Social Policy Development in the International Context—Social Investment or a New Social Treatise?

2020 ◽  
pp. 41-57
Author(s):  
Peter Herrmann
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
International Context

scholarly journals What Curbs Social Investment? The Effect of Foreign Electoral Outcomes on Childcare Expenditure Levels

2022 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
SIMONE TONELLI
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
Political Learning ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
Electoral Outcomes ◽  
Electoral Defeat ◽  
New Policies

Abstract This study aims to deepen our understanding of social investment expansion proposing a political learning mechanism to link existing institutional and political explanations. When resources are limited, increased spending in social investment often comes at the expense of politically costly retrenchment of established social insurance policies. Previous studies suggest that this trade-off results in existing entitlements crowding out new policies, and that party ideology plays less of a role in determining social policy expansion. I argue that this is because parties face an electoral dilemma, as individual preferences for social investment and social insurance have been shown to differ between groups that partly overlap in their voting behaviour. Applying a policy diffusion framework to the analysis of childcare expenditure, this study proposes that policymakers learn from the political consequences of past decisions made by their foreign counterparts and update their policy choice accordingly. The econometric analysis of OECD data on childcare expenditure shows that governments tend to make spending decisions that follow those of ideologically similar cabinets abroad and that left-wing governments with a divided electorate tend to reduce childcare expenditure if a previous expansionary decision of a foreign incumbent is followed by an electoral defeat. The findings have implications for the study of the politics of social policy development.

scholarly journals Eligibility for social services: social policy development in an international context

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irina L. Pervova ◽  
Irina A. Grigoreva ◽  
Vyacheslav N. Kelasev ◽  
Anna N. Smirnova
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Social Services ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Essential Element ◽  
Review Of The Literature ◽  
Economic Data ◽  
International Context ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Cultural Mores

The article provides a frame of reference for reviewing the basic processes underlying the development of formal social policy. The bases for the article were provided by: (1) review of the literature in related social services policy development areas; (2) analyses and review of the literature specific to service eligibility; (3) analyses of related socio-economic data from international organizations and registries. Eligibility is proposed as an essential element of social services within the context of citizens’ rights, cultural mores and customs, political processes and economic conditions of the six contributing countries. These data sources were augmented by review of summary narratives of the history and status of social services development.

STAGES IN SOCIAL POLICY DEVELOPMENT

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 265-272
Author(s):  
Venelin Terziev ◽  
Preslava Dimitrova
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
National Society ◽  
Complex Approach ◽  
The Social ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

The social policy of a country is a set of specific activities aimed at regulating the social relations between different in their social status subjects. This approach to clarifying social policy is also called functional and essentially addresses social policy as an activity to regulate the relationship of equality or inequality in society. It provides an opportunity to look for inequalities in the economic positions of individuals in relation to ownership, labor and working conditions, distribution of income and consumption, social security and health, to look for the sources of these inequalities and their social justification or undue application.The modern state takes on social functions that seek to regulate imbalances, to protect weak social positions and prevent the disintegration of the social system. It regulates the processes in society by harmonizing interests and opposing marginalization. Every modern country develops social activities that reflect the specifics of a particular society, correspond to its economic, political and cultural status. They are the result of political decisions aimed at directing and regulating the process of adaptation of the national society to the transformations of the market environment. Social policy is at the heart of the development and governance of each country. Despite the fact that too many factors and problems affect it, it largely determines the physical and mental state of the population as well as the relationships and interrelationships between people. On the other hand, social policy allows for a more global study and solving of vital social problems of civil society. On the basis of the programs and actions of political parties and state bodies, the guidelines for the development of society are outlined. Social policy should be seen as an activity to regulate the relationship of equality or inequality between different individuals and social groups in society. Its importance is determined by the possibility of establishing on the basis of the complex approach: the economic positions of the different social groups and individuals, by determining the differences between them in terms of income, consumption, working conditions, health, etc .; to explain the causes of inequality; to look for concrete and specific measures to overcome the emerging social disparities.

War and Social Policy Development in Switzerland, 1870–1990

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthieu Leimgruber
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
State Building ◽  
Social Citizenship ◽  
Military Conflict ◽  
The World ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Public Private Mix

This chapter explores the trajectory of social policy development in Switzerland and its interactions with state-building and military conflict from the Franco-Prussian war of the early 1870s to the end of the Cold War. This analysis confirms that, despite the fact that Switzerland has remained untouched by war for more than 150 years, military preparation and the world wars have had a crucial impact in the shaping of the distinctive public–private mix that distinguishes the Swiss welfare state from its immediate neighbours. Periods of war thus coincided not only with an expansion of state social insurance but also witnessed the consolidation of existing private social provision. The chapter also highlights how Switzerland’s distinctive militia-based conscription contributed to forge a male-centred social citizenship that lasted for decades after 1945.

Book review: Deeming, C. and Smyth, P. (eds.). 2018: Reframing Global Social Policy: Social Investment for Sustainable and Inclusive Growth

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 215-217
Author(s):  
Yue Sun ◽  
Yen-Chiang Chang
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Inclusive Growth ◽  
Social Investment

Deeming, C. and Smyth, P. (eds.). 2018: Reframing Global Social Policy: Social Investment for Sustainable and Inclusive Growth. Bristol: Policy Press, 350 pp. GBP 80.00 (Hardcover). ISBN: 978-1-4473-3249-7.

The Renegotiation of the Social Pact in Hong Kong: Economic Globalisation, Socio-economic Change, and Local Politics

2005 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 293-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
ELIZA W. Y. LEE
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Path Dependence ◽  
Local Politics ◽  
Economic Change ◽  
The State ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Pact ◽  
Economic Globalisation

This article discusses the politics of social policy development in Hong Kong following the Asian financial crisis. It examines the cause, mode and political significance of social policy reform in an Asian late industrialiser that has been experiencing the twin pressures of economic globalisation and socio-economic change. Financial austerity has prompted the state to adopt social policy reforms through re-commodification and cost containment, resulting in the retrenchment of the residual welfare state. The state's policy choices are structured by local politics, including the state of political development and the path dependence nature of policy change. The article questions the effectiveness of the social authoritarian approaches adopted by the state in attempting to renegotiate the social pact with its citizens, and contends that progressive development in social policy is inevitably bound to democratisation.

Democracy and new ideas in Latin American social policy: the origins of conditional cash transfers in Brazil and Mexico

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ricardo Velázquez Leyer
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
National Level ◽  
Cash Transfers ◽  
Conditional Cash Transfers ◽  
Policy Paradigm ◽  
Critical Junctures ◽  
Democratic Regimes ◽  
Main Instrument

ABSTRACTConditional cash transfers (CCTs) have become the main instrument to combat poverty in Latin America, they have been exported around the globe and are one of the most popular social policies of the twenty-first century. CCTs deliver cash transfers to poor families with conditionalities like attendance to school and health appointments. This article aims to explain the creation of CCTs. The research applies arguments from theories of social policy development to explain the formulation of the first two CCTs introduced in Brazil at the sub-national level and in Mexico at the national level during the mid-1990s. Findings show that the original formulation of CCTs can be explained by the emergence of a new policy paradigm based on a conceptualisation of the nature of poverty as lack of human capital among poor population, enabled by critical junctures created by the transitions to democratic regimes.

scholarly journals Data as Entanglement: New Definitions and Uses of Data in Qualitative Research, Policy, and Neoliberal Governance

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (8) ◽  
pp. 734-742 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harry Torrance
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Service Management ◽  
Research Policy ◽  
Neoliberal Governance ◽  
Political Governance

Data is an increasingly contested term and concept in qualitative research, but its definition and use is also changing in social policy development and public service management. The article will explore these parallel and apparently independent developments and argue that, while deriving from different fields and aspirations, these developments have elements in common and data is a term now as much applied to and used in political governance, as it is in (what used to be seen as) disinterested science.

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