Crisis opens up opportunities for international organisations (IOs) to change institutional settings, providing a moment for them to make choices to take on a new path or reinforce their original path. This article proposes a new framework for analysing crisis-induced change in IOs’ policy outputs, elaborating on path-departing and path-dependent changes through six sub-types based on the unit of alterations (idea vs policy) and the scope of alterations (moderate vs radical). Deriving from these two dimensions, the framework yields six analytically distinct sub-types: absolute, consistent, and inconsistent variations of path departure and path dependency. Applying this framework, the article evaluates the extent to which the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) health policy outputs changed during the COVID-19 crisis. The main finding highlights that, despite the surprising focus shift from the long-lasting call for maximising efficiency to the novel agenda of building resilience, the OECD exhibits consistent path dependency, pointing to moderate changes at both ideational and policy levels. This case study demonstrates that IOs may appear to engage in a path-departing transformation, while substantively maintaining existing paths. By offering a more nuanced typology of crisis-induced variations in IOs’ policy outputs, this article advances the scholarly understanding of institutional continuity and change in global governance.

This study develops a pandemic-specific typology of welfare regimes to analyze how welfare states adapted to the COVID-19 crisis. Using hierarchical cluster analysis, 32 welfare states are categorized into 4 typologies—High-Performance, Selective-Strength, Transitional, and Low-Performance—based on economic support, healthcare capacity, and public health measures. To assess the impact of these typologies, multivariate analysis of covariance examines differences in social and economic outcomes, including poverty, unemployment, income inequality, COVID-19 morality, mental health disorders, life satisfaction, and government effectiveness. The findings reveal that High-Performance regimes demonstrated the most balanced crisis responses, integrating robust economic interventions, strong healthcare infrastructures, and proactive public health policies. In contrast, Low-Performance regimes faced significant challenges due to weaker institutional capacity, limited economic support, and fragmented healthcare systems. The study also highlights the hybridization of welfare states, where traditional welfare principles were adapted through crisis-management strategies to enhance responsiveness. By bridging traditional welfare state theory with crisis adaptability, this study contributes to the theoretical and policy discourse on welfare state resilience. The results underscore the importance of institutional coordination, adaptive governance, and hybrid welfare models that balance long-term stability with short-term adaptability. These insights provide a foundation for strengthening welfare state preparedness in the face of future global crises beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.

Countries in the global South have expanded social security significantly since the late 1990s. What kind of social security are they heading for? Are they following models from the global North, or are genuinely Southern models building up? Focussing on middle income countries (MIC) and on the last safety net, social assistance, the article investigates the social assistance regime that has emerged in Turkey and situates the Turkish case in the broader context of the global South and North. We draw on Turkish policy documents and on partially self-constructed quantitative data on the global South and North. While most MIC have adopted social assistance programmes, which are a Northern model, we find that the institutional design, the objectives, the institutionalisation, and the scale of social assistance differ fundamentally from European models. The case of Turkey confirms this finding, and also exemplifies the formative influence of international organisations on MIC. While some distinctive features may indicate deficiencies of ‘Southern’ social assistance, others may be seen as appropriate adaptations of a Northern model to development contexts.

Free school meals can be a transformative social policy instrument, especially in the Global South. Domestically sourced school feeding programs can improve children’s food security, augment household incomes, incentivize school attendance, and support local agricultural production. Scholars have so far paid only limited attention to the political causes and processes behind school feeding programs. To contribute to a better understanding of school food politics in Africa, we study the development of two national school feeding programs in Nigeria. We reconstruct and compare the development of the Obasanjo administration’s Home-Grown School Feeding and Health Programme, implemented from 2005 to 2008, and the Buhari administration’s National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme, implemented from 2016 to 2023. We argue that the relatively more successful implementation of the Buhari-era program was the result of a presidential ideology that was more supportive of social policy expansion, a policy design that was more conducive to state-level program implementation, and supportive technical assistance from the London-based Partnership for Child Development.

This study examines the mobilization of platform workers in Georgia and the role of mainstream unions in their struggle for labor and social rights. While existing literature explores the varied outcomes of cooperation between mainstream and grassroots unions in shaping the labor movement, less attention has been given to the implications of such cooperation for platform workers’ social security. Findings suggest that mainstream unions have played a pivotal role in organizing platform workers. However, their strategic focus on legal enactment has proven less effective in Georgia’s context, where fundamental social safety nets are lacking. Despite the emergence of platform unionism, this narrow legalistic approach has failed to deliver substantive improvements in platform workers’ social security. The findings suggest that meaningful progress requires both mainstream and grassroots unions to expand their advocacy beyond legal reclassification. A more comprehensive approach – incorporating broader social policy reforms – is essential to ensuring social security for platform workers.

Jordan’s fragmented healthcare system, comprising public, private, humanitarian, and royal patronage elements, suffers from persistent inequalities affecting social cohesion. Despite government commitments, over 25% of citizens remain uninsured or underinsured. Privileged military access through the Royal Medical Services (RMS) creates resentment among civilians, while insufficient regulation of private insurance exacerbates tensions through exploitative practices and unaffordable costs. Additionally, discretionary aid via the Diwan Al-Malaki reinforces patronage networks, often failing to address systemic gaps. Healthcare inequities, though rarely sparking protests, significantly contribute to societal discontent, reflecting deeper economic and governance challenges in Jordan.

This paper aims to evaluate the repercussions of conflicts in the MENA region on the Human Development Index (HDI) of neighboring countries, utilizing HDI as a comprehensive metric for assessing human development. The methodology employs panel data for 20 Arab countries, focusing on subnational HDI and its indicators, retreived from the Global Data Lab. The study utilizes the Difference in Difference (DiD) method, distinguishing treated groups consisting of countries bordering conflict zones and control groups comprising other nations. Specifically, we concentrate on the Syrian conflict (2011) and the Yemeni conflict (2014). While existing literature predominantly explores the impact of conflicts on a country’s own HDI, this contribution seeks to determine whether these effects extend to neighboring countries. This extends the scope of current literature, providing valuable insights into the regional implications of conflicts on human development.