The territorial politics of social policy development in multi-level states

2005 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 537-554 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicola Mcewen
Author(s):  
Jana Javornik ◽  
Liz Oliver

The UK government introduced Shared Parental Leave (SPL) in 2014 to expand parents' capabilities to share parenting, by affording fathers similar entitlements to post-birth leave as mothers. Policy sought to simultaneously address other sources of gender inequality to expand parents' capability sets to remain in work after childbirth and to share parenting differently. This social policy development represents a major step forward in addressing gender inequality at home and at work. However, the policy has not produced the desired change in fathers' leave uptake and the implementation has exposed several issues. This chapter argues that legal rights are one possible instrument for reaching that goal andincludes a wider legal and labour market landscape as a potentially relevant source of inequalities. Using the capability approach, it examines how the SPL shapes fathers' capability set to co-parent and how the broader regime of employment and anti-discrimination law addresses gender equality in home and at work. The chapter offers a more comprehensive explanation for the failure of SPL to enhance parents' capability to share parenting in ways they as a couple have reason to value, as well as an example of how to incorporate a multi-level interdisciplinary analysis of legal rights into social policy analysis through a capability lens.


2005 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caitlin Donnelly ◽  
Robert D. Osborne

Many commentaries on social policy in the UK assume that policy as developed in England applies to the constituent countries of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. However, the advent of political devolution in the last five years is slowly being reflected in the literature. This paper takes education policy in Northern Ireland and discusses recent policy developments in the light of the 1998 Belfast Agreement. The Agreement, it is suggested, is providing a framework which promotes equality, human rights and inclusion in policy making. Some early indications of this are discussed and some of the resultant policy dilemmas are assessed. The paper concludes that accounts of policy development in the UK, which ignore the multi-level policy-making contexts created by devolution, do a disservice to the subject.


2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 265-272
Author(s):  
Venelin Terziev ◽  
Preslava Dimitrova

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.


Author(s):  
Matthieu Leimgruber

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.


2005 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 293-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
ELIZA W. Y. LEE

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.


2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. 923-936 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reinhard Heinisch ◽  
Emanuele Massetti ◽  
Oscar Mazzoleni

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ricardo Velázquez Leyer

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.


2017 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 328-352 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Tillin ◽  
Anthony W. Pereira
Keyword(s):  

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (8) ◽  
pp. 734-742 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harry Torrance

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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