Potential liabilities: Social investment policy as biopolitics in New Zealand – An examination of the National Coalition government’s welfare policies

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 421-437
Author(s):  
Margaret Stuart
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Social Services ◽  
The State ◽  
Coalition Government ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
Welfare Policies ◽  
Parents And Children ◽  
Future Potential ◽  
National Coalition ◽  
The Cost

Using Michel Foucault’s theories of biopolitics, about risk and security, I examine the welfare policies of the National Coalition Government in New Zealand (2008–2017). This government attempted to mitigate risk by projecting possible challenges and solutions to ‘vulnerable populations’. Welfare was re-defined in monetarist economic terms, as ways to ensure ‘small government’. Over the three terms of government they brought in changes across the education, and social services, with the intent of implementing new economic facets to reduce the cost to the state of beneficiaries and their dependent children.  Using cross-ministry data collection, they planned to identify the ‘job-shy’ parents and children deemed ‘vulnerable’. Social Investment aimed to change the behaviours of such populations, whom the National Coalition government deemed future potential liabilities for the state. Projecting costs over 20 or 30 years and modelling the costs of dysfunction would give the social agencies improved information. Early intervention would save the state welfare budget, and responsibilize the young children at risk of themselves becoming beneficiaries later in life.

Illegal Immigrants in Texas: Impact on Social Services and Related Considerations

1984 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 733-747 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sidney Weintraub
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Public Services ◽  
San Antonio ◽  
El Paso ◽  
The State ◽  
Illegal Immigrants ◽  
Distinct Population ◽  
Detention Centers ◽  
The Cost

A survey conducted of undocumented aliens and providers of public services showed that the state of Texas receives more from taxes paid by undocumented persons than the cost of the state to provide them with public services, such as education, health care, corrections, and welfare. The same survey showed that six cities in the state (Austin, Dallas, El Paso, Houston, McAllen and San Antonio) together expended more to provide services to undocumented aliens than they received in taxes. The survey concentrated on undocumented persons not detained by the immigration authorities and found that this group constituted a distinct population from those in detention centers in that the former exhibited normal characteristics of settled families while the latter were predominantly the familiar young, single and peripatetic male.

Policy, fast and slow: Social impact bonds and the differential temporalities of mobile policy

2021 ◽  
pp. 146801812199780
Author(s):  
Rebecca Grimwood ◽  
Tom Baker ◽  
Louise Humpage ◽  
Jacob Broom
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Social Impact ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
Transnational Mobility ◽  
Adoption And Implementation ◽  
Policy Models ◽  
Social Impact Bonds ◽  
Global North

Governments are increasingly intrigued by the possibility of harnessing the private ‘social investment’ market to finance the delivery of social services. One social investment initiative in particular – Social Impact Bonds (SIBs) – has spread extensively within the global North. This article investigates the transnational mobility of SIBs by exploring the adoption and implementation of SIBs in New Zealand. It considers SIBs as a case of ‘fast policy’, a concept that describes both the increasing rapidity of policymaking and the proliferation of ‘best practice’ policy models. Although the model was adopted relatively quickly in New Zealand, implementation spanned a number of years following various complications and setbacks, echoing experiences in other places. This article seeks to extend conceptions of policy mobility and fast policy by arguing for both fast and slow temporalities of policy movement, contending that while adoption of mobile policies tends to be rapid, implementation can follow a much more gradual pace as they mediate, and are mediated by, local political, institutional and ideological factors.

scholarly journals A German Perspective on Legal and Political Problems of Coalition Governments

1999 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 65
Author(s):  
Ingo Von Münch
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Public Law ◽  
The State ◽  
Coalition Government ◽  
The Public ◽  
Coalition Governments ◽  
Deputy Prime Minister ◽  
Electoral Law

In September and October 1998 Professor von Münch was a visiting fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Public Law.  During an extremely busy visit, Professor von Münch gave a number of seminars on aspects of German Constitutional and Electoral Law.  These seminars, given by both a leading Constitutional and Electoral Law academic and a former deputy prime minister of the State of Hamburg and former member of the Bundesrat, or German Senate, were timely given the trials and tribulations of New Zealand's first MMP Coalition Government which had then just ended in the sacking of the minor party's leader as Deputy Prime Minister.  In contrast to much of the contemporary gloom at the perceived failed hope of MMP, Professor von Münch presented a hopeful view of both the electoral system that New Zealand had imported from Germany and of the possibilities of Coalition Government. The following is an enlarged text of a speech, delivered to the Public Law section of the New Zealand Ministry of Justice.

scholarly journals Social Investment in Aotearoa/New Zealand: Meaning and Implications

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 111
Author(s):  
Michael O’Brien
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Social Security ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Social Service ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
Welfare Provision ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Service Provisions

Social investment has been the leit motif for the development of a range of social service provisions in Aotearoa/New Zealand for the last decade. It involves a particular approach, using data to target decisions and inform directions for such key areas as social security, care and protection of children and delivery of social services. There are serious questions about the statistical base which informs the approach and the implications for disadvantaged, marginalised and targeted populations, while poverty is neglected, sidelined and/or treated as resulting from individual failure. The Aotearoa/New Zealand model of social investment represents a significant departure from needs based, equity informed welfare provision.

PREREQUISITES FOR THE FORMATION OF A MECHANISM FOR STATE REGULATION OF SOCIAL GUARANTEES IN THE REGION

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vitaly Lobas ◽  
◽  
Elena Petryaeva ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Protection ◽  
Well Being ◽  
State Regulation ◽  
The State ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Periodic Review ◽  
Cost Of Living ◽  
Economic Relations ◽  
State Management ◽  
The Cost

The article deals with modern mechanisms for managing social protection of the population by the state and the private sector. From the point of view of forms of state regulation of the sphere of social protection, system indicators usually include the state and dynamics of growth in the standard of living of the population, material goods, services and social guarantees for the poorly provided segments of the population. The main indicator among the above is the state of the consumer market, as one of the main factors in the development of the state. Priority areas of public administration with the use of various forms of social security have been identified. It should be emphasized that, despite the legislative conflicts that exist today in Ukraine, mandatory indexation of the cost of living is established, which is associated with inflation. Various scientists note that although the definition of the cost of living index has a well-established methodology, there are quite a lot of regional features in the structure of consumption. All this is due to restrictions that are included in the consumer basket of goods and different levels of socio-economic development of regions. The analysis of the establishment and periodic review of the minimum consumer budgets of the subsistence minimum and wages of the working population and the need to form state insurance funds for unforeseen circumstances is carried out. Considering in this context the levers of state management of social guarantees of the population, we drew attention to the crisis periods that are associated with the market transformation of the regional economy. In these conditions, there is a need to develop and implement new mechanisms and clusters in the system of socio-economic relations. The components of the mechanisms ofstate regulation ofsocial guarantees of the population are proposed. The deepening of market relations in the process of reforming the system of social protection of the population should be aimed at social well-being.

Peculiarities of improving interbudgetary relations in conditions of authorities’ decentralization

2020 ◽  
pp. 46-54
Author(s):  
Zenoviy Siryk
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Social Development ◽  
Social Services ◽  
The State ◽  
Major Objective ◽  
Formal Approach ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Local Areas ◽  
And Control ◽  
Different Levels

Ukraine is a unitary state, yet historically various regions, oblasts, districts, and local areas have different levels of economic development. To secure sustainable economic and social development and provide social services guaranteed by the state for each citizen according to the Constitution, the mechanism of redistribution between revenues and expenditures of oblasts, regions, and territories through the budgets of a higher level is used. The paper aims to research the peculiarities of improving interbudgetary relations in conditions of authorities’ decentralization. The paper defines the nature of interbudgetary relations. The basic and reverse subsidies to Ukraine and Lvivska oblast are analyzed. The advantages and disadvantages the communities face at changing approaches to balancing local budgets are determined. Regulative documents that cover the interbudgetary relations in Ukraine are analyzed. Special attention is paid to the problem of local finances reforming, including the development of interbudgetary relations. The scheme of the economic interbudgetary relations system in Ukraine is developed. The ways to improve the system of interbudgetary relations in Ukraine are suggested. The negative and positive aspects, advantages, and disadvantages of the system of interbudgetary relations in Ukraine require the following improvements. 1. It is necessary to avoid the complete budget alignment in the process of budgets balancing by interbudgetary transfers as the major objective. 2. The interbudgetary transfers should be distributed based on a formal approach. 3. The changes have to be introduced to the calculation of medical and educational subsidies in terms of financial standard of budget provision to avoid the money deficit for coverage of necessary expenditures. 4. There is a need to improve interbudgetary relations at the levels of districts, villages, towns, and cities of district subordination. 5. Improvement of the mechanism of targeted benefits provision, their real evaluation, and control for the use of funds.

The Self-Undermining State

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arjun Chowdhury
Keyword(s):  
State Formation ◽  
Final Section ◽  
The State ◽  
The Self ◽  
Central Authority ◽  
Interstate War ◽  
External Threats ◽  
Willingness To Sacrifice ◽  
The Cost

This chapter provides an informal rationalist model of state formation as an exchange between a central authority and a population. In the model, the central authority protects the population against external threats and the population disarms and pays taxes. The model specifies the conditions under which the exchange is self-enforcing, meaning that the parties prefer the exchange to alternative courses of action. These conditions—costly but winnable interstate war—are historically rare, and the cost of such wars can rise beyond the population’s willingness to sacrifice. At this point, the population prefers to avoid war rather than fight it and may prefer an alternative institution to the state if that institution can prevent war and reduce the level of extraction. Thus the modern centralized state is self-undermining rather than self-enforcing. A final section addresses alternative explanations for state formation.

Constructing Images of Deviance: A Look at State Intervention into the Problem of Wife-Battery

1983 ◽  
Vol 31 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. 60-76
Author(s):  
Patricia A. Morgan
Keyword(s):  
Social Problem ◽  
State Intervention ◽  
The United States ◽  
The State ◽  
Structural Position ◽  
Wife Battering ◽  
The Social ◽  
Class Context ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Cost

Patricia Morgan's paper describes what happens when the state intervenes in the social problem of wife-battering. Her analysis refers to the United States, but there are clear implications for other countries, including Britain. The author argues that the state, through its social problem apparatus, manages the image of the problem by a process of bureaucratization, professionalization and individualization. This serves to narrow the definition of the problem, and to depoliticize it by removing it from its class context and viewing it in terms of individual pathology rather than structure. Thus refuges were initially run by small feminist collectives which had a dual objective of providing a service and promoting among the women an understanding of their structural position in society. The need for funds forced the groups to turn to the state for financial aid. This was given, but at the cost to the refuges of losing their political aims. Many refuges became larger, much more service-orientated and more diversified in providing therapy for the batterers and dealing with other problems such as alcoholism and drug abuse. This transformed not only the refuges but also the image of the problem of wife-battering.

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