Resisting austerity measures to social policies: multiple explanatory case studies

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (6) ◽  
pp. 1130-1140
Author(s):  
Patricia O’Campo ◽  
Alix Freiler ◽  
Carles Muntaner ◽  
Elena Gelormino ◽  
Kelly Huegaerts ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Social Spending ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Political Clout ◽  
The Social ◽  
State Budgeting

Abstract Since Margaret Thatcher reached power in the United Kingdom, European governments have increasingly turned to neoliberal forms of policy-making, focusing, especially after the 2008 Great Recession on ‘austerity policies’ rather than investing in social protection policies. We applied a multiple explanatory case studies methodology to examine how and why challenges and resistance to these austerity measures are successful or not in four settings for three different social policy issues: using a gender lens in state budgeting in Andalusia (Spain), maintaining unemployment benefits in Italy and cuts to fuel poverty reduction programs in Northern Ireland and England. In particular, we intended to learn about whether resistance strategies are shared across disparate cases or whether there are unique activities that lead to successful resistance to austerity policies. As our approach drew from realist philosophy of science, we started with initial theories concerning collective action, political ideology and political power of affected populations. Our findings suggest that there are similarities between the cases we studied despite differences in political and policy contexts. We found that joint action between advocacy groups was effective in resisting cuts to social spending. Evidence also indicates that the social construction of target populations is important in resisting changes to social programmes. This was observed in both England and Northern Ireland where pensioners held significant political clout.

Welfare Efforts in Comparative Perspective

2020 ◽  
pp. 52-89
Author(s):  
Ferdinand Eibl
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Social Spending ◽  
Welfare Provision ◽  
Regime Formation ◽  
Policy Regimes ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Expenditures ◽  
The International Monetary Fund

This chapter provides an analytical overview of welfare provision in labour· abundant MENA regimes. Organized in sections by country and covering the period from regime formation until the late 2000s, the chapter pays particular attention to spending levels and the accessibility of social policies, and maps the eigbt regimes onto the three different pathways of welfare provision outlined in Chapter I. It draws on a combination of historical reports and statistics, available secondary accounts, and a novel dataset on social expenditures developed from archival material of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It also diversifies the picture by examining policies of education, health, and social protection separately. The chapter lays important groundwork for further analyses and gives a more complete sense of social policy regimes beyond the social spending figures presented in Chapter I.

Mind the gaps: Universal Credit and self-employment in the United Kingdom

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-217
Author(s):  
Kevin Caraher ◽  
Enrico Reuter
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Welfare Reform ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
The Self ◽  
Labour Markets ◽  
Self Employment ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Roll Out

Self-employment in the United Kingdom rose steadily until 2017, as part of wider changes in labour markets towards more flexible and potentially more vulnerable forms of employment. At the same time, welfare reform has continued under the current and previous governments, with a further expansion of conditionality with respect to benefit recipients. The incremental introduction of Universal Credit is likely to intensify the subjection of vulnerable categories of the self-employed to welfare conditionalities and to thus accentuate the ambivalent nature of self-employment. This article analyses the impact of Universal Credit on the self-employed by first discussing elements of precarity faced by the self-employed, and, second, by exploring the consequences of the roll-out of Universal Credit for those self-employed people who are reliant on the social protection system.

SOCIAL RIGHTS OF THE POLES IN THE UNITED KINGDOM AFTER BREXIT

2020 ◽  
Vol 556 (7) ◽  
pp. 12-17
Author(s):  
Paweł Kaleta
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Transition Period ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Social

Withdrawal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the European Union (Brexit) has definitely been bringing various consequences in the field of social security. It is therefore worthwhile to analyse it from the point of view of the social rights of Poles residing in the United Kingdom (as well as, in a comparative and auxiliary manner, of the British residing in Poland), following the formal conclusion of the withdrawal. The article therefore synthetically presents this current, post-Brexit situation, taking into account the ongoing transition period as well as the perspective of negotiations on the possible agreement(s) on future EU-UK relations. Notably, the rights in question have been preserved in the transition period, but their status afterwards remains open.

scholarly journals Adequacy of Social Services for Persons with Disability of a Second Class City in Negros Occidental

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-172
Author(s):  
Cherry Belle R. Marcella ◽  
Ma. Dolores J. Nalumen
Keyword(s):  
Social Services ◽  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Total Population ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Standard Of Living ◽  
Social Aspect ◽  
The Social ◽  
Five Elements ◽  
Basic Level

Persons with Disability (PWDs) comprise one billion or fifteen percent (15%) of the world's total population. Adequacy of social services plays a vital role in realizing the rights and welfare of the PWDs. This includes providing them with an adequate standard of living and a basic level of income security that will help reduce their levels of poverty and vulnerability. The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is the primary government agency mandated to develop and coordinate social protection and poverty reduction solutions for and with the poor, vulnerable, and disadvantaged. Hence, this study explored how adequate are the social services under the five elements: health, education, livelihood, social aspect, and empowerment provided by the CSWD Office of a second-class city in Negros Occidental. It also explored the challenges faced by the respondents in availing of the social services and their recommendations to overcome those challenges.

Social cyclicality in Asian countries

2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (9) ◽  
pp. 1154-1165
Author(s):  
Deepti Ahuja ◽  
Venkatesh Murthy
Keyword(s):  
Fiscal Policy ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Social Spending ◽  
Asian Countries ◽  
Social Expenditure ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Cyclical Pattern ◽  
The Social

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the cyclical pattern of social expenditure during 1980-2012 for a set of Asian countries. The extant literature available so far has captured the cyclicality of fiscal policy only for member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and for Latin American countries. Moreover, previous studies have largely ignored Asian countries. Design/methodology/approach The analysis used panel data from global macro-databases of the International Monetary Fund, Statistics of public expenditure for economic development and Asian Development Bank. The cyclical components of social spending (health, education, and social protection) and GDP were determined by using the Hodrick-Prescott Filter. A positive (negative) correlation indicates procyclical (countercyclical) fiscal policy. In line with the existing literature on fiscal cyclicality (Gavin and Perotti, 1997; Lane, 2003; Frankel et al., 2013) that has examined the behavior of fiscal policy over the business cycle, regression analysis is used to examine the impact of political and institutional factors on the behavior of social spending. Findings It was found that government social expenditure is procyclical across Asian countries during 1980-2012. However, during the past decade, emerging Asian countries have been able to shift from procyclical to countercyclical social spending. This shows that they had taken several initiatives to boost expenditure in the social sector – be it in social protection, health, or education services. The significant determinant of social cyclicality is the quality of institutions, which could help the government to increase fiscal deficit during recessions and repay the debt during economic booms. However, to some extent, their countercyclical action is restrained by the high accumulated level of public debt. Originality/value In the context of the Asian region, it is important to understand the cyclical pattern of social policy for several reasons. It has been said that crises offer an opportunity for countries to rethink their social policy to achieve more sustained and equitable development. By studying the social spending behavior, the authors can see whether Asian countries were able to grab the opportunity for reshaping their social and economic agenda after the Asian financial crisis.

scholarly journals Polityka społeczna w Szkocji po reformie dewolucyjnej. W stronę fragmentaryzacji brytyjskiego welfare state?

2021 ◽  
pp. 129-144
Author(s):  
Tomasz Mering
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Social Benefits ◽  
Unemployment Benefits ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Regional Authorities

The article presents the origins and evolution of social policy programmes in Scotland since the referendum in 1997. Regional authorities in Scotland obtained significant prerogatives in payment of social benefits. They actively exercised the rights granted by the UK legislation, resulting in the partial decentralisation of the social security system in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has become a fact. This decentralisation is not complete, because the administration of pensions, and unemployment benefits remains the sole responsibility of London’s central government. One of the features of British social policy has become territorial asymmetry, consisting of partially different programs and social policy institutions in other parts of the UK. The most important effect of the reforms is the creation of institutions and draft social policy programs that can be put into effect, when the process of political emancipation in Scotland will lead to a new regional referendum.

scholarly journals Forms of social assistance in the social protection system and their role in poverty reduction

2016 ◽  
Vol 158 (3-4(2)) ◽  
pp. 92-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olga Abakumenko ◽  
◽  
Larisa Kovalenko ◽  
Olena Tovstizhenko ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Social Assistance ◽  
Protection System ◽  
The Social

scholarly journals Diaspora Policies, Consular Services and Social Protection for Danish Citizens Abroad

2020 ◽  
pp. 143-160
Author(s):  
Romana Careja
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United States Of America ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
The United States ◽  
Limited Attention ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
Key Informants ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Social ◽  
Main Factors

Abstract This chapter provides an overview of the policy infrastructure and key policies in place concerning the social rights of Danish citizens residing abroad. It builds on evidence from legal and administrative documents, on communications with key informants, as well as on existing studies and reports concerning the Danish Government’s approach to emigration and diaspora policies. Concrete cases for this study are five countries where the largest Danish diaspora concentrate: Sweden, Norway, Germany, the United States of America and the United Kingdom. It argues that reliance on supra-national agreements, previous rather negative public opinion about emigrants as well as the residence principle embedded in the qualifying conditions for social benefits are three main factors which explain the limited attention currently given by the Danish Government to diaspora policies, in particular the social protection of Danish citizens residing abroad.

scholarly journals ORÇAMENTO E POLÍTICAS SOCIAIS: metodologia de análise na perspectiva crítica

2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evilasio Salvador ◽  
Sandra Oliveira Teixeira
Keyword(s):  
Social Protection ◽  
Social Spending ◽  
Public Budget ◽  
Public Fund ◽  
Critical Perspective ◽  
The Public ◽  
Analysis Methodology ◽  
Public Resource ◽  
The Social ◽  
Democratic Control

Diante das dificuldades sofridas pela proteção social em tempos de agudização da crise do capital, este artigo tem por objetivo principal apresentar uma metodologia de análise crítica do orçamento público para além dos manuais tradicionais de finanças públicas. O artigo está organizado em quatro seções. A primeira seção evidencia os conceitos de fundo público e orçamento público, destacando a presença ativa dos recursos públicos na esfera da acumulação produtiva e na garantia das políticas sociais. A segunda parte do texto apresenta critérios relevantes para a análise dos gastos orçamentários, especialmente os gastos sociais. A terceira seção aborda o financiamento das políticas sociais na perspectiva crítica que busca uma análise da totalidade do custeio dos gastos sociais. Por fim, destaca a importância do controle democrático do orçamento e do fundo público. Aborda uma perspectiva analítica que corrobora com o delineamento de tendências acerca da condição dos direitos sociais e humanos.Palavras-chave: Fundo Público; orçamento público; financiamento; gastos sociais; controle democráticoBUDGET AND PUBLIC POLICIES: analysis’ methodology in critical perspectiveAbstract: Given the suffered difficulties by the social protection in exacerbation times of the capital crisis this article has as principal goal to show a methodology of critical analysis of the public budget in addition the traditional manual of public finance. The article is organized in four sections. The first section evidences the concept of public fund and public budget, emphasizing the active presence of public resource in the scope of the productive accumulation and the assurance of socialpolicy. The second section shows relevant criteria for the analysis of budget expenditures, especially social spending. The third section addresses the financing of social policies in the critical perspective that seeks an analysis of all costs of the social spending. In the end, highlights the importance of the democratic control of the budget and the public fund. It is ananalytical perspective corroborates with the delineation of trends about the condition of social and human rights.

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