scholarly journals The Age-Orientation of Social Policy Regimes in OECD Countries

2001 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 411-436 ◽  
Author(s):  
JULIA LYNCH
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
The United States ◽  
Oecd Countries ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
Social Policies ◽  
Demographic Structure ◽  
Policy Regimes ◽  
Education And Health

This article presents a series of measures of the extent to which social policies in twenty-one OECD countries are oriented towards the support of elderly (over 65 or in formal retirement) and non-elderly (under 65 and not retired) population groups. Employing breakdowns by age in spending on social insurance, education and health, tax expenditures on welfare substituting goods, and housing policy outcomes, this article shows that countries tend to demonstrate a consistent age-orientation across a variety of policy areas and instruments. After correcting for the demographic structure of the population, Greece, Japan, Italy, Spain and the United States have the most elderly-oriented social policy regimes, while the Netherlands, Ireland, Canada and the Nordic countries have a more age-neutral repertoire of social policies. In identifying the age-orientation of social policy as a dimension of distributive politics that is not captured by other welfare state typologies, this article suggests the need to develop new accounts of the development of welfare states that include the dimension of age.

Gender and the Origins of Modern Social Policies in Britain and the United States

1991 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theda Skocpol ◽  
Gretchen Ritter
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
Working Women ◽  
The United States ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Social Policies ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Security Act ◽  
Modern Welfare State

Comparative research on the origins of modern welfare states typically asks why certain European nations, including Great Britain, enacted pensions and social insurance between the 1880s and the 1920s, while the United States “lagged behind,” that is did not establish such policies for the entire nation until the Social Security Act of 1935. To put the question this way overlooks the social policies that were distinctive to the early twentieth-century United States. During the period when major European nations, including Britain, were launching paternalist versions of the modern welfare state, the United States was tentatively experimenting with what might be called a maternalist welfare state. In Britain, male bureaucrats and party leaders designed policies “for the good” of male wage-workers and their dependents. Meanwhile, in the United States, early social policies were championed by elite and middle-class women “for the good” of less privileged women. Adult American women were helped as mothers, or as working women who deserved special protection because they were potential mothers.

Social policy, target populations and policy analysis in Colombia

2020 ◽  
pp. 223-238
Author(s):  
Santiago Leyva ◽  
Carlos Andrés Olaya
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Policy Analysis ◽  
Welfare System ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
Social Policies ◽  
Redistributive Policy ◽  
Target Populations ◽  
Poverty And Inequality ◽  
Persistent Inequality ◽  
Policy Target

This chapter explores persistent inequality and poverty for historically excluded groups despite dramatically increased expenditures in social policy as an issue of considerable importance in Colombia. It illustrates how the truncated nature of the Colombian welfare system contributes to the problem of poverty and inequality. It also documents how even the widespread use of targeted social policies for specific populations cannot attain the redistributive policy outcomes associated with a more general approach to welfare policy. The chapter introduces the general changes to social policies by looking into the expansion of basic welfare and then exploring the evolution of policy targeting. It points out the limited achievements of Colombia in terms of the redistribution of income through the concept of the truncated state.

Participatory Social Policies: Diverging Patterns in Brazil and Bolivia

2019 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Niedzwiecki ◽  
Santiago Anria
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Institutional Context ◽  
Healthcare Systems ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Social Policies ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Popular Participation

ABSTRACTBolivia and Brazil have universalized their pension and healthcare systems, respectively. Civil society organizations participated actively in social policy expansion, yet they have done so in starkly different ways, reflecting general patterns in each country. Whereas in Brazil, popular participation in social policies takes place through “inside” formal channels, such as conferences and councils, in Bolivia, bottom-up influence occurs mostly via “outside” channels, by coordinating collective action in the streets. Understanding forms of popular participation matters because policies that allow for popular input are potentially more representative, universal, and nondiscretionary. This article argues that differences in the forms of popular participation in social policy expansion can be explained by the characteristics of the institutional context and differences in the types of movements engaged in the policymaking process. By focusing on patterns of participation, these findings add nuance to the literature on Latin America’s welfare states.

Varieties of Capitalist Interests: Power, Institutions, and the Regulatory Welfare State in the United States and Sweden

2004 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter A. Swenson
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
New Deal ◽  
Labor Movement ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
The United States ◽  
Organized Labor ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
Industrial Societies

Current wisdom about the American welfare state's laggard status among advanced industrial societies, by attributing it to the weakness of the Left and organized labor, poses a historical puzzle. In the 1930s, the United States experienced a dramatically progressive turn in social policy-making. New Deal Democrats, dependent on financing from capitalists, passed landmark social insurance reforms without backing from a well-organized and electorally successful labor movement like those in Europe, especially Scandinavia. Sweden, by contrast, with the world's strongest Social Democratic labor movement, did not pass important social insurance legislation until the following two decades.

How do welfare states change? Institutions and their impact on the politics of welfare state reform in Western Europe

2000 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 333-352 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giuliano Bonoli ◽  
Bruno Palier
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Special Role ◽  
Unemployment Compensation ◽  
European Social Policy ◽  
Overall Resistance ◽  
The Uk

In the 1980s and 1990s West European welfare states were exposed to strong pressures to ‘renovate’, to retrench. However, the European social policy landscape today looks as varied as it did at any time during the 20th century. ‘New institutionalism’ seems particularly helpful to account for the divergent outcomes observed, and it explains the resistance of different structures to change through past commitments, the political weight of welfare constituencies and the inertia of institutional arrangements – in short, through ‘path dependency’. Welfare state institutions play a special role in framing the politics of social reform and can explain trajectories and forms of policy change. The institutional shape of the existing social policy landscape poses a significant constraint on the degree and the direction of change. This approach is applied to welfare state developments in the UK and France, comparing reforms of unemployment compensation, old-age pensions and health care. Both countries have developed welfare states, although with extremely different institutional features. Two institutional effects in particular emerge: schemes that mainly redistribute horizontally and protect the middle classes well are likely to be more resistant against cuts. Their support base is larger and more influential compared with schemes that are targeted on the poor or are so parsimonious as to be insignificant for most of the electorate. The contrast between the overall resistance of French social insurance against cuts and the withering away of its British counterpart is telling. In addition, the involvement of the social partners, and particularly of the labour movement in managing the schemes, seems to provide an obstacle for government sponsored retrenchment exercises.

Social Policy in Canada

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Micheal L. Shier ◽  
John R. Graham
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Social Welfare ◽  
Economic System ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Voluntary Sector ◽  
Social Needs ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
Social Policies ◽  
Future Trends

The focus and aim of social policy in Canada have in part been determined by the unique sociohistorical and cultural context of the country. This entry provides a brief overview of the leading factors that have contributed to the development of social policy in Canada. Emphasis is placed on the economic, social, and cultural context of the development of the country, along with the system of governance and the ideological framework among the general populace. Following this contextualization, four dominant periods of social policy are described. These include the residual period, the emerging institutional period, the institutional period, and the postinstitutional period. In each era the forces leading to specific social policy outcomes are described. These include aspects of the changing economic system and emerging cultural and social needs among the population. Key social policies in each era are introduced and described. Fundamental to each period of social policy development are the efforts of the voluntary sector. In conclusion, future trends in social policy and social welfare in Canada are discussed.

Oxford Handbook of U.S. Social Policy

2014 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
The United States ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
The Disabled ◽  
The Government ◽  
Public Private Mix

This Oxford Handbook pulls together much of our current knowledge about the origins, development, functions, and challenges of American social policy. After the introduction, the first substantive part of the handbook offers a historical overview of U.S. social policy from the colonial era to the present. This is followed by a set of chapters on different theoretical perspectives for understanding and explaining the development of social policy in the United States. The four following parts of the volume focus on concrete social programs for the elderly, the poor and near-poor, the disabled, and workers and families. Policy areas covered include health care, pensions, food assistance, housing, unemployment benefits, disability benefits, workers’ compensation, family support, and programs for soldiers and veterans. The final part of the book focuses on some of the consequences of the U.S. welfare state for poverty, inequality, and citizenship. Many of the chapters comprising this handbook emphasize the disjointed patterns inherent in U.S. policy-making and the public-private mix of social provision in which the government helps certain groups of citizens directly (e.g., social insurance) or indirectly (e.g., tax expenditures, regulations). The contributing authors are experts from political science, sociology, history, economics, and other disciplines.

Fiscal welfare in Europe: Why should we care and what do we know so far?

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (5) ◽  
pp. 549-560 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathalie Morel ◽  
Chloé Touzet ◽  
Michaël Zemmour
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
Policy Instruments ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Public Expenditures ◽  
Social Citizenship ◽  
Tax Expenditures ◽  
Strong Control

This article offers a reflection on how integrating fiscal welfare into welfare state research can shed light on some subtle, yet important, transformations of welfare states and social citizenship in Europe. We begin by clarifying the concepts of fiscal welfare and social tax expenditures (STEs), by reviewing and critically assessing the various related concepts found in the literature. We also map out the empirical knowledge currently available, highlighting the limitations in the available data. Then, drawing on both existing knowledge (developed especially in the context of the US welfare state) and the emerging literature on fiscal welfare in Europe, we identify a number of trends and set out some hypotheses as to why tax expenditures have become a privileged instrument in the field of social policy: not only do STEs appear as a useful instrument to build consensus across party lines in a context of budgetary austerity and strong control of public expenditures, they also enable the discreet privatization of social insurance schemes. Fiscal welfare also allows for a new mode of governing social policy through incentives, which entails a different mode of redistribution than traditional social policy instruments. Finally, we identify the remaining empirical and theoretical gaps to guide future research on the subject.

The Political Economy of Religion and Social Insurance in the United States, 1910–1939

2006 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 132-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth Scheve ◽  
David Stasavage
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Income Redistribution ◽  
The United States ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
The Political ◽  
State Governments ◽  
Individual Preferences

There are few scholars who would disagree with the proposition that individual economic position and economic risk play a critical role in shaping preferences for income redistribution and social insurance. There is less consensus, however, about the extent to which non-economic factors also influence individual preferences regarding social insurance provision. A number of scholars have examined how issues of race and identity have influenced the development of social insurance programs in the United States, as well as individual attitudes with respect to these programs. In a theoretical context, other authors have considered how attitudes toward income redistribution might also depend upon psychological dispositions such as the “belief in a just world.” In this article, we focus on religiosity as an important factor that can shape both individual preferences and policy outcomes regarding social insurance in the United States. To do so, we develop an argument about religion and social insurance as substitutes that draws both on existing work on the political economy of social insurance and on findings in social psychology regarding what we call the “coping effect” of religion. We test our hypothesis using historical evidence from two early social insurance policies: workers’ compensation legislation enacted by state governments between 1910 and 1930 and New Deal unemployment relief.

scholarly journals Diminished Expectations

2018 ◽  
Vol 70 (4) ◽  
pp. 555-594 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alisha C. Holland
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Social Spending ◽  
Formal Sector ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Original Survey

In Latin America, the relationship between income and support for redistribution is weak and variable despite the region's extreme income inequality. This article shows that this condition is rooted in the truncated structure of many Latin American welfare states. Heavy spending on contributory social insurance for formal-sector workers, flat or regressive subsidies, and informal access barriers mean that social spending does far less for the poor in Latin America than it does in advanced industrial economies. Using public opinion data from across Latin America and original survey data from Colombia, the author demonstrates that income is less predictive of attitudes in the countries and social policy areas in which the poor gain less from social expenditures. Social policy exclusion leads the poor to doubt that they will benefit from redistribution, thereby dampening their support for it. The article reverses an assumption in political economy models that welfare exclusion unleashes demands for greater redistribution. Instead, truncation reinforces skepticism about social policy helping the poor. Welfare state reforms to promote social inclusion are essential to strengthen redistributive coalitions.

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