scholarly journals Confronting homelessness in Greece during at time of crisis

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikos Kourachanis
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Emergency Services ◽  
Fund Raising ◽  
Significant Deterioration ◽  
Social Interventions ◽  
Strong Emphasis ◽  
New Form ◽  
State Fund

<p>This article attempts to examine the policies for confronting homelessness in Greece during the crisis. The thesis proposed is that, regardless of the signs of a significant deterioration in the problem of homelessness, a range of policies has been developed that focus on the management of its most extreme and publicly visible manifestations. Social interventions are inadequate, fragmented, repressive in their nature, and with a strong emphasis on charity. This can be seen in the emphasis given to developing emergency services centered on in-kind provisions. The main burden of implementing these services is mainly borne by civil society, with extensive non-state fund-raising to supports its activities. This fact entails wider connotations for the “new” form of social policy that is emerging.</p>

scholarly journals A Farewell to Australia's Welfare State

2001 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 537-544 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francis G. Castles
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Coalition Government ◽  
Postwar Period ◽  
Policy Changes ◽  
Means Testing ◽  
Strong Emphasis ◽  
Wage Regulation

For much of the postwar period, the Australian welfare state has been misunderstood by overseas social policy commentators. The lack of generosity of welfare payments has been substantially compensated for by a system of wage regulation that has prevented waged poverty and delivered a reduced disparity of incomes. The strong emphasis on means-testing of benefits has not had the stigmatizing effects of benefit selectivity elsewhere, since Australian means tests are designed to exclude the well-off rather than focus benefits exclusively on the very poor and Australian means-testing has been nondiscretionary in character. Policy changes in the 1980s and 1990s, and most particularly under the present Liberal Coalition government, have undermined these distinctive aspects of welfare Australian-style, and it is no longer possible to defend the Australian welfare state from its critics.

Determinants of health and education equality: evidence from post-Soviet states

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Angelo Vito Panaro
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Civil Liberties ◽  
Regime Type ◽  
Social Equality ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Civil Society Organisations ◽  
Regime Types

PurposeThis article examines the determinants of social equality in the education and healthcare sectors in the 15 post-Soviet states. Focussing on regime type and civil society organisations (CSOs), it argues that countries where liberal principles of democracy are achieved or have a stronger civil society deliver a more equitable social policy.Design/methodology/approachThe empirical analysis rests upon a time-series cross-sectional (TSCS) analysis from 1992 to 2019. Data are collected from the Quality of Government (QoG) Dataset 2020 and the Variates of Democracy (V-DEM) Dataset 2020.FindingsThe findings demonstrate that while regime type only partially accounts for social equality, as electoral autocracies do not have more equitable social policy than close regime types and democracy weakly explains equality levels, the strength of CSOs is associated with more equality.Originality/valueThe article challenges dominant approaches that consider electoral democracy to be related to more equal social policy and demonstrates that de-facto free and fair elections do not impinge on social equality, while the strength of liberal and civil liberties and CSOs correlate with more equitable social policy.

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.

scholarly journals (Re)assembling the ‘normal’ in neoliberal policy discourses: tracing gender regimes in the age of risk

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katarina Giritli Nygren ◽  
Siv Fahlgren ◽  
Anders Johansson
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Feminist Theory ◽  
The State ◽  
Policy Document ◽  
Gender Regime ◽  
Gender Neutral ◽  
Gender Regimes ◽  
Modes Of Governance ◽  
The Way

The purpose of this article is to explore through a reading of an official Swedish policy document what questions and challenges such a document poses for feminist theory by the way the ‘normal’ is (re)assembled in accordance with what others have called the risk politics of advanced liberalism.  The intensified focus on risk in neoliberalism has seen responsibility move from the state to individuals, and old divisions between society and market as well as between civil society and state are being refigured. The argument put forward here is that current modes of governance tend to neglect the complexities of present-day life courses when using a gender-‘neutral’ approach to social policy that is in fact the work of a gender regime.

Social Movements, Brexit and Social Policy

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 147-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Armine Ishkanian
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Unmet Needs ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Fertile Ground ◽  
Governance Institutions ◽  
The 2008 Financial Crisis ◽  
Economic Developments ◽  
The Relationship

In this article, I examine the relationship between social movements, Brexit and social policy and consider how political and socio-economic developments since the 2008 financial crisis helped create a fertile ground for Brexit. I query the assumption that Brexit was simply a result of those left behind by globalisation and instead explore why and how actors from across the ideological spectrum supported Brexit and examine the sources of discontent which created the conditions from which Brexit emerged. To understand the relationship, role and impact of social movements and, more widely, civil society on social policy, I argue that it is important to critically examine how diverse actors within civil society are campaigning for the recognition of unmet needs and challenging systems of redistribution and the ways in which they interact and engage with governance institutions and policy processes.

scholarly journals ASSET-BASED APPROACH TO POVERTY REDUCTION IN LITHUANIA

2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Algimantas Laurinavičius ◽  
Birutė Galinienė
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Security Policy ◽  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Income Support ◽  
Current Income ◽  
Savings Accounts ◽  
Poverty And Inequality ◽  
Capital Owner ◽  
New Form ◽  
Social Security Policy

This paper reviews the articles of Lithuanian authors on social policy topic and assesses if the asset-based policy topic was ever explored. It briefly analyses the efficiency of current social security policy in Lithuania and social-economical state of inhabitants. It states that in order to reduce poverty and inequality, current social policy should be reformed, and the current income support (or income security) policy should be replaced by the asset-based policy which stresses the development of skills, knowledge and capabilities, promotes savings, investments and building of assets and gives everyone a possibility to become a capital owner. The paper presents results of a representative survey which was aimed to explore Lithuanian inhabitants’ opinion towards the new form of social policy: asset-based policy. It uncovers that vast majority of Lithuania's inhabitants would agree to the implementation of the asset-based policy, based on children's savings accounts.

scholarly journals Turkey, the EU and Social Policy

2007 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 491-501 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nick Manning
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Social Model ◽  
European Social Model ◽  
Eu Membership ◽  
Welfare Institutions ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Eu

This paper considers what we might expect to be the effect on social policy of Turkish accession to the EU by reviewing the impact of EU membership on social policy in other new member and candidate countries. This effect begins long before membership is finalised, and continues long after membership has been achieved. The patterns of impact can be divided along a number of dimensions: between ‘accession’ and ‘enlargement’; state and civil society; centre and periphery; formal and substantive; and different welfare institutions. In the course of reviewing these variations, the paper reflects upon the nature of social policy itself, and in particular the nature of the European Social Model.

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