relevant policy suggestions.     

Changes of Electoral Politics under the Growing Wealth Gap in East Asia since the Global Financial Crisis: South Korea and China’s Taiwan in Comparison

Abstract

The economic recession caused by the global financial crisis of 2008 affected political change across the world in different ways. Economic and social problems turned into political crises in North Africa. In Europe and America, dissatisfaction over such problems caused social unrest but did not imperil the political order. In East Asia, where competitive party politics have just emerged, the financial crisis sparked a correlative political and economic reaction model involving economic recession—growing wealth gap—public policy transition in electoral politics. Major electoral campaigns over the past five years in China’s Taiwan, the Republic of Korea and other economies in East Asia indicate that prioritizing economic growth and equitable distribution are emerging to be common core issues in different parties’ electoral competition despite remnant historical questions and highly politicized issues. The new electoral politics based on public policy competition has gained greater space for development against the background of an economic recession and a growing wealth gap, and is exerting a profound influence on the political and economic development process in East Asia.     

Poverty and anti-poverty measures in China

During three decades of rapid economic development and governmental anti-poverty measures, China achieved considerable success in poverty alleviation. However, because poverty remains a severe problem, this research analysed the causes and implications of poverty as well as the associated social policies, based on official statistics and survey data. Three decades of successful anti-poverty measures, have largely reduced ‘absolute poverty’, yet ‘relative poverty’ is still severe and substantial challenges remain, caused by the changing socioeconomic circumstances. To enhance poverty alleviation, relevant social policies should be reformed, including changing the underlying approach from addressing absolute poverty to addressing relative poverty, increasing the beneficiary coverage and raising the level of benefits, increasing public funding and improving the relevant administrative systems.     

Extension of social insurance coverage to informal economy workers in China: An administrative and institutional perspective

This article reviews administrative issues in the context of decentralized social protection in China. In particular, what are the main obstacles to expanding social insurance coverage for workers in the informal economy? Over the last two decades, China has achieved remarkable progress toward universal social protection when this target was set as a national policy priority. However, the social insurance enrolment of informal economy workers still lags significantly behind. This article reviews the application of the International Labour Organization’s definition of informality in the Chinese context and overviews existing pension and health insurances in China. This article discusses the impact of China’s inter‐governmental fiscal relations and decentralized social protection in the multilevel government system. The article highlights that under a system of decentralized managed social insurance many informal economy workers choose to opt out of the system because of low benefits and high compliance costs. This result in deficits in social insurance coverage amongst informal economy workers.     

Social Policymaking and Its Institutional Basis: Transition of The Chinese Social Security System

This article discusses Chinese social policy development in response to the growth of the market economy. It provides a general overview of the system's evolution in three stages: (1) the pre‐reform period when a system of enterprise welfare was in operation; (2) a period of system transition; (3) the stage when state welfare began to take shape. These developmental trends are interpreted on the basis of three types of institutional relations: the State‐enterprise relation, the enterprise‐ (or employer‐) employee relation, and the individual/worker‐State relation. Moreover, the discussion deals with policy perceptions at each stage of the developmental process. Based on these analyses, it illustrates the transformation of the Chinese social security system in a broad socioeconomic and political context, where China struggled to establish a modern, market‐based enterprise system. The paper thus expounds issues of socialism, market forces and the power of organized labour.     

Green social work and its implications for social development in China

Green social work has been significant in introducing new issues into environmental debates and increasing its centrality to social work practice. These have included: the mainstreaming of environmental considerations; a widening of the theoretical and practice base to ensure that social and environmental justice are considered integral to any environmental involvement by social workers; highlighting the need to think of innovative approaches to socio-economic development; and making disaster interventions core elements in the social work repertoire of knowledge, skills, capacity building and curriculum formulation. This paper considers the challenges of China’s rapid industrialisation and its implications for rural people migrating into cities, the urban populations that receive them and environmental degradation. It introduces the idea of green social work and discusses the implications of green social work for social development in China in the context of environmental crises precipitated by the country’s rapid economic development.     

Empowering Children Left Behind in China

In the last two decades in rural China, increasing numbers of children of economic migrants have been left behind with kin, which is of growing concern for social work and welfare policy. The genesis of this rural to urban migration has been China's rapid economic development and greater opportunities for work in better paying jobs in cities. However, there is growing evidence of the negative impact upon these children. This paper reports the views of caregivers (n = 23) and school personnel (n = 5) from a small town in Northeast China. Interviews sought adults opinions on these children's needs, with the major outcome being children's need to be empowered – to be respected, to express themselves, to have influence, and to be supported to be able to more fully participate in education and their communities. We argue that caregiver strategies to empower children left behind provide insight into culturally appropriate processes and practices that underpin social inclusion. However, some discrepancies between the views of caregivers and school personnel alert us to the potential for tension between family and broader community and institutional views. Implications for social work practice include responding to the cultural values embedded in child rearing practices and local ideas about children's entitlements.     

The use of social science research to inform policy development: case studies from recent immigration policy

Abstract

This paper explores how social science research has informed recent immigration policy development in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Examples of research use, drawn from in-depth interviews with policy advisors and social science researchers working in the immigration area, are discussed using the stages model of policy development. Intersections between the stages and multiple-streams models of policy development, and Weiss's typologies of research use, are used to examine research use at various stages in the policy development process. The findings suggest that at any point in time there may be any number of policy development stages in action, with research exerting different types of influence, and being used in different ways, within each of these. A two-way conversation between researchers and policy-makers, building mutual understanding and enabling reciprocated influence over research and policy decisions, is shown as critical in bridging the research to policy gap.     

试析冷战后印度中亚政策的演变

从1991年中亚国家先后独立到现在,印度的中亚政策经历了三个发展阶段。从1991年至1998年,这一阶段印度中亚政策的主要任务是通过加强与新独立的中亚国家之间的接触,为印度与中亚关系的发展打下基础。从1998年至2001年,随着国际形势与印度自身发展的需要,中亚国家成为印度加快自身经济发展和打击极端主义与恐怖主义的重要合作伙伴。2001年至今,印度加大了对中亚地区的关注与投入,致力于加强与中亚国家在政治、经济、安全与文化诸领域的合作,印度在中亚的影响也随之增强。虽然印度与中亚国家关系的发展仍受到一些制约,但印度介入中亚事务越来越明确的态势值得关注。     

Historical development and characteristics of social work in today's China

Social work education has experienced three stages since its introduction to China in the 1920s: introduction, abolishment and reinstatement. Theoretically, there are four types of social work in China: official–educational, official–practical, voluntary–educational and voluntary–practical. In practice, all four types of social work have not necessarily been embodied in each developmental stage, and the order of their historical development is not the same as the order of their logical development; i.e. some types are lacking in some of the stages. Each type of social work has its own characteristics, which are integrated into each development stage. Today, Chinese social work faces two major interrelated tasks: the professionalisation and the institutionalisation of social work. The former refers to the development of standardisation in Chinese social work; the latter has to do with the development of the social welfare institution in general and the development of institutional welfare in particular. In general, the dramatic development in Chinese social work largely depends on the accomplishment of the two tasks.     

The Role of Family in Career Choices among Social Workers in China

Abstract

High turnover rate affects social work workforce development in China. Few empirical studies have been conducted to explore the factors that have influences on turnover intention among Chinese social workers. This study used data from China General Survey on Professional Social Workers to examine the influence of job satisfaction and family attitude on social workers’ career choices. The findings reveal that both job satisfaction and family’ attitude toward the profession have significant effects on social workers’ turnover intention. Family’s support or disapproval of the social work profession has moderate effect on the negative correlation between job satisfaction and turnover intention. The findings could be explained by the familyism culture of Chinese society and unique challenges of professional development experienced by social workers in China. Future studies should consider the influence of family to develop a more comprehensive research framework. Management in social service agencies should help family of social workers to learn and embrace the profession to gain their support of choosing social work as career.     

Social Support for Mothers of Children With Disabilities in China

ABSTRACT.

This article analyzes the gendered parenting experiences of mothers of children with disabilities in China. These mothers struggle to meet their children's needs, including daily care, financial security, and child development. In the context of China's social welfare development, are social services responding to their needs, so that mothers can share responsibility for the needs of their children with disabilities? The research analyzed qualitative data about 6 case-study children in rural and urban China. The data were derived from observation and interviews with their parents and other family and community members. The analysis revealed that the capacity of the mother, community, and local social services had an impact on the rights of the children and mothers. They experienced social discrimination, insufficient social support, and local failure to implement central policy social services and income support. These findings are consistent with international research about disability rights. They reinforce the importance of economic redistribution to enable local implementation of the national disability rights policies, rather than merely relying on ephemeral concepts of cultural change. Further research about the comparative impact of economic and social change in China on mothers and children with disabilities would extend these findings.     

Intimate Partner Violence Survivors’ Unmet Social Service Needs

ABSTRACT

Women who have experienced intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization are at risk for physical and mental health problems, as well as social and economic challenges. In this cross-sectional study, 173 adult, English-speaking women who had experienced police response to IPV completed a self-report questionnaire about their use of, interest in, and need for various social services and whether or not each type of service helped (or would help) them to feel safer. More than three quarters of the participants reported a current need for health and economic support services. There was less interest in traditional IPV resources: law enforcement and domestic violence counseling or shelter. Expanding services to meet survivors’ needs for health care and economic independence may facilitate long-term safety. Recommendations for further research in this area are provided.     

The impact of de-globalization on China’s economic transformation: Evidence from manufacturing export

The economic transformation is an important policy practice of economic development in China. In the context of “deglobalization”, it is critically important to better understand the impacts of increasing trade costs on China’s economic transformation from the perspective of firms’ exports. In this study, we measure the trade costs of specific manufacturing sectors and provinces. We employ Heckman (1979) two-stage method and the data from China’s manufacturing firms to investigate the impacts of trade costs on heterogeneous firms’ exports. Based on these results, we further explore the impacts of trade costs on China’s economic transformation and discuss policy advisories. Our results indicate that the increase in trade costs have adverse impacts on China’s economic transformation. Specifically, increasing trade costs hinder firms’ export behaviors and export scales. However, these impacts are heterogeneous on different types of firms, which refers to the ownership reforms, manufacturing sector upgrades and coordinated regional development. In particular, increasing trade costs do not affect coordinated regional development in China, but they are not conducive to ownership reforms and manufacturing sector upgrades. Altogether, our findings provide the first evidence on the impacts of trade costs on China’s economic transformation from the perspective of firms’ exports, and also shed light on policy implications for promoting firms’ exports and economic transformation in the “deglobalization” period.     

当代中国决策体制的形成与变革(英文)

中国的决策体制是中国政治体制的中枢系统，也是决定中国发展的关键因素。以中国共产党为领导核心的决策体制是在中国共产党领导革命、创建新中国的长期历史中形成的，具有其历史合理性。决策体制从建立到改革开放前呈现集中化的趋势。决策权力日趋集中的体制，存在着决策结构专业化分工程度不高、制度化程度低、偏重经验决策、决策过程封闭和缺乏自我修正与调节机制等弊端。改革开放后，决策体制改革的重点，是在决策结构、决策方式和决策机制三个主要方面推进决策的民主化、科学化和法治化建设。决策体制改革的实践证明，以决策民主化、科学化和法治化为导向的决策体制改革，成功应对了中国由经济和社会迅速变迁所带来的各种挑战。从政治发展的角度看，决策体制改革呈现出的基本趋势是：从个人决策向民主决策、从经验决策向科学决策、从决策组织高度集中向决策组织结构分化、从封闭式决策向开放式决策、从被动参与决策向自主参与决策、从决策非制度化向决策制度化转变。一个中国共产党主导、多方参与、科学论证、过程开放、依法运行的决策模式在决策体制改革的实践中初步形成。     

社会工作视角下的城市居民最低生活保障制度

我国经济发展和社会转型时期,城市居民最低生活保障被称作是城镇居民的"最后一道安全网"。本文阐述了中国城市居民最低生活保障制度实施的历史和现状,在对城市居民最低生活保障政策实施过程中出现的问题进行分析基础上,探讨运用社会工作的方法实施城市居民最低生活保障政策。