scholarly journals Social policies in the recession

2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Fletcher

While we cannot prevent many of the current recession’s impacts, there are real social policy choices open to policy makers –choices that can reduce its severity, influence who bears what costs, and, importantly, have an impact on the longer-term, post recession outcomes. How well New Zealand performs economically and socially in the years after the current recession is over will depend in part on how well we manage the distributional consequences of the recession and on the social policies implemented during the recession.

Südosteuropa ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 67 (2) ◽  
pp. 150-174
Author(s):  
Pieter Vanhuysse

Abstract This essay contributes to the development of an analytical political sociology examination of postcommunist policy pathways and applies such an analysis in a reinterpretation of the social policy pathways taken by Hungary and Poland. During the critical historical juncture of the early 1990s, governments in these new democracies used social policies to proactively create new labor market outsiders (rather than merely accommodate or deal with existing outsiders) in an effort to stifle disruptive repertoires of political voice. Microcollective action theory helps to elucidate how the break-up of hitherto relatively homogeneous clusters of threatened workers into newly competing interest groups shaped the nature of distributive conflict in the formative first decade of these new democracies. In this light, we see how the analytical political sociology of postcommunist social policy can advance and modify current, predominantly Western-oriented theories of insider/outsider conflict and welfare retrenchment policy, and can inform future debates about emerging social policy biases in Eastern Europe.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Tagan Wetekia Paul

<p>Theory and practice are intertwined, woven inextricably together by the way that each informs and is informed by the other (Moss 2002, Pihama 2001, Simmonds 2009). This research confronts and analyses the legal bases of gendered and race-based inequalities by critically analysing New Zealand social policy legislation through a mana wahine perspective. Mana wahine and critical policy analysis share common goals to challenge dominant theoretical and methodological norms in order to recognise unequal power distributions, of which colonisation is implicit (Tomlins-Jahnke 1997).  This research has been guided by a reading of literature that suggests Māori social disadvantage has become ingrained and that policies designed to address this inequality and to include Māori people and Māori perspectives in mainstreamed systems are both confusing, and yet to be successful. This study has been designed to explore present policy legislation concerning social development. A case study of the education system has been used, which draws on historic and more contemporary Western political agendas as reflected in legislative shifts.  Key findings of this research include the exclusion of mana wahine through the ongoing processes of colonisation that do not give rise to Māori cultural understandings. To summarise, the social policy context at present is characterised by: Māori demands for greater self-determination; an absence of Treaty rights for Māori; liberal interpretations of Treaty principles, and scant processes to implement them; a devoid of aspects pertinent to mana wahine, and; the contradiction between Government's articulated position on rights and inclusion in social policy and the language used in and concepts enforced by legislation.  The findings are significant and reveal the ongoing complexities of Indigenous inequalities in the context of widespread policy ‘commitment’ to inclusion and equality. The central argument developed throughout this study is that there is an urgent need to shift policy thinking toward Māori if there is to be a significant movement toward justice for Māori women, which will involve Māori-centred decolonisation and the inclusion of aspects pertinent to mana wahine.</p>


2019 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 255-263
Author(s):  
Joseph A. Varacalli ◽  

This Comment concerns itself with the relationship between the social policies of U.S. President Donald J. Trump and, respectively, American civilization and Catholic social thought. Also included are discussions of two recent American populist social movements, the Tea Party and that one generated by a commitment to the Trump Presidency, insofar as the latter relates to the primary focus of this Comment.


2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 421-435
Author(s):  
Stefanie Börner

The common legal and economic framework of the European Union (EU) has turned the vast socio-economic differences within Europe into virulent problems of social inequality – issues that it attempts to tackle within its limited resources. The article takes the EU’s self-expressed social commitment as a starting point and analyses its approaches to social policy from a social-rights perspective. It first discusses why Marshall’s social-citizenship concept provides a useful analytical tool to assess the social policies enacted so far at the European level and then presents an institutional analysis of the EU’s four major social-policy activities: harmonising, funding, coordination and cooperation. This analysis focuses on the horizontal and vertical relationships and the addressees of these policies to determine how these policies measure up against social-rights standards. The findings point to the poor development of transnational social citizenship given the special nature of EU social policies. The only social rights that exist at the European level are in the field of social-security coordination. And even those are marked by a double selectivity that excludes citizens who are not transnationally active and those who are but lack the necessary means to provide for themselves.


Author(s):  
Paul Callister

Under the provocative title ‘Useless, jobless men – the social blight of our age’?, a May 2010 British newspaper article posed the question as to whether the UK benefits system has produced an ‘emasculated’ generation of men who can find neither work nor a wife. Informed by a review of international literature, we use census, HLFS and benefit data to explore these issues within a New Zealand context. We demonstrate how a group of mid life males on the margins of work and family life have emerged in New Zealand and show how this has been drivenbyanumberofchangesinlabourmarkets,particularlyinrelationtothelowskilled; inmarriagemarkets;andthroughtheworkingsof the benefit system. Although our research suggests that the size of this marginalised group is relatively small, the men we are concerned about are at the heart of a number of difficult contemporary policy issues such as the rise in disability benefit receipt and incarceration. Historically, low skilled males were a major focus of policy ­ the breadwinner model ­ which focussed on reinforcing the social expectation that men’s role was in work and married. We suggest there now needs to be a renewed policy focus on this group. However rather than attempting to return the world to the 1950s, the task for policy makers is to consider how best to create policy settings that are effective for the contemporary structure of work and family life.


Author(s):  
Ксения Карасёва ◽  
Kseniya Karasyova

The paper features the personnel and the social company policies and their interdependence. It contains classical definitions, as well as basic directions of staff management and personnel policy. In addition, the paper introduces an authentic definition of personnel policy. Social policy is interpreted from the point of view of "narrow" and "broad" approaches. Formation and implementation of personnel and social policies are regarded as key conditions for the effective functioning of business under the influence of market relations, competition and social orientation of companies. The author's vision of the correlation and interrelation between the personnel and social policies is revealed through their general characteristics. Personnel and social policies are inextricably linked. Their aim is to increase productivity by narrowing the gap between the interests of the employees and the interests of the organization.


1970 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rose Ryan

The celebration of one hundred years of women's suffrage in New Zealand in 1993 has provided a welcome opportunity to undertake something of a "stock-take" of many aspects of women's participation in the social and economic life of New Zealand. Participation in the paid workforce is one of the most important of these, given the centrality of employment and work to social identity and economic well-being. The current re-assessment has, however, raised more questions than it has answered, given the rapidly changing social and economic environment in which women work. This includes the restructuring of the economy, the growth of the service sector, social policy changes in health and education, and the greater emphasis on market regulation of many areas previously subject to legislative regulation.


Author(s):  
Jana Javornik ◽  
Mara A. Yerkes ◽  
Erik Jansen

This chapter investigates the relationships between science and society, in particular social policy 'practice', by consulting the social policy actors (i.e. researchers, professionals and practitioners who deal with or implement diverse policy decisions). The purpose of the chapter is to develop our innovative communication initiative, in which we engaged with social policy professionals and practitioners in a two-way, mutually enriching theory-practice dialogue. Using the capability approach as an analytical lens hereallows for a fresh look at social policy implementation and delivery and helps to better understand how social policies in their entirety play out in different contexts. The historical and political contexts of social policies and people's different needs and values, the cornerstone of the CA, are increasingly recognised by policy practitioners and professionals who have first-hand experience with policy delivery or application at the local level. This chapter demonstrates that their experience with multiple access and eligibility-related issues on the ground sheds new light on the applicability of the CA, and how this approach may help to identify key features grounded in local knowledge, be it around social policy design, delivery or implementation.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Tagan Wetekia Paul

<p>Theory and practice are intertwined, woven inextricably together by the way that each informs and is informed by the other (Moss 2002, Pihama 2001, Simmonds 2009). This research confronts and analyses the legal bases of gendered and race-based inequalities by critically analysing New Zealand social policy legislation through a mana wahine perspective. Mana wahine and critical policy analysis share common goals to challenge dominant theoretical and methodological norms in order to recognise unequal power distributions, of which colonisation is implicit (Tomlins-Jahnke 1997).  This research has been guided by a reading of literature that suggests Māori social disadvantage has become ingrained and that policies designed to address this inequality and to include Māori people and Māori perspectives in mainstreamed systems are both confusing, and yet to be successful. This study has been designed to explore present policy legislation concerning social development. A case study of the education system has been used, which draws on historic and more contemporary Western political agendas as reflected in legislative shifts.  Key findings of this research include the exclusion of mana wahine through the ongoing processes of colonisation that do not give rise to Māori cultural understandings. To summarise, the social policy context at present is characterised by: Māori demands for greater self-determination; an absence of Treaty rights for Māori; liberal interpretations of Treaty principles, and scant processes to implement them; a devoid of aspects pertinent to mana wahine, and; the contradiction between Government's articulated position on rights and inclusion in social policy and the language used in and concepts enforced by legislation.  The findings are significant and reveal the ongoing complexities of Indigenous inequalities in the context of widespread policy ‘commitment’ to inclusion and equality. The central argument developed throughout this study is that there is an urgent need to shift policy thinking toward Māori if there is to be a significant movement toward justice for Māori women, which will involve Māori-centred decolonisation and the inclusion of aspects pertinent to mana wahine.</p>


2020 ◽  
pp. 87-97

The paper presents specific aspects and goals of social policy of the European Un­ion (EU). The historical review chronologically presents the development of the EU’s social policy along with the development of the euro­integration. The specific features of EU social policy have been analyzed: limited legislative powers of EU institutions, almost complete control of the national governments of mem­ber states in the social field, and the indirect mechanisms of influence and monitoring on national policy by EU institutions. Special at­tention is paid to the study of mechanisms for implementing EU social policies that support national social policies, i.e. the labour mar­ket, employment and unemployment control; working conditions, free access to jobs and the fight against all forms of discrimination; social support, health and pensions; solu­tions in the field of demographic policy, the fight against poverty and social exclusion, and much more. As a result, the possibilities of structural, investment and social funds distrib­uted by the EU to beneficiaries in member states to achieve the common goals of the Union, as well as the EU regulatory mecha­nisms for implementing common standards through programs, rules and directives, have been studied. Achievements in the social field of the EU, new challenges, problems and prospects for the development of social policy of the EU have been analyzed.


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