The political economy of changes in family and old‐age welfare policy spending: Analysis of OECD countries, 1998–2011

This study investigated whether in times of budget constraints and in countries with relatively large family policy spending, family policy has an advantage in the budget competition with old‐age expenditures, compared with countries with a lower level of family policy spending. We employed pooled time‐series cross‐sectional analysis of 24 OECD countries from 1998 to 2011. Our findings suggest that the initial level of family spending tends to moderate the crowding‐out effect of old‐age spending, indicating that the more mature a family spending policy is, the more it resists budget competition from old‐age policy. Furthermore, the size of government debt was found to have an insignificant effect on welfare budgeting. Our findings indicate that retrenchment in welfare spending for old age cannot be fully explained by budget constraints. Politics among interest groups associated with different welfare programmes can be an important determinant in explaining changes in spending on each welfare programme.     

Women and Government Budgets

In recognition of the significant, but often unknown, impact of government budgets on the role and status of women, both Federal and State Labor government administrations have introduced ‘women's budget’ statements. It is important to recognise that the political motivation of governments in establishing women's budgets has been primarily political self interest. To some extent, however, the move also reflects the growing economic focus, and power, of the women's movement. This paper examines the content and limitations of women's budget programs.     

The Historical Development of Family Budget Standards in Britain,from the 17th Century to the Present

This article reviews the British tradition of research into household budget standards and describes a rich history of theoretical and methodological innovation in the social sciences. The origins of this enterprise lie in hypothetical family budget calculations made by political arithmeticians investigating living standards in the 1600s. Systematic budget inquiries emerge in England in the 1790s and by the end of the 19th century, normative standards are applied to determine lines of poverty across sections of British society. The first ‘scientific’ study to do this was conducted in England in 1912, local budget surveys flourish here until after the Second World War; by which time poverty researchers were abandoning them, turning instead to the data which was becoming available from national government surveys of family income and expenditure. Towards the close of the century, however, we see researchers trying to escape some of the circularity posed by family spending, which is, after all, constrained by household income. New and competing methods for determining household budget standards emerge before a groundbreaking inquiry attempts to establish a consensus in the field of minimum income standards research.     

Dragged to Market: Being a Profession in the Postmodern World

Correspondence to M. Aldridge, School of Social Studies, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD Summary Under a regime of quasi-markets, UK public sector occupationsare having to promote themselves as enterprising and argue theircase for a share of public spending. Much of this takes placethrough the news media. In order to do this effectively, somekind of professional grouping is essential. The paper reviewsthe failure of non-probation social work to achieve a professionalformation thus far. Rejecting explanations rooted in attitudes,values and gender, it argues that the core problem since theearly 1970s has been the shifting nature of social senices workbecause of central government policy changes. Now that the profileof social senices tasks is more settled, it is time for socialworkers to abandon their reluctance to claim distinctive expertiseand set about developing a more confident set of intellectualskills and thus an effective voice. In a postmodern age of scepticalconsumers they need not fear élitism as they will, rather,be judged by their effectiveness.     

Linguistic competition and education spending in Spain 1992–2008

Linguistic competition occurs when two or more linguistic groups vie against each other for resources from the same state. What are the effects of this competition on education spending? In this paper, we examine two competing explanations. On the one hand, there is the claim that increasing levels of ethno-linguistic diversity can decrease education spending. On the other hand, there is also the argument that education spending is higher when there is electoral competition. Using a newly assembled dataset of education spending at the subnational level for Spain (1992–2008), we test these two arguments. We find (1) while ethno-linguistic diversity matters for spending, the effect is not in the expected direction and (2) electoral competition can affect education spending. We also find that the type of education curriculum (monolingual versus bilingual) can moderate the effects of ethno-linguistic diversity. These results shed light on the commonly held belief that diversity stunts education spending.     

UNEMPLOYED? BOARD THE ENTERPRISE FOR A BRAVE NEW WORLD AND A ‘REAL’ JOB: A CRITIQUE OF THE NEW STRATEGY FOR REDUCING UNEMPLOYMENT

This paper argues that the changes to the delivery of labour exchange assistance to the unemployed, initiated in the 1996 Federal Budget, are unlikely to deliver on the promise of ‘Helping Australians into Real Jobs’. The changes posited by the government are more realistically viewed as a trend to divesting itself of cost intensive functions through the mechanisms of corporatisation and privatisation. Through an analysis of service expectations, the author suggests that the creation of the employment services market will neither build confidence in the Government's strategy to contain unemployment, nor have a positive impact on reducing levels of unemployment. PEPE Ltd, the government owned employment placement enterprise, faces an interesting future as it competes in an open employment services marketplace. It is further suggested that the privatisation trend has serious implications for equitable service delivery to unemployed Australians.     

Effects of fiscal policy on the U.S. economy: Empirical estimates of crowding out

This study examines the short-and intermediate-run effects of a permanent reduction in U.S. personal income taxes on interest rates, output, prices, exchange rates, and the current account, holding government spending and money growth fixed. The theoretical analysis suggests that interest rates and domestic consumption will rise but that net exports and interest-sensitive expenditures will fall. Also, the foreign currency value of the dollar will rise except possibly when output increases due to positive supply-side effects or to elimination of unemployment. These theoretical conclusions are essentially confirmed by simulations using the Federal Reserve Board's MPS quarterly econometric model and its multicountry model.     

Political confrontation over fiscal processes: The impact of the U.S. Congressional Budget Act

In July 1974 the U.S. Congressional Budget Act was signed into law. This legislation was the result of a heavily fought political confrontation between President Nixon and Congress over who controlled the Federal budget. In addition to the issue of control, the Act was prompted by dissatisfaction with the procedures used by Congress to determine Federal receipts and expenditures. The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact this legislation had on the U.S. economy in its early years.The first section of the paper sets up a simple modeling framework. The model is specified so as to illustrate how a change in the budget process resulting from the Congressional Budget Act could potentially produce changes in the level of total output. This section also explains the derivation of a tax and expenditure series used in the model's empirical testing. The second section addresses some of the theoretical issues, and presents the results of simulations based on the Chase, Wharton, and Data Resources econometric models. Broad conclusions are gathered in the final section.     

Populism? Minor parties and independents in the Australian Federal Parliament, 1945–2016

The election of four One Nation Senators at the 2016 Australian Federal election has been seen as part of a world–wide rise of populist movements that criticizes main stream politics and rejects pluralism, putting forward single concepts of “the people”, that the movements claim to represent. While it is clear that Australian voters, like voters elsewhere, have been seeking alternatives to the major parties, it is less clear that the preferred alternatives fit this populist framework. Australia provides a good case study as the Australian electoral system makes it relatively easy for independents and minor parties to be elected to Parliament. This paper examines all independents and minor party candidates successfully elected in 2016 and at previous Australian Federal elections to determine whether the alternatives to the main stream parties elected since 1945 fit anti-pluralist populist models. It is concluded that, with the exception of the One Nation Party, most of the independents and minor party candidates elected to the Australian Federal Parliament have not fitted such models. However many of those elected do present a challenge to the electoral claims of the major parties. The article concludes by considering the implications of these findings for representative democracy.     

When can fiscal consolidation be expansionary? Evidence from a small open economy

The paper focuses on the implications of stabilisation policies in a small open economy that were introduced to reverse burgeoning public sector deficit. In particular, I examine the hypothesis that such stabilisation policies can actually have expansionary effects on business investment. While this goes against the standard Keynesian view that the institution of more conservative fiscal and monetary programmes will, at least initially, lead to deflationary outcomes, there are important reasons for believing that such policies will in fact be expansionary. Such predictions are made in a dynamic setting, which weighs the short-term consequences of curtailed government expenditures against their long run implications for future increases in government spending, a reduction in debt burdens and greater stability. With the introduction of expectations, the positive implications of such policies can be immediate. This paper tries to clarify the ‘expectational crowding-in’ process and investigates whether the effects of stabilisation on business investment were due to that process or to other features of the stabilisation programmes. The policy message from my analysis is that budget consolidations producing expansionary effects are more than a theoretical construction. The experience of small open economies mentioned above should be taken into account also in policy making. Empirical findings indicate that EMU countries may need to carry out budgetary consolidations to dispose of room for manoeuvre against first the fiscal constraints in smoothing the business cycle imposed by the Stability Pact, and second, the looming budgetary implications of ageing populations.     

“民生财政”体制优化建设之探析

当前中国民生财政在体制机制、资金分配、监督机制上仍有待改进。优化民生财政,需要进一步推行省管县体制,保障县乡基层政府的公共服务能力;规范预算管理的民主化、科学化;强化民生资金的过程监督;开展民生资金绩效评价。     

TAXES AND SOCIAL SPENDING: THE SHIFTING DEMANDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN PUBLIC

This paper uses data from the Australian Election Studies (1987–2001) to investigate the preference for lower taxes or higher social spending among Australian voters. We offer some explanations for the increased support for higher social spending, especially after the election of the Howard Government in 1996. Regression models allow us to distinguish various factors that predict support for higher social spending. The main conclusions of the paper are that support for social spending is higher among voters with ‘social‐democratic’ attitudes and voting preferences but significantly, is also higher among voters who think health and Medicare services have declined since 1998. These findings are discussed in the context of various possible explanations for declining support for tax cuts.     

The Changing Shape of Welfare Policy in Korea: Analysis of Break Point in the Welfare Budget

This paper aims to investigate the welfare policy change in South Korea. Based on punctuated equilibrium theory, I analyze kurtosis and break point of the distribution of variation in the general government welfare budget. As a result, the change in welfare budget levels in South Korea has been quite moderate. But two break points were set in 1977 and 1999. These cutoff points are related with the change of the Korean Welfare State and clearly distinguished from different times. That is, the characteristics of structure that were built during these two time periods have lasted until now. Specifically, the responsibility of state in welfare is narrow. And the feature of employment‐friendly welfare policy was formed in 1977. Also, the focus on livelihood security and employment in welfare spending was constructed in 1999. The analysis of budget is a useful tool in examining the policy change. We expect to find more specific characteristics of the Korean welfare state including special accounts and funds in future.     

Terrorism and the effectiveness of security spending in Greece: Policy implications of some empirical findings

Greece has over the years faced serious security challenges from domestic as well as transnational terrorist activity. This paper examines empirically the effectiveness of counter-terrorism policy and particularly it focuses on current and investment expenditure on domestic security and public order. Using annual budget data for the 1974–2004 period, it investigates whether current and investment spending by the Ministry of Public Order has been an effective policy measure to counter terrorism. The results seem to suggest that such investment has at best a weak negative impact on internal terrorist actions. The main policy implication of this finding is that investing in counter-terrorist infrastructure and equipment can potentially prove to be an effective policy measure in the fight against terrorism. This, however, may be conditional upon a number of other factors including other anti-terrorist measures such as legislation or how efficiently such expenditure is used.     

‘Genuine’ refugees or illegitimate ‘boat people‘: Political constructions of asylum seekers and refugees in the Malaysia Deal debate

Immigration to Australia has long been the focus of negative political interest. In recent times, the proposal of exclusionary policies such as the Malaysia Deal in 2011 has fuelled further debate. In these debates, Federal politicians often describe asylum seekers and refugees as ‘illegal’, ‘queue jumpers’, and ‘boat people’. This article examines the political construction of asylum seekers and refugees during debates surrounding the Malaysia Deal in the Federal Parliament of Australia. Hansard parliamentary debates were analysed to identify the underlying themes and constructions that permeate political discourse about asylum seekers and refugees. We argue that asylum seekers arriving in Australia by boat were constructed as threatening to Australia's national identity and border security, and were labelled as ‘illegitimate’. A dichotomous characterisation of legitimacy pervades the discourse about asylum seekers, with this group constructed either as legitimate humanitarian refugees or as illegitimate ‘boat arrivals’. Parliamentarians apply the label of legitimacy based on implicit criteria concerning the mode of arrival of asylum seekers, their respect for the so‐called ‘queue’, and their ability to pay to travel to Australia. These constructions result in the misrepresentation of asylum seekers as illegitimate, undermining their right to protection under Australia's laws and international obligations.     

On Being Unemployed and Being a Victim of Crime—A Commentary

In a paper illustrating the shifting ground of Australian criminological debate Braithwaite and Biles claim the results of the National Crime Victim Survey (showing the unemployed have higher victimization rates for certain crimes: breaking and entering, peeping and assault, than ‘the wealthy’ or ‘the poor’) amount to a refutation of ‘a long tradition of radical criminology’. This tradition is portrayed as ‘crime is a manifestation of working class rebellion against the ruling class’. It is argued that this belated entry into confrontation with marxist oriented radical criminology, evaded for so long, is to be welcomed. However certain formal requirements: properly reading, representing, documenting and referencing ‘the radical critique’ are essential for theoretical advance. On these criteria the Braithwaite and Biles paper is deficient and distorted. The results of the victimization survey bolster rather than deny adequately represented radical critiques.     

Chapter 18. The Aging Network and the Future of Long-Term Care

SUMMARY

Federal and state governments face a significant challenge in meeting the long-term care needs of an older population that will double in size between 2000 and 2020 and continue to increase through 2050. States have made significant improvements in their long-term care systems for the elderly. However, they are still spending a significant proportion of their long-term care funds on nursing homes. Any effort to improve long-term care for the elderly qualitatively, and not just on the margins, must be focused on developing a more flexible and balanced long-term care system that is responsive to consumer choice.

The Aging Services Network is poised to play a significant role in this transformation process. The strengths of the Network include the ability to develop and manage consumer-driven community-based programs; to assess the needs and resources of individual older persons and provide cost-effective community supports; to operate within fixed, capped budgets; and to identify and maintain roles for informal caregivers. Now is the time for national aging organizations, state units on aging, and area agencies on aging to use existing opportunities to move towards the establishment of a balanced system of long-term care.     

Is the BasicsCard “shaming” Aboriginal people? Exploring the differing responses to welfare quarantining in Cape York

As part of the Cape York Welfare Reform Trial (CYWRT), which has been running in the remote Aboriginal towns of Aurukun, Hope Vale, Mossman Gorge and Coen since 2008, Family Responsibilities Commissioners have the unprecedented ability to quarantine welfare payments. Critics claim this “BasicsCard,” which cannot be spent on alcohol, tobacco, pornography or gambling, brings shame to Aboriginal people – marking them as dependants, deemed incapable of responsible spending. Evaluations of the CYWRT paint a more complicated picture. While many of the “spectators” of the CYWRT report “welfare reform stigma,” the “subjects” themselves are more positive. This paper draws on ethnographic research in Hope Vale to argue that these categories overlap with loosely defined, porous social groups that developed during the town's mission past, described as the “engaged” and “embedded” Hope Valers, respectively. The engaged group tends to be more aware of and sensitive to the views of the dominant society and to subscribe to its “ideology of respectability.” Meanwhile, the latter group tends to adhere to a more egalitarian “ideology of relatedness,” and do not experience the shame, even when their own welfare is quarantined, because the behaviours that trigger quarantining are normalised within their highly circumscribed domain.     

Indigenous Policy and Mutual Obligation: Shared or Shifting Responsibility Agreements?

Shared Responsibility Agreements (SRAs) are a key instrument of the Federal Government's new arrangements for the administration of Indigenous affairs. SRAs, described by the Government as a form of ‘mutual obligation’, require Indigenous communities to commit to behavioural changes or other actions in order to access ‘discretionary’ government funding for infrastructure or services. There are significant political, moral and practical issues raised by SRAs. In this paper we contend that despite the language of mutuality, flexibility and choice that accompanies SRAs, the approach appears more aptly associated with ‘divide and conquer’ tactics and a subtle shifting of responsibility for problems from governments to Indigenous communities themselves. In this paper we explore the concepts of mutual obligation and reciprocity, the structural biases that favour the state and its agencies over Indigenous communities in the SRA negotiation process, and issues of citizenship entitlements and accountability that are raised. Finally, acknowledging that SRAs can be a means for Indigenous communities to access greatly needed funding, we suggest various strategies and measures that could be taken up to make the SRA framework more equitable and effective.