Social Policy Aims Research Articles

Education as a tool of social equality?

Do political parties approach education with different social policy aims? We argue that while parties have adopted a common language of equality as an aim of education, they draw on different conceptions of it linked to diverging social projects. To make this argument, we first normatively distinguish education as a tool for creating equal opportunity, equal outcomes, and representational diversity. We then draw on an original dataset coding the educational content in the political manifestos of the largest center-left and center-right party across 19 Western democracies from 1950 to present. The analysis shows that left parties emphasise more equality of outcome than rightwing parties and pay less attention to equality of opportunity, and that they associate equality-related aims more extensively with promises of resources. These findings suggest that there remain critical differences in parties' understanding of education as a tool of social policy.

Organisation of Social Policy Directed at Integration: A Modelling and Application Approach

Purpose: The aim of the study was to define the model conditions for the integration of social services in the system of social policy, to present a systemic role of the integrator of these services on a local level together with a verification based on the analysis of the integration of such services in Poland through the local government social services centres. Methodology: The authors used a systemic analysis of the organisational environment of the social policy system, extended with a literature review and critical analysis of a case study (the application of the integration of the provision of social services). Findings: It is possible to identify many variants of the realisation of social policy goals, and the choice of the one to be applied in a given country depends on the legislative solutions, the optimalisation in satisfying societal needs requires the appropriate organisation of the provision of social services, the provision of social services will be optimal and effective when it is properly organised, and the necessary condition is the integration of the activities of all the entities involved in the realisation of social services, such as institutions from the public sector, NGOs and the private sector. Practical implications: The study presents an organisational framework of the process of the integration of social services, which appears to be a rational direction for improving the quality of the system of social policy, and is a contribution to further in-depth research. Originality: The paramount aim of social policy remains the support for individuals and increasing social inclusivity of the system. It is justifiable to shape the system of social policy not only on the basis of public sector resources, but also with the support from the market sector and the social animation and citizen participation. Systemic regulation of transforming existing in Poland social welfare centers into centers integrating social services is essentially appropriate. Tthe problem is the degree of advancement of the legislative process, the pace of this transformation and the sufficiency of resources determining the effectiveness and efficiency of the integration process.

Targets missed: three case studies exploiting the linked SHARE-RV data

AbstractTargeting is an important aim of social policy. Three case studies in this paper reflect typical short-comings in the targeting design of pension reforms. The first case study examines how well work disability and receipt of disability insurance match in Germany. We show that the 2001 reform has not systematically improved target quality. The second case study examines whether the 2014 introduction of a new pathway of early retirement without actuarial adjustments has reached individuals who are less healthy because they have worked a long time in an arduous job. We find that the target population is actually healthier than the comparison group. Third, a much discussed supplemental pension benefit for households in the risk of poverty will miss its target population in both relevant directions: Regarding the first, 23% of those pensioners who are not eligible are nevertheless poor in the sense of the new law. Regarding the other direction, 21% of the eligible pensioners belong to the wealthier half of German pensioners. Since similar reforms are currently debated in many European countries, the three German case studies may serve as examples of how to better target public pension policies.

Blurring and Bridging: The Role of Volunteers in Dementia Care within Homes and Communities

AbstractPolicy makers across the political spectrum have extolled the virtues of volunteering in achieving social policy aims. Yet little is known about the role that volunteering plays in addressing one of the significant challenges of an ageing population: the provision of care and support to people with dementia. We combine organisational survey data, secondary social survey data, and in-depth interviews with people with dementia, family carers and volunteers in order to better understand the context, role and challenges in which volunteers support people with dementia. Social policies connecting volunteering and dementia care in homes and communities often remain separate and disconnected and our paper draws on the concept of policy ‘assemblages’ to suggest that dementia care is a dynamic mixture of formal and informal volunteering activities that bridge and blur traditional policy boundaries. Linking home and community environments is a key motivation, benefit and outcome for volunteers, carers and those living with dementia. The paper calls to widen the definition and investigation of volunteering in social policy to include and support informal volunteering activity.

An essay on neoliberalism

A comparison of liberalism and neoliberalism shows that conceptual contradictions of liberal ideas arise in the liberal hypostatization of various forms of social being. Therefore, the political liberalism will contradict the cultural one, and the legal liberalism will contradict the economic one. However, there are no fundamental differences between liberalism and neoliberalism: both are based on the same values and differ only in the sphere of their application. Liberalism, as a political practice, is intended mainly for the domestic use, while neoliberalism rather for the external use. In other words, neoliberalism, being an integral part of liberalism, presents the foreign-policy dimension of liberal concepts. Foreign policy is inherently aggressive: a number of French revolutionary governments should be recognized as the earliest forerunners of modern neoliberals. For instance, the foreign policy of the Convent clearly outgrew the liberal ideas of the Enlightenment and was aimed at enforcing liberalization on the European scale. The essence of liberalism is manifested in ousting the previous, partly traditional social, political and economic practices and in replacing them with the unified ones that should become the norm for the humankind. Neoliberals prefer to push their influence through the institutional pressure by using international non-governmental organizations, transnational companies, and the associated leaders of a number of countries of different levels of development. These organizations recruit personnel for management all around the world and constantly shuffle them, move from one country to another to create a new management culture intended for the neoliberal model of the global scale. The goal of neoliberals is almost the same as the goals of liberals (one can argue only about the means) and presents their foreign-policy version: neoliberals aim at reformatting the social space on the global scale by the abolition of the old states and introduction of a new social-political system, which is obviously manifested in the European Union, where the former states are gradually replaced by the regions, and the social policy aims at developing a new-European identity.

Families Facing the Crisis: Is Social Investment a Sustainable Social Policy Strategy?

Since the end of the 1990s, the social investment approach has become a new paradigm in academic and political discourse on social policymaking, above all at the European level. As the social investment approach to social policy aims at tackling the most vulnerable social groups by offering educational programs, supporting the access to employment, especially for young adults and women, and putting an end to the intergenerational transfer of poverty, it appears promising as a new overarching social policy strategy. It is, however—conceptually and in practice—hardly connected to the traditional logic of social provision, which is to compensate for individual incapacity to work or market failure. We claim that the social investment approach falls short of providing arguments for decent and sustainable social protection for the whole population, and that an implementation of this strategy as it is formulated will rather increase than reduce overall social inequality. Trade-offs between the new social investment strategy and traditional redistributive social policy objectives become particularly clear in the analysis of family policy. Our analysis identifies such basic trade-offs between the social investment approach and more “traditional” family policies. We argue that the EU member states will adopt a pragmatic, selective or comprehensive approach to social investment according to their basic welfare-type pattern. The comparative analysis of changes in family policies since the outbreak of the crisis (from 2008 to mid-2012) in six European countries provides the empirical basis for our argument.

Barriers to Retaining and Using Professional Knowledge in Local Authority Social Work Practice with Adults in the UK

The development of community care policy and practice in the UK has taken place in the context of the growth of neo-liberal ideologies and managerialism. This has had an impact on service provision and professional practice which has been pronounced in statutory agencies. Research evidence indicates that the workforce in adult social care is demoralized and de-motivated and that there is dissonance between working practices and social work education. Empirical research undertaken in 2003 found difficulties at three levels: structural, managerial and practitioner. The difficulties encountered compromise effective inter-agency and partnership working, indicate problems in the supervisory relationship and lead to practitioners acting defensively and without reference to theory or a clear knowledge base. When these findings are compared with those from earlier studies, explanations may be found beyond blaming individuals or locating conflict within service users’ expectations regarding services. The paper concludes that there is an urgent need to consider and debate the form that contemporary practice in adult care should take and the education of practitioners for this task, in order to support the workforce and to meet the social policy aims of community care.

Vulnerabilidade global e política social: uma agenda para discussão

As changes in the global economy and in family structure place the lives and opportunities of many individuals at risk, social policy plays a major role in addressing the degree of vulnerability individuals will face in a society. In this paper, we present some of the most important issues scholars and policy-makers need to consider about the role social policy plays in a globalized world. First, we argue that the major aim of social policy is the furtherance of social citizenship. We understand social citizenship as the enhancement of individual and community capabilities to lead a decent life and to make informed choices in face of a changing global economic environment. Second, we suggest that the furtherance of social citizenship should be the benchmark against which to evaluate the degree of success or failure of any social policy. Then, after discussing some of the major social, ideological, and economic forces shaping social policy, we propose that a new type of welfare regime is emerging in the developing world. This regime is part liberal and part parternalistic, and some of its major components are the de-centralization of public administration to local authorities, a preference for targeted social policies instead of universal ones, and local community participation. Third, we argue that some of the main challenges of contemporary social policy are the product of internal and international migration, labor market instability, rising costs of subsistence in cities, and increasing spatial segregation. Finally, we suggest some of the theoretical frameworks, data, and methods scholars may want use to advance research on social policy.

What Do Parties Want? An Analysis of Programmatic Social Policy AIMS in Austria, Germany and the Netherlands

Comparative welfare state research has argued for some time that whether Social Democrats or Christian Democrats are in government makes a difference with regard to specific welfare state design. The theory is based on the fact that, historically, the social policy aims of Social Democrats and Christian Democrats have differed. Can these policy differences still be assumed after almost three decades, which have been characterised by a discourse about ‘necessary’ welfare state retrenchment, adaptation, and modification? Based on an in-depth analysis of the social policy aims of the Social Democrats and Christian Democrats in Austria, Germany, and the Netherlands since 1975, we argue that, the differences between the two welfare state parties in formerly conservative welfare states have largely faded away.

Welfare Policy and Income Distribution: the Finnish Experience in the 1990s

This article contrasts economic, employment and social policies of Finnish governments with data on income distribution and poverty for the period 1990-2000. The starting point of the article is the heavy economic recession in the 1990s, which, accompanied with political judgements, resulted in a shift of emphasis in social policy.To start with, the article situates Finland on the map of Europe with the help of most recent Eurostat data on social protection expenditure and poverty. In the light of comparative data Finland still performs well in the international scene, but nevertheless shows increases in relative poverty rates and income differentials. The article then seeks to find explanations to these increases. First, the authors document the main economic, employment and social policy aims of Finnish governments in the 1990s and bring forward some of the essential modifications made to the income transfer system. Second, the authors estimate the impact of political choices in the development of income differences and poverty.The authors argue policies have been a success when it comes to economic progress and public finances. For employment, judging success is more ambiguous: while employment has increased, unemployment remains a challenge. Moreover, assessing their social costs, efforts to increase employment via incentives have only been partly successful. While cuts in social benefits and overall efforts to modify incentives have increased employment and reduced the extent of income traps, policy changes have also contributed to wider income differences and higher poverty rates.

The Greens and Social Policy: Movements, Politics and Practice?

The central aim of this paper is to show how different types of green movement respond to questions of social policy. An important factor in this is a difference in attitudes to the state between more anarchistic greens and those greens that are prepared to accept a permanent and/or strategic role for the state. The paper is divided into two parts. In part one, after defning the green movement, it outlines how different green social movements from local groups, direct action protestors, established environmental groups and green political parties, have developed analyses, responses and alternatives to social policy issues. Part two of the paper looks at some of the ideological/theoretical debates within green politics with regard to social policy, with particular regard to the role of the state. It goes on to look at some of the ways in which European green parties have viewed social policy, and at proposals they have advanced for moving the aim of social policy from “welfare” to “well‐being”. It concludes with suggesting that the “post‐materialist” characterization of green politics is very wide of the mark in terms of the range of analyses and policy alternatives greens have put forward, from health, education and drugs to transport. The central and long‐standing green concern with lessening socioeconomic inequalities (but without relying on indiscriminate and unsustainable “economic growth”) means that in terms of social policy, green politics can be seen as an “environmentalism of the poor”, concerned with “materialist” issues.

Structural Adjustment and the Globalization of Social Policy in Latin America

The outstanding feature of economic globalization in Latin America is the application of neoliberal structural adjustment programs under the guidance of international financial agencies. These programs include state reform that redefines social policy and the role of state, markets and families in the satisfaction of social needs. This dual social policy aims at commodifying profitable social services and benefits and reducing public social services to a minimum for the very poor. These characteristics are analyzed specifically in the health services and social insurance reforms and poverty programs. Given the sustained increase in poverty and unemployment and falling family incomes, this policy aggravates the social crisis through simultaneous market and state `failure'.

A magyar regionális politika súlypontjai

The paper summarizes the possible new features of Hungarian regional policy on the basis of an investigation prepared by the Regional Research Center of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences for the authorization of the Ministry of Environment in 1991 in order to support the preparatory works of the law on regional development. The fundamental reason of the failures of previous regional policy, which can still be sensed in some spheres, was the lack of a mutual relationship between the economic and regional policies. The institutional-organizational network and the operational organizations of regional policy were separated. Regional policy had, in the first place, some sort of social-policy aims, and financial restrictions significantly limited the means, and at the same time, the scope of activity of regional policy. From the pont of view of solving the tasks of Hungarian economic modernization efficiently, the researchers participating in the project unanimously voted for the innovation-oriented model from among the possible regional development methods. This sub-branch of regional policy is the most likely to support the mobilization of local resources, the restructuring of the economy, and the creation of the system of economic incentives. The proposed, especially important, aim of new regional policy should be the moderation of regional differences, and the creation of a situation where the backward, depressed regions can join up with the rest. The wording of this objective is well founded by the following requirements: social policy implications, the need to increase economic productivity, and general political implications. The study devotes special attention to the consequeces of restructuring the infrasturcture, and indicates that the new projects on the development of infrastructure should primarily concentrate on the development of technical and intellectual infrastructure serving the creation of a modern economic structure, and not so much the improvement of living standards in the region. In order to modernize the structures, the strategy of Hungarian regional development, especially in the phase of transformation into a market economy, has to put special emphasis on industrial development, though it is different from the models of developed market economies. However, it has to be done in close correlation with the creation of an economic environment which is capable of and ready for re-industrialization. The fundamental trend of future development in Hungarian regional policy is the formation and creation of the means and the institutional-organizational elements (development of the local organizational and promotional network of regional development, the widening of the number of actors in regional development with the agents of financing, social aspects and the representation of interests) and the creation of the system of financial support (regional development incentives, subsidies, etc.). Finally, the paper investigates the relationship between the administrative system and regional policy. The study points out that the means and the institutional network of regional policy have to be developed on the basis of the partnership of central government and the local authorities. While previous Hungarian administration followed the logic of bureaucracy, the new democratic management, with more than 3000 decision-makers, was put into the state cf disintegration. The future of the structure of Hungarian regional management is uncertain. The reasearchers carrying out the investigation are positive that regional policy meeting the Buropean norms requires a sub-national level with wide scope of research fields in Hungary ais well. However, not only the actual counties have to be modernized for this purpose, but ailso a new regional-administrative system has to be developed in the long run.

Statism, Social Policy and the Middle Classes in Greece

This article discusses welfare policy and the trends of development of public expenditure and the social budget in Greece in the post war period. Particular emphasis is given to the expansion of income transfers during the 1980s under the conditions of economic recession. An understanding of the relationship between the state and civil society in Greece is crucial for explaining social policy developments. Our analysis focuses on the strong grip of politics on civil society, which constitutes a major aspect of Greek statism and contributes to an increased fragmentation of social demands and conflicts. The main argument of this article is that the growing size and political weight of the middle classes since the mid-1970s intensified social fragmentation and the contradictions of Greek statism, and made it more difficult to achieve any consensus about social policy aims. Public expenditure and the social budget increased significantly during the 1980s, as a result of presstrre from various middle-class strata, yet no major changes occurred in the logic of the distribution of social provision. Competition among the middle classes for access to political power and the state apparatus intensified, and this put severe limitations on the possibilities of any reforms aimed at redistribution on the basis of social need.

The Saint-Simonian Philosophy of History: A Note

Saint-Simonians drew a parallel between growth of mankind in history and growth of a human body. Both mankind and body were said to develop from stage to stage by of progressive development. Humanity . . . is a collective entity. This entity has grown from generation to generation as a man in course of years, according to its own physical law, which has been one of progressive development.' human race grows progressively according to invariable laws (33). of perfectibility of human species is key to understanding history (32). By law of perfectibility, it is ordained that mankind pass from miseries of savagery to bliss of a secular paradise. In progress toward secular perfection political society is seen to pass through two alternating modes of historical existence: and According to Saint-Simonians there have been two organic epochs in history: first was Greek and Roman polytheism ending with Socrates in Greece and Augustus in Rome; second began with preaching of Gospels and ended with Martin Luther. first organic epoch was followed by critical epoch of philosophy, during which polytheism was undermined by classical philosophers. With Reformation came close of second organic epoch. second critical epoch was to come to a close with rise of new era proclaimed by Saint-Simon and preached by his disciples. Saint-Simonians saw themselves as apostles of a new creed,2 creed of secular perfectibility. Doctrine was written to announce that the times have been fulfilled and hour is about to strike when, according to Saint-Simonian transformation of Christian word, all shall be called and all shall be chosen (40). That is, SaintSimonians saw themselves as heralds of third and final organic epoch. With this broad sketch in mind let us look more closely into nature of organic and critical epochs. primary characteristic of an organic epoch is virtual unanimity which prevails in society during that time regarding proper aim of social policy. The distinct characteristics of organic epoch are unity and harmony in all spheres of human activity (55). Society is united harmoniously in common action toward an agreed social goal. The truly superior are, of course, in possession of power (53). In addition, various fields of science are unified in organic epoch. All human knowledge is related under functional dogma of epoch. Order rules everywhere. critical epochs are negative of organic; two are diametrically