Lorenz von Stein und Hermann Heller als Ahnherren des deutschen Sozialstaats. Soziales Königtum und sozialer Rechtsstaat im Dienste der Freiheit

Lorenz von Stein und Hermann Heller können als Ahnherren des deutschen Sozialstaats verstanden werden. Ausgehend von einem hegelschen Staatsbegriff sind ihre Theorien vom Prinzip der Freiheit geleitet, das als Bedingung und als Ziel staatlicher Fürsorge dient. Im Kontext der Revolutionen von 1848 diagnostiziert Stein eine soziale Spaltung, welche für ihn die Gefahr eines immerwährenden Kriegs zwischen den Klassen birgt. In der Folge entwickelt er seine Theorie des sozialen Königtums, das die freie Selbstverwirklichung aller Bürger befördern soll. Heller führt die Instabilität der Weimarer Demokratie auf eine zu große soziale Heterogenität zurück, die er auf ökonomische Ungleichheit zurückführt. Durch die Weiterentwicklung des liberalen Staats zu einem sozialen Rechtsstaat soll die Integration aller Bürger in Staat, Nation und Kulturgemeinschaft ermöglicht werden. Lorenz von Stein and Hermann Heller can be understood as forefathers of the German welfare state. Based on a Hegelian concept of the state, their theories are guided by the principle of liberty that serves as condition and as goal of state welfare. In the context of the 1848 revolutions, Stein diagnoses a social division that could lead to perpetual war between the classes. Consequently, he develops his theory of social kingship, which serves to promote the free self-actualization of all citizens. Heller attributes the instability of Weimar democracy to excessive social heterogeneity caused by economic inequality. By developing the liberal state into a social constitutional state, he seeks to enable the integration of all citizens into state, nation and cultural community.

A mother’s hope in the midst of existential immobility from state and stigma

The article is situated ethnographically in households on the main social housing estate in Harpurhey, North Manchester, England. It explores the affective dynamics of motherhood and imaginations of the future with a backdrop of prolonged government disinvestment. We follow the experiences of a mother and her son as they deal with moments of uncertainty and attempt to imagine and prepare for his future free from dependence on state welfare. Considering that parenting marks time in the most intimate of ways and it confronts parents with the passing of time in terms of biological “growth” that sequences time for us, this article addresses how and at what points dependence on the state, over time, reconfigures the affective dynamics of motherhood and imaginations of familial dependencies into the future.

New Principles for Governing Aadhaar: Improving Access and Inclusion, Privacy, Security, and Identity Management

Legal identification for all by 2030 is a global strategic goal under the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 16.9). Legal identification is perceived as a critical element in increasing people’s participation in society and providing them with access to services that can improve their quality of life. Aadhaar, India’s digital identity programme, is the world’s largest identity project aimed at providing foundational ID and access to state welfare across the nation. By 2019, 1.2 billion people had a registered Aadhaar card. National and state welfare services, and increasingly, a host of private sector services, are linked to Aadhaar. However, India’s eID programme has faced significant civil and judicial resistance over matters of privacy, fraud, welfare exclusion and surveillance. This technology assessment focusses on evaluating Aadhaar using four lenses: the accessibility of Aadhaar and its impact on welfare distribution, privacy concerns and contestations, security issues associated with the Aadhaar architecture, and finally the efficacy of identity management processes. Aadhaar’s growing prominence in public and private sector services means that the risks and vulnerabilities in the technology also become embedded in the socio-economic fabric of society. This paper discusses how the current efforts to address highlighted risks are insufficient and drive distrust in the system. This paper concludes by providing recommendations that can help address existing issues. Improving civil society participation in Aadhaar’s current and future direction can help foster trust in the Aadhaar ecosystem. Digital rights training presents an avenue to educate all Aadhaar stakeholders on their data rights, digital risks, and mitigation strategies. Formalizing UIDAI as an independent authority, not tied to the central government, can also improve the transparency and governance of Aadhaar and provide a pathway for greater participation across public sector, private sector and civil society actors and can provide opportunities to develop acceptable innovations on top of the eID system.

Poor Mothers and Begging: How Impoverished Ethiopian Women Support their Children in the Absence of a Strong State Welfare System

In this study, we used descriptive qualitative research in order to understand the straggle mother beggars made to provide the necessary support to their children in the absence of social welfare for poor children and their families. Hence, qualitative data were collected from mother utilizing face-to-face interview.

Poor Mothers and Begging: How Impoverished Ethiopian Women Support their Children in the Absence of a Strong State Welfare System

In this study, we used descriptive qualitative research in order to understand the straggle mother beggars made to provide the necessary support to their children in the absence of social welfare for poor children and their families. Hence, qualitative data were collected from mother utilizing face-to-face interview.

“Why Cant 2 Brothers”? World War I and Britain’s Deceased Brother’s Widow Act of 1921

In 1921, Britain legalized marriage between a widow and her deceased husband’s brother. The Deceased Brother’s Widow Act was not, however, an addendum to the 1907 Deceased Wife’s Sister Act. It was passed in the aftermath of World War I to address administrative problems regarding war widows’ pensions. Its significance lies in its role as a microcosm of a range of postwar debates around sex discrimination, women’s access to state welfare, sexual morality, the family, and the declining birthrate, which provoked the British government to reinforce a family model predicated on a male breadwinner and his dependent wife and children.

“I Ain’t No Fucking Check, I’m a Father”

In this chapter, the authors turn their attention to child support policies that were central to 1996 welfare reform, to the organization of Child Support Enforcement in Connecticut, and to Fatherhood Initiative programs that proliferated across the nation after 1998. They explore how low-income fathers made sense of and responded to this changing landscape, paying particular attention to their gendered locations in the family but also to their different racial experiences. Further, they examine how the reorganization of state welfare and child support enforcement was about “getting the money” in an era of state austerity but also about the institutionalization of symbolic power, through which the courts defined, stigmatized, and managed the lives of a marginalized population, reaffirming racial and class hierarchies.

From “decentralization of governance” to “governance of decentralization”: Reassessing income inequality in periurban China

Grassroots village organizations are crucial for understanding the interplay between the decentralization of state power and growing income inequality in periurban China. Based on a study of 380 shareholding cooperatives and 43 administrative villages in Guangdong, we examine how state policy has interacted with village institutions to determine the management and distribution of collective income among villagers. Our findings suggest that the decentralization of power over collective asset management and distribution to these grassroots organizations did not cause a retreat in the state’s capacity for strategic intervention and local regulatory controls. Rather, the state made continued attempts to regain power over village governance through institutional formalization. Such interventions enhanced the access of villagers to state welfare. However, they worsened income disparities among villagers by undermining the village redistributive mechanism based on informal rules.