Minimum Income Standards in Israel: A Recent History in Economic and Humanistic Discourses

Recent years have seen a growing interest in the creation of Minimum Income Standards (MIS). The impetus for this is the belief that governments that do not employ MIS to set income support can ultimately be persuaded to do so. Even as scholars recognize the many hurdles in the way of an MIS's acceptance, they nonetheless hope, and seem to expect, that the hurdles can be overcome and the political will be created to adopt empirical MIS that would allow a decent standard of living. This article, a case study analyzing the setting of income support levels in Israel over more than seven decades, questions this assumption. The analyses, anchored in Veit‐Wilson's notion of discourses, show that the absence of governmental MIS in Israel has not been incidental, but the outcome of repeated conscious decisions, anchored in the primacy of the asocial economistic discourse. This discourse, it shows, served as a strong disincentive to the adoption of governmental MIS, which would have required the government to justify its choice to set income support below that which was needed for a minimum standard of living.     

Performance Management,Caseloads and the Frontline Provision of Social Services

Caseloads and performance management are important working conditions of workers delivering public social services in street‐level organizations. The literature on these working conditions argues that high caseloads and performance management have considerable consequences for workers' performance in terms of the quality of services they provide and the results they realize. This article empirically investigates and compares these consequences, drawing on the results of a quantitative study of frontline workers in 14 local welfare agencies in the Netherlands. These workers are responsible for the delivery of welfare‐to‐work policies to social assistance recipients. The findings show that high caseloads do, indeed, have a detrimental effect on workers' performance, whereas the impact of performance management is more modest, though confirming some of the findings reported in other studies on performance management. The results also show that by focusing service provision on a proportion of their caseload, workers are able to reduce the negative impact of high caseloads somewhat. Overall, the article finds that the negative impact of high caseloads is more pervasive than that of performance management. The article concludes that the recent focus in the literature on performance management and its consequences for public services should not turn scholars' attention away from the ‘traditional’ public administration problem of high caseload sizes.     

Developmental Social Policy,Social Welfare Services and the Non‐profit Sector in South Africa

The potential and challenge of constructing a democratic developmental welfare state through synergistic state‐civil society relations is the focus of this article. The author argues that while South Africa's pluralist approach, involving a leading role for the state in partnership with voluntary organizations, is a viable policy option to address the country's developmental challenges, anomalies between policy proclamations and actual practice raises questions about the efficacy of the partnership model and the gendered nature of welfare provision. Key governance issues and challenges, namely financial policies and institutional capability, underlie current failures in the delivery of welfare and care services, resulting in the non‐realization of these constitutionally guaranteed social rights. Further public action is needed to remedy the situation. Non‐profit organizations can advocate for policy reforms and challenge the instrumental nature of state‐civil relations and the abrogation of state responsibility for welfare services in contemporary South Africa.     

Dimensions of Social Status in Preadolescent Peer Groups: Likability, Perceived Popularity, and Social Dominance

A multidimensional, interdisciplinary model of social status was developed and examined in a sample of 487 fourth, fifth, and sixth grade elementary school students. Participants were clustered into seven subtypes (i.e., High Status, Perceived Popular/Dominant, Well‐Liked/Dominant, Average, Low Dominant/Unpopular, Disliked, and Low Status) based on the dimensions of likability, perceived popularity, and social dominance emphasized, respectively, by psychologists working within the sociometric tradition, sociologists of education, and ethologists. The meaningfulness of the cluster solution was supported by cluster differences on peer‐reported social prerogatives of status (e.g., admiration, social control, leadership) and self‐reported social characteristics. Furthermore, each cluster had a distinct behavioral profile. It was argued that a broader, multidisciplinary conceptualization of social status should lead to a better understanding of the complex dynamics present in children's peer groups in middle childhood as well as the tools preadolescents need to successfully navigate the peer system.     

Poverty, Social Exclusion and Social Policy in the Czech Republic

This article analyses the pattern of poverty and social exclusion in the Czech Republic and the impact of social policy on this pattern. The analysis is mostly based on data from the Czech Survey on Social Conditions of Households (2001; 27,000 respondents); Eurostat data provide a benchmark for making international comparisons. The poverty rate in the Czech Republic is among the lowest in Europe. On the other hand, material deprivation, as well as concentration of poverty within specific population groups, is high, with the unemployed facing the highest risk of poverty. Social policy measures in effect reinforce this pattern: while the benefit system is highly redistributive and effectively eliminates income poverty among households of employed persons and among pensioners, incomes of persons outside paid employment are protected less effectively. Labour market policy measures are insufficient in scope and inadequate in targeting groups which are facing the highest risk of labour market exclusion and poverty. We argue that although this practice is effective at present, it is not sustainable in the long term.     

Nash Bargaining Theory,Nonconvex Problems and Social Welfare Orderings

In this paper we deal with the extension of Nash bargaining theory to nonconvex problems. By focussing on the Social Welfare Ordering associated with a bargaining solution, we characterize the symmetric Nash Bargaining Solution (NBS). Moreover, we obtain a unified method of proof of recent characterization results for the asymmetric single-valued NBS and the symmetric multivalued NBS, as well as their extensions to different domains.     

Public/Private Pension Mix,Income Inequality and Poverty among the Elderly in Europe: An Empirical Analysis Using New and Revised OECD Data

Prior studies have suggested that higher public pensions are associated with lower income inequality among the elderly, whereas the reverse is true for private pensions. Van Vliet et al. ( 2012 ) empirically test whether relative shifts from public to private pension schemes entail higher levels of income inequality among the elderly using panel data from the OECD SOCX and the EU‐SILC databases. Contrasting earlier empirical studies using either cross‐sectional or time‐series data, they do not find evidence that shifts from public to private pension provision are associated with higher levels of income inequality or poverty among the elderly. The aim of the current article is to extend the analysis of Van Vliet et al. by: (1) adding additional countries; (2) adding additionally available years; and (3) using revised OECD SOCX data. In contrast to Van Vliet et al., we find that a greater relative importance of private pensions is associated with higher levels of income inequality and poverty among the elderly. A central explanation of the difference in conclusions stems from the revision of OECD SOCX data.     

Employment, Industrial Relations and Social Policy: New Life in an Old Connection

The purpose of this paper is to account for the revival of both academic and substantive interest in what had long been seen as an unimportant byway of social policy: the role of social partners, especially trade unions, in the management of national social insurance systems. The answer is found in the budgetary crises facing these systems along with the frequent embedded role of the social partner organizations in their governance. Meanwhile, this welfare state role of trade unions then has implications back on to the conduct of industrial relations. The diversity of national experiences is considered, including the reasons for British exceptionalism on this question. Particular use is made of a comparison between Italy and the Netherlands on the one hand (cases of some success in the role of social partners in managing change in social insurance arrangements), and France and Germany on the other (at the time of writing, cases of stalemate).     

Interaction between Voluntary and Statutory Social Service Provision in Sweden: A Matter of Welfare Pluralism,Substitution or Complementarity?

Many welfare states have met with criticism and it has been argued that they are in crisis. Simultaneously, there has been a greater openness to voluntary work as an alternative to statutory services, for example in Sweden. Sometimes the activities of voluntary organizations have been seen as complementary to those of local authorities; at other times this issue has been addressed in terms of welfare pluralism. However, countries with strong welfare states have often been assumed to have insignificant voluntary work—as claimed in substitution theory. The purpose of this article is to examine variation in welfare service provision in the light of welfare pluralism, substitution theory and complementarity theory. The study was carried out in the area of support for relatives of older people in Sweden. It was conducted by means of national questionnaire surveys of voluntary organizations and local authorities in 1999 and 2002. In this period, there was an increase in statutory service provision and more voluntary organizations were involved in service provision. However, it is yet too early to describe this in terms of welfare pluralism. Neither was any evidence found for substitution theory. Furthermore, overlaps in service provision from voluntary organizations and local authorities question complementarity theory, which assumes that different actors specialize in different tasks. Nevertheless, the actors tended to be complementary at a local level. It is suggested that this complementarity might be explained by ideological support for a norm of complementarity.     

韩国应对新冠疫情冲击的社会经济政策及其绩效分析

新冠病毒疫情对韩国社会经济产生了严重的影响,韩国政府采取了多方面的社会经济政策防控疫情,取得了较好的成效,也存在着教训。政府在疫情发生时快速响应,启动公共卫生防疫体系,是使疫情得到有效控制的重要因素。但是在宗教活动中多次发生集体感染,是值得总结的教训。为了应对新冠疫情对社会经济的冲击,韩国政府采取一系列措施较好地控制了疫情在全国范围内的大规模扩散和蔓延;同时,积极采取扩大财政预算、促进对外贸易、扶持受疫情严重影响的产业以及宽松的货币政策等一系列宏观经济政策以及稳定就业、发放灾害补助、支援企业发展等微观经济措施,恢复经济发展。     

Activation,Public Employment Services and their Clients: The Role of Social Class in a Continental Welfare State

This article fills a gap in the existing literature by investigating how public employment service (PES) staff actually deal with their clients under a continental regime of activation. The results reported here are based on interviews both with PES staff and their unemployed clients in Germany. We argue that due to its Bismarckian origins as an insurance‐based system of ‘unemployment protection’, Germany's system of unemployment compensation is attractive not only for the marginalized, but also for core workers. As a result, PES staff deal with clients from very heterogeneous class backgrounds. We demonstrate that social class is a significant factor in client outcomes, and that earlier research has perhaps overemphasized the role of frontline staff as ‘street‐level bureaucrats’. While staff do have considerable power, the result of the encounters between the administration and clients also depends on the capabilities of the clients, which, in turn, are strongly related to social class.     

Exploring Neglected Dimensions of Social Policy: The SDW, Fiscal Welfare and the Exemplar of Local Taxation in England

Titmuss's Social Division of Welfare (SDW) thesis is a vitally important but much neglected element of social policy analysis. This article seeks to explore the SDW, with a particular focus on fiscal welfare. Fiscal welfare has been described as forming a hidden welfare state, and while taxation is one of the main ways in which governments affect the lives of citizens, studies of welfare pay remarkably little attention to its impact. Fiscal welfare is examined by using, as an exemplar, local taxation in England, a subject that itself is neglected within social policy. Local taxation in England is of interest because it illustrates the impact of a system of taxation on different groups of citizens, and how this can operate to the benefit of rich over poor citizens. This is because the current system is highly regressive, meaning that those on low and middle incomes spend proportionately more of their income paying the tax than do those on high incomes. What is of further interest is how within the debate about reform of local taxation, concern with regressivity becomes obscured and ceases to be the focus of attention. We are thus provided with an example of how fiscal welfare remains a hidden issue. The article concludes by arguing that social policy analysis needs to move beyond the narrow confines of social welfare and develop a broader understanding of welfare, based on the SDW.     

组织动员、行动策略与机会结构——业主集体行动结果的影响因素分析

本文从组织动员、行动策略和机会结构三个维度出发,基于发生在1999-2012年的中国191个业主维权案例,系统考察了纠纷类型、参与人数、维权方式、业主组织和政府反应五个因素对业主集体维权结果的影响。研究发现,在涉及政府部门的行政型纠纷和混合型纠纷中,业主不易维权成功;动员一定数量的业主有助于集体维权成功,但并不意味着动员人数越多,成功可能性越大;不同维权方式及其组合会影响维权结果,非制度化的激进行为并不利于业主实现其利益诉求;真正代表业主利益且能有效运作的业主组织可以显著提高业主维权成功的可能性;政府的行政失当行为(包括不当干预和行政不作为)大大增加了业主维权的难度。这些发现在一定程度上揭示了当前中国强国家-弱社会的现状。     

Social Worker Manpower,Community Economic Disadvantage,and Family Violence: Initial Evidence from Taiwan

This study is the first to explore the effect of social worker manpower on family violence incidents. In addition, it is the first study to investigate the geography of family violence in Taiwan. Using data from the County‐Level Important Indicator Query System, this study performs panel regressions to analyze the determinants of county‐level family violence incidents between 2005 and 2011. The empirical results clearly indicate that family violence incidents tend to be higher in counties that suffer economic disadvantage and in which there is an inadequate deployment of social worker manpower. The findings have important implications for combating family violence.     

调整经济结构,促进国民经济持续、快速、健康发展

调整经济结构是实现经济发展和增长的基础,也是加入经济全球化大循环的必然选择.我国的经济结构在经济转型中存在着诸多矛盾产业结构、产品结构、企业组织结构与市场经济的矛盾;企业经营机制与市场经济要求的矛盾等.经济结构不合理会给经济的发展造成很多困难,很可能使我们丧失知识经济时代所带来的机遇.我们必须坚持经济结构调整的原则,探讨调整经济结构的对策,以利于国民经济的健康发展.     

Social Welfare Reform Since the 1997 Economic Crisis in Korea: Achievement, Limits, and Future Prospects

Social welfare reform has been implemented in Korea since the 1997 financial crisis. A dominant concern of the reform was on equality and social solidarity. A major means to this end was establishing universalistic social insurance programs like those in developed welfare states. The reform efforts produced some positive results but were not greatly successful. Income polarization and the deteriorating economic status of low-income families have become big social issues. Many low-income families have not gained many benefits from the reformed social security system. The rapid aging of the population is creating an exploding demand for social spending, risking the fiscal sustainability of major social insurance programs. The reform experience suggests that a social welfare system based on western-style universal social insurance may be too expensive to sustain and not very effective in protecting disadvantaged families in Korea. More attention is being paid to expenditure control and efficiency. Social insurance programs may need to be leaner than those in traditional welfare states. Targeted programs, such as the "making work pay" policy, are likely to be expanded more broadly to low-income families. The future of the Korean welfare state may hinge on successful employment support for working families and extensive investment in their human capital.     

论中国古代芦苇资源的自然分布、社会利用和文化反映

芦苇是我国分布最为广泛和丰盛的草本资源,唐以前我国北方的生态状况良好,芦苇资源较为丰富。宋以来北方环境恶化,芦苇分布也相对萎缩和减少。唐以前人们对南方的芦苇资源关注不多,中唐以来随着人口增加和经济中心的南移,长江中下游流域和东部沿海地区的芦洲苇区受到重视。我国人民利用芦苇至少有7000多年的历史,芦苇编席绞绳、用作建筑材料的历史最久,新石器遗址即发现芦席、芦泥土块,民间编席、盖屋一直延续至今。芦苇的燃料价值最为重要,先秦时即设官专事积贮,明清时森林资源匮乏,芦柴资源就日见重要。芦苇的食用、药用始见于汉,此后长用不衰。宋元以来,沿江滨海芦洲苇地开始征税,官民之间竞谋其利,构成了经济史上一个特殊的现象,突出体现了芦苇资源的历史价值。芦苇广泛的自然分布和普遍的经济应用,也激发人们广泛的兴趣,相应的文学艺术作品极为丰富。芦苇风景以规模浩渺、江湖生境称胜,备受人们的喜爱。人们通过芦苇意象感受时序的变迁,抒发江湖飘泊的情怀,寄托江湖逍遥的志趣,从而赋予了丰富的人文意义。综合自然资源、历史作用和文化意义诸方面的因素而言,芦苇在我国草本植物资源中极其重要,地位仅次于竹,而超越于其他植物之上。     

北京社会阶层空间结构的特点、问题及优化

利用北京市第六次人口普查数据,从功能区和街乡尺度分析北京社会阶层的空间分布,发现北京还未形成以中产阶层为主体的橄榄型社会结构,社会阶层结构在空间分布上表现为四个圈层梯度分布的同心圆格局,在空间分化上表现为阶层分隔与互嵌的马赛克状。研究认为,应该大幅度改革居住证制度以吸纳社会精英、推动社会下层聚居区的绅士化、率先统一城乡经济社会体制、调整超级街乡行政区划,从而优化北京社会阶层的空间结构。     

Children's Living Conditions in Sweden. Social Patterns and Trends in Parental Accessibility, Child Care and Economic Resources

In this study, using data from the Swedish level of living surveys in 1981 and 1991 of more than 3,500 children, social patterns and trends in children's living conditions are analysed. The conditions focused on are linked to parental employment, namely, parental accessibility, use of child care and economic resources. The primary statistical method used is logistic regression analysis. The results show differences in children's access to mothers and fathers as parental access is restricted by various aspects of employment. There were also differences in childrenrsquo;s resources by social class and family structure. Of further importance was the combination of these, especially in the way that social class was more decisive for the children of single parents.