Federalism, policy change, and social security in Belgium: Explaining the decentralization of family allowances in the Sixth State Reform

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Béland ◽  
André Lecours

The debate on social policy change is not only about the evolving nature of social benefits but also about change in their territorial organization. This territorial issue is central in Belgium. In 2011, the Sixth State Reform featured the decentralization of family allowances, a component of social security. This article explains why such decentralization occurred in Belgium despite the fact that Francophone parties, which effectively have veto power over constitutional reform, had long insisted that no portion of social security would ever be transferred to the constituent units. We argue that increasing political pressure generated by the surge of the Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie (N-VA) in the context of the government formation crises altered how Francophone parties assessed both the national unity situation and their own political interests. The article also discusses the policy and political implications of the decentralization of family allowances in Belgium.

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 100-118
Author(s):  
Paul Schoukens ◽  
Greta Gorissen

This article depicts the internal coordination of social security schemes, covered by EU Regulation no. 883/2004 in the federal state of Belgium. Since the first state reform in 1970, Belgium gradually evolved from a unitary into a federal state. Next to the federal level, there are two additional levels, the Communities and the Regions. Family allowances and long-term care insurance are, for instance, within the competence of the Communities. The article outlines the extent of federalism and decentralisation, the adjudication of competence between the federated entities and the financial arrangements between the federal state and the federated entities as well as the financial arrangements between the federated entities.


2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ayunita Nur Rohanawati

AbstractThis study aims to determine the social security system adopted by Indonesia, see Indonesia as a function of the welfare state as mandated by the 1945 Constitution has not done well, and to know the view of progressive legal theory legislation related to social security in providing solutions to the problems of social security the workforce. This research is devoted to the study of normative legal systematics, which is intended to determine the implementation of a theory of the legal conditions that exist in society. Results of this study produces a secondary data. The data obtained from the document collection process or library materials. Of the collection process, the data were analyzed qualitatively, systematically arranged, and presented descriptively. The results showed that Indonesia is still not able to fully administer social security for the people, where social security is still a “black and white” but the State has not been able in practice to assume responsibility for the implementation of social security as a whole. About social security, the Government is still not able to provide significant changes to the equalization gain social security for the workers, but changes in social security regulations on labor is performed repeatedly. Necessary party whom dared to take a policy or decisions that benefit the workers to realize the welfare of the workers. Parties reffered to the law is used as a progressive peeler, is a party that has an important role that enterpreneurs and the Industrial Relations Court Judge.Keywords: Social Security, Labour, Progressive LawIntisariPenelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui sistem jaminan sosial yang dianut Indonesia, melihat fungsi Indonesia sebagai negara kesejahteraan sesuai amanat Undang-Undang Dasar Negara Republik Indonesia Tahun 1945 belum terlaksana dengan baik, serta untuk mengetahui teori hukum progresif memandang peraturan perundang-undangan terkait jaminan sosial tenaga kerja dalam memberikan solusi atas permasalahan jaminan sosial tenaga kerja tersebut.Penelitian ini bersifat normatif yang dikhususkan pada penelitian sistematika hukum, yang dimaksudkan untuk mengetahui implementasi pelaksanaan suatu teori terhadap kondisi hukum yang ada di masyarakat. Hasil penelitian ini menghasilkan suatu data sekunder. Data tersebut diperoleh dari proses pengumpulan dokumen atau bahan pustaka. Dari proses pengumpulan tersebut, data yang diperoleh dianalisis secara kualitatif disusun secara sistematis dan disajikan secara deskriptif.Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa Indonesia masih belum mampu secara seutuhnya menyelenggarakan jaminan sosial bagi rakyat, dimana jaminan sosial tersebut masih sebatas “hitam diatas putih” namun, negara belum mampu dalam pelaksanaannya untuk mengemban tanggung jawab pelaksanaan jaminan sosial tersebut secara utuh. Tentang jaminan sosial tenaga kerja, pemerintah masih belum mampu memberikan perubahan yang signifikan terhadap pemerataan perolehan jaminan sosial tenaga kerja bagi para pekerja tersebut, padahal perubahan peraturan tentang jaminan sosial tenaga kerja tersebut berulang kali dilakukan. Diperlukan pihak yang berani untuk mengambil suatu kebijakan atau keputusan yang bermanfaat bagi pekerja demi terwujudnya kesejahteraan bagi pekerja. Pihak sebagaimana dimaksud jika hukum progresif yang digunakan sebagai alat pengupas, adalah pihak yang memiliki peran penting yaitu pengusaha dan Hakim Pengadilan Hubungan Industrial.Kata Kunci: Jaminan Sosial, Tenaga Kerja, Hukum Progresif.


2011 ◽  
Vol 205 ◽  
pp. 80-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Duckett

AbstractOver the last two decades an economic reform paradigm has dominated social security and health research: economic reform policies have defined its parameters, established its premises, generated its questions and even furnished its answers. This paradigm has been particularly influential in accounts of the early 1980s' collapse of China's rural co-operative medical system (CMS), which is depicted almost exclusively as the outcome of the post-Mao economic policies that decollectivized agriculture. This article draws primarily on government documents and newspaper reports from the late 1970s and early 1980s to argue that CMS collapse is better explained by a change in health policy. It shows that this policy change was in turn shaped both by post-Mao elite politics and by CMS institutions dating back to the late 1960s. The article concludes by discussing how an explanation of CMS collapse that is centred on health policy and politics reveals the limitations of the economic reform paradigm and contributes to a fuller understanding of the post-Mao period.


Legal Studies ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Christopher Rowe

Abstract As part of its response to Covid-19 the government paused the use of the ‘Minimum Income Floor’ (MIF), which restricts the Universal Credit (UC) entitlement of the self-employed. This paper places the MIF in the wider context of conditionality in the social security system and considers a judicial review which claimed that the MIF was discriminatory. The paper focuses on how UC affects the availability of real choices for low-income citizens to limit or escape from wage labour, with two implications of the move to UC highlighted. First, the overlooked labour decommodifying aspect of tax credits, which provided a minimum income guarantee and a genuine alternative to wage labour for people who self-designated as ‘self-employed’, even if their earnings were minimal or non-existent, has been removed. Secondly, UC has in some respects improved the position of low-paid wage labourers in ‘mini-jobs’, who are not subject to conditionality once they work for the equivalent of approximately nine hours a week on the minimum wage.


1974 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Pettman

Zambia inherited a system of government and administration in 1964 which was ill-suited to the tasks of political development to which her new leaders were dedicated. What little national unity and mobilisation had been achieved in the independence struggle declined with the removal of the common enemy. The Government rested on a fragile base, without the support of agreed rules and practices to limit and contain conflict, and without adequate instruments available for the implementation of its policies. So the search began for a more suitable political system, which could cope with the new needs of independence, and provide for the stability of the state and the survival of the Government.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Sisay A. Temesgen

Abstract The Ethiopian Federal Democratic Republic (EFDR) Constitution is promulgated in 1994. Under Article (45) of the EFDR the country is restructured from presidential to parliamentary system of government. Since then, the country has been ravaged by the gross violation of the liberty of citizens and the crisis of national unity and consensus among the diversified ethnic groups. The impact of the parliamentary system in aggravating those critical challenges and the comparative advantage of presidantialism is the most ignored political research topic. In this Article, I investigated that the blurry separation of powers of the parliamentary structure of the country has created fusion of powers which has undermined the system of checks and balances. Thus, the executive organ of the government has enabled to concentrate unchecked and unaccountable power which has manifested in the gross violation of the liberty of citizens. Likewise, Article (73) of EFDR has declared that the prime minister and council of ministers of the country to be appointed by the legislators. This has deprived their boarder popular base and authenticity; and equivocally undermined their potency and decisiveness in addressing the existing crisis of national unity and consensus. Comparatively, the presidential structure of government is defined by the firm separation of powers and genuine system of checks and balances. The direct popular election of the president enables the president and council of ministers to secure broader popular base and authenticity. Thus, it is advantageous over parliamentarian structure in terms of protecting the liberty of citizens and addressing the crisis of national unity and consensus in Ethiopia.


Significance The violence is indicative of growing friction between local Tripolitanian militias under the influence of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and forces now loyal to the Government of National Unity (GNU), which in 2019 rallied from across western Libya to defend the capital from eastern military commander Khalifa Haftar’s siege. Impacts This is a last-ditch act by the UAE’s only remaining military assets in western Libya, and could provoke conflict with Turkish proxies. Violence involving Turkish-backed forces would refocus European attention on Ankara’s role in Libya and reignite pressure for a withdrawal. Renewed violence would end a recent economic revival in Tripoli, created by a period of peace and many reconstruction contracts.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hawraman Karim ◽  
Murad Mzori

We define nation-building as a process which leads to the formation of countries in which the citizens feel a sufficient amount of commonality of interests, goals and preferences so that they do not wish to separate from each other. It can also be said that nation-building is a process in which the government, the state or a group of elites act with the aim of creating national unity and reducing divisions in society. In this regard, groups and ethnicities come together to form a national identity. Nation and nation-building are two modern phenomena and the elements of the nation-building process, which are patriotic unity, citizenship, collective identity, equal opportunities for all citizens and a common language, are the foundations of the formation of a modern state. In this research and theoretically, the concept of nation-building and its constituent elements and the importance of this process for the Kurdistan region are discussed. The main question in this research is the question of the national existence of the Kurd. Is there a nation in the Kurdistan region? If so, how? If not, why not? Should nation-building or state-building be a priority for the Kurds in the Kurdistan region?


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