Social assistance in China and Sweden: how policy intentions are translated into local practices

This article compares social assistance policies in China and Sweden, with a special focus on the means of translating policy intentions into local practices. Unlike China, Sweden has laws regulating social assistance, which is intended to ensure a ‘reasonable standard of living’. Though considered a legal right, assistance is Sweden is means-tested. While social assistance claims are dealt with by the welfare bureaucracy in Sweden, in China the process of application involves the input of cadres, administrative officials from different levels of government, and neighbours. The challenges facing Sweden are to find ways to cope with long-term social assistance and to help recipients find work. The challenges facing China are to establish a social assistance law and standardized management procedures, and to incorporate the resources of social work.     

Welfare Stigma of Social Assistance on Women Recipients in Urban China

Abstract

In urban China, the study of the welfare stigma of poor females receiving social assistance is neglected. An in-depth interview method was used with 16 urban female assistance recipients aged 16–70?years old in the city of Chengdu to examine the forms and the consequences of welfare stigma on them. The purpose of the study is to examine the issue of welfare stigma of female assistance recipients in urban China by means of empirical evidence. The findings suggest that female assistance recipients suffer from welfare stigma in three forms: identity stigma, treatment stigma, and procedure stigma. The three kinds of stigmas mingled with each other are imposed on the female assistance recipients and make them victims of constructed welfare stigma. Welfare stigma does not affect the decision to apply for assistance to meet basic living expenses. Suffering from welfare stigma positions female recipients in a state of isolation and exclusion. The study’s results suggest that efforts should be made to reduce and eliminate welfare stigma of social assistance on female assistance recipients in urban China. Future study should be broadened to consider the comparison of the stigma on female recipients with that on male recipients.     

Social Workers and Policy- Practice: The Role of Social and Professional Values

ABSTRACT

Although policy practice is regarded as an essential component of social work, the actual involvement of social workers in policy practice is apparently very limited. This article presents the findings of a study that seeks to explore the role of social and professional values in support by social workers in Israel for engagement in policy practice and their actual involvement in this type of practice. The findings indicate that socioeconomic orientations and professional values have an impact on social worker's perception of policy practice and the degree to which they are actually involved in the social welfare policy process. In particular, it was found that attitudes toward social justice played a major role in the social worker's perceptions of, and involvement in, policy practice.     

浅议我国社会救助制度的几个现实困境

社会救助是社会保障体系的重要组成部分,它与民生、社会稳定密切相关。转型时期,中国的社会救助的改革取得了很大的成绩,覆盖城乡的社会救助体系已基本建立,但在社会救助政策的实践过程中仍然存在一些问题,这些问题能否解决关系到我国的社会救助制度能否进一步发展、完善,关系到广大人民能否分享我国经济社会的改革发展成果。本文主要从我国社会救助思想的理论基础和思想渊源出发,探讨了我国社会救助实施过程中几个现实问题,并针对这些问题提出了政策建议。     

Patterns of social assistance receipt in Sweden

This article analyses the situation of Swedish-born people who became first-time receivers of social assistance in 1987 and 1992. The macroeconomic situation at the time of entry was rather different for the two cohorts and the number of new entrances increased by almost 50%. Much of the increase consisted of young adults and experience of social assistance has been shown to be fairly widespread among persons under the age of 25. Bridging the period when individuals are supported by their parents to their becoming established as wage earners has become an important function of social assistance in Sweden. The pattern of social assistance receipt is rather heterogeneous across new recipients. The complex pattern of receipt means that the duration of social assistance can appear to vary depending on one's choice of perspective. On the one hand, the median duration of social assistance receipt is as low as two years when an eleven-year follow-up period is applied. On the other hand, among people who receive social assistance during a given year, as many as half had entered receipt more than four years earlier.     

Activation in the Austrian Social Assistance Scheme – Unproductive Pressure and Low Support

Activation is an essential part of social assistance schemes. This article provides an insight into the implementation of activation in the Austrian social assistance scheme by analyzing the work requirements and support offered in two provinces, Upper Austria and Styria. The main questions addressed include: Does social assistance require everyone to look for employment? What kind of requirements do social assistance offices set, what support do they offer and to whom? To what extent do those activation measures lead to a job search? The analysis draws on survey results for 1,071 claimants and recipients in the two provinces. It is shown that social assistance does not require all respondents to search for employment, and that activation actually depends on province as well as personal circumstances. Items are formed by identifying low and high conditionality in terms of support and pressure based on 11 questions. Current practice incorporates supportive forms of activation to a lesser degree than efforts to force people to find work, due to pressures from the caseworker. Although high conditionality is not found to affect the job search activity, the job search requirement itself fosters people's search for employment.     

完善农民工社会救助研究

享有社会救助是农民工的一项权利。国家和社会正在共同解决农民工社会救助问题。要完善农民工社会救助,必须走法治之路,进一步增强国家对农民工社会救助的责任和能力,继续发挥社会力量在农民工社会救助中的作用。农民工在得到社会救助之前和之后也要承担一定的义务。     

Question worth 20 million lives: Why federal housing assistance has not had its Obamacare

The equitable character of a policy determines its progressiveness, yet some domestic policies are more equitable than others. The question of how and why this is the case is addressed by studying federal housing and health policies in the United States, a critical case known for its rampant inequalities in both sectors. Although social equity is a fundamental aspect of welfare provision, explaining differences in coverage and government support among policy areas remains a weakness in the literature. This comparative historical analysis shows that both housing assistance and health care suffered from inequities almost as early as their inception. But a progressive reform took shape with the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and extended coverage to 20 million people formerly uninsured. This essay tackles an unsolved puzzle: Why has such grand policy reform never taken place in housing where more than 20 million people are eligible for assistance but do not receive help? We found that it is largely explained by housing assistance distinctiveness with regard to its weak constituency, racial connotation and low public concern. We conclude with the analytical payoffs of studying social equity, both for political scientists and observers of social affairs.     

Managing the tensions between service and advocacy: The case of the AJEEC Social Change Service Organization,Naqab, Israel

The tension between providing services to marginalized groups and organizing them for advocacy to challenge power structures is a fundamental dilemma for Social Change Service Organizations (SCSO). This dilemma exists in many civil society organizations, especially those that work with indigenous communities, such as the Bedouin in Israel, where providing immediate services and advocating for policy change are crucial. Literature shows the tensions that arise from combining service provision and advocacy. However, there are very few studies showing how these organizations manage and overcome these tensions sustainably. The present study is an exploratory case study using the AJEEC (Arab‐Jewish Center for Empowerment, Equality, and Cooperation) in the Naqab as an instrumental single case. It provides an in‐depth understanding of the tensions AJEEC is facing and reveals AJEEC’s unique approach and strategies for managing these tensions effectively and sustainably within the social, political, and cultural contexts. It presents implications for research, policy, and practice.     

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.     

How unemployment duration affects social assistance receipt: evidence from Finland

This article reports on a study of the impact of unemployment duration on the probability of becoming a social assistance recipient and on the time spent on social assistance. The data are taken from a local Finnish labour market consisting of the cohort of unemployed people at a given date (n = 2,274). The data are linked to information about the number of months recipients received social assistance during the subsequent year. Count data regression models of the hurdle type are estimated. The results of the analysis suggest that the impact of unemployment duration on the probability of becoming a social assistance recipient is explained to a large extent by changes in the distribution of types of unemployment benefits between people with different lengths of time spent in unemployment. Unemployment assistance recipients are more likely to become social assistance recipients and to spend longer periods on social assistance than are recipients of unemployment insurance because the unemployment benefits for the latter are higher. Among social assistance recipients, time spent on the transfer increases with unemployment duration only for those who are in frequent need of assistance.     

Trends among social assistance recipients in Sweden since 1945

The proportion of the Swedish population that receives means-tested social assistance has not decreased since 1945. This has been cited as a surprising research finding, since there has been a general increase in the standard of living and in income equality during the same period. The income of assistance recipients is no lower than for a substantial minority of the non-recipient population. This analysis shows that assistance recipients differ from others with low incomes in that they have less wealth and more problems concerning welfare or standard of living. It is shown that groups that traditionally have had an overrepresentation of assistance recipients have generally increased in size since 1945. Even though supply-side hypotheses cannot be ruled out as explanations for the non-decrease of social assistance, evidence indicates the persistence of people in need of assistance due to their marginal economic position in the Swedish welfare state.     

A comparison of social assistance in China and Sweden

This article compares social assistance in China and Sweden, and finds a number of similarities. In both countries, benefits are regulated by a national policy, while local governments are responsible for administration. The proportion of the population receiving social assistance is surprisingly similar in China and Sweden. Social assistance reduces dire poverty but is less successful in raising full-year recipients above the poverty line used in international comparisons of developed countries. During the last decade, the income thresholds used to assess claims have not increased at the same rate as the mean income level in both countries. Not surprisingly, there are also substantial differences in the social assistance systems of the two countries. The Swedish system has a long history; the Chinese is relatively recent. The income thresholds differ in terms of their method of calculation and the extent of the relief they offer. While the same thresholds are applied across Sweden, in China they vary by location. The profiles of recipients also differ between countries.     

The Functional Value of Social Capital

In the decade plus since I raised social capital in the ABC Boyer lectures, too much of recent discussions and work have failed to relate practice and theory. Strong interest in the idea by governments and many practitioners, often looking for measures of community competencies, offer scales of varying merit. At the same time there has been continuing, often bitter, academic debates on the problems of definitions and its possible ideological flaws and origins. This schism has resulted in inadequate rigorous debates on the usefulness or otherwise of the ways in which it is being applied. In exploring this dilemma, I suggest we should accept social capital as the equivalent of fuzzy logic, it works but why isn't clear, so let's focus on how to use it effectively, rather than fighting phantom battles.     

Canada's Social Security Review – A Comment from the Outside

The voluntary sector in Canada made largely unavailing efforts to participate in Canada's Social Security Review from 1973 to 1977, although it was clear that it had a legitimate and direct interest in the outcome of the review. The story of these efforts highlights a dilemma facing the voluntary sector. It desires to promote improved federal/state coordination and planning in the social services and social security. At the same time it claims the right to participate in policies which will vitally affect it. The Canadian experience suggests that to promote the first leads to a retreat from the second. This is not necessarily inevitable but some would argue that the only satisfactory answer lies in a Freedom of Information Act which will force policy making processes out into the open.     

谈中国特色社会工作行政体制建构

在中国情境下,社会工作发展与西方国家有不同特点,社会工作行政作为社会工作的间接专业方法,也有其不同于西方国家的特色。本文从社会工作行政与社会政策的关系问题、社会工作行政的对象问题、社会服务活动中的人力资源管理、学生实习的双重功能问题,以及社会工作行政的伦理困惑等五个方面,探讨了构建中国特色社会工作行政知识体系及制度架构所遇到的理论和实践议题,并在此基础上提出建构中国特色社会工作行政体制的政策建议,包括:建构与完善社会福利政策体系;构建与完善社会工作组织体系;加快社会工作行政高级人才培育;加强对于社会工作行政的理论和实践研究。     

Does Active Labour Market Policy have an Impact on Social Marginalization?

Countless evaluations of active labour market policy (ALMP) have been conducted in the last decade. The common denominator for most of these evaluations is a focus on employment (self‐sufficiency) as the dependent variable, where the success of ALMP is measured in terms of the number of unemployed finding ordinary employment after (or immediately before) participating in an activation programme. The main argument in this article is that this focus is inadequate. For many long‐term unemployed people, it would be an understatement to describe the road to employment as merely ‘bumpy’. Research must take this into consideration. This article therefore deals with the Danish activation policy from a new perspective by analyzing the impact on different aspects of social marginalization, focusing on long‐term social assistance recipients. Using data from a comprehensive, representative quantitative survey of Danish unemployed conducted in 2007, the first analysis convincingly reveals that we fail to find any systematic correlation between participation in ALMP and any of the social marginalization indicators. The second analysis presents a more mixed picture of the participant's own assessment of the impact of ALMP on their self‐esteem; some are quite positive, while others are more neutral or even rather negative. Taking the existing research into account, these results leave us with conceptual and methodological questions for further research.     

论社会救助中的预防机制和服务保障：社会工作的功能及其运用

在社会救助中，社会工作应充分发挥其预防性功能。专业的社会工作能够在价值理念、理论模式、实务技巧及救助效果等四个方面指导、协助社会救助工作的展开，并使得社会救助的服务工作有效实施。社会救助与社会工作两者之间的有机衔接，将使得社会救助真正实现“从救济到救助、从保障到共生”的转变。     

Discourse change and policy development in social assistance in China

Zhang H. Discourse change and policy development in social assistance in China Since the introduction of a new social assistance programme in urban China, the state was eventually able to expand the programme to rural areas as a further step towards integrating the development of social assistance in urban and rural areas. This article argues that the development of social assistance in China can be explained by the change of discourse among the officials and the elites in central government. The discourse on social assistance can be conceptualised in three periods: the urban‐first discourse (1999–2003); the discourse debate (2003–2007); and the urban–rural integration discourse (2007–present). Through scrutinising specific discourses and the policy development of social assistance in these three periods, it appears that in company with the change in the discourse process, rural social assistance was developed rapidly in order to construct an integrated social assistance system. The article concludes that discourse plays a significant role in Chinese social assistance policy development.