Local Policy Discretion in Social Welfare: Explaining Subnational Variations in China's De Facto Urban Poverty Line

How do subnational agents exercise policy discretion in the social welfare sphere? To what extent do they do so as a result of various bureaucratic and fiscal incentives? The literature has documented several explanatory frameworks in the context of China that predominantly focus on the realm of developmental policies. Owing to the salient characteristics of the social policy arena, local adaptation of centrally designed policies may operate on distinctive logics. This study synthesizes the recent scholarship on subnational social policymaking and explains the significant interregional disparities in China's de facto urban poverty line – the eligibility standard of the urban minimum livelihood guarantee scheme, or dibao. Five research hypotheses are formulated for empirical examination: fiscal power effect, population effect, fiscal dependency effect, province effect and neighbour effect. Quantitative analysis of provincial-level panel data largely endorses the hypotheses. The remarkable subnational variations in dibao standards are explained by a salient constellation of fiscal and political factors that are embedded within the country's complex intergovernmental relations and fiscal arrangements. Both a race-to-the-top and a race-to-the-bottom may be fostered by distinctive mechanisms. The unique role of provincial governments as intermediary agents within China's political apparatus is illuminated in the social policy arena.

Expanding Welfare State Borders: Trade Unions and the Introduction of Pro-Outsiders Social Policies in Italy and Argentina

This article investigates the drivers of trade union choices in the social policy arena in the age of austerity. Against the background of a political economy literature mostly emphasising trade union support for their stronger constituency – i.e. the ‘insiders’ – the article shows the existence of mechanisms potentially inducing trade unions to broaden their demands. Empirically, the study rests on an in-depth comparative analysis of the political process inducing the two largest trade unions in Argentina and Italy, the CGT and the CGIL, to support ‘pro-outsider’ social policy actively. Besides the comparison of two different geographical areas – though not so different in terms of original welfare state configuration – the main contribution of this article is outlining how the combination of dwindling organizational resources and growing competition from social movements and/or new radical unions leads traditionally insider-oriented unions to reach out to new constituencies and advocate expanded redistributive demands.

‘A Peaceful History’? West Indians, the Inner City, and Local Responses to Migration in Post-War Bristol

Using the 1980 St. Paul’s riot as a point of departure, this article retrospectively explores migration policymaking in Bristol during the 1950s and 1960s. It charts some of the deliberations, policies and practices of three local actors who played key roles in the city’s debates and developments on migration and integration: the police, charitable, community, religious and voluntary groups and organisations, and the municipality. In doing so, it exposes a complex urban policy arena comprised of varied, multifaceted and ever-changing responses to Commonwealth immigrants, and West Indians in particular. Overall, the article argues that Bristol’s migration policies and practices of the 1950s and 1960s are crucial in light of subsequent increasing inner-city tensions and the 1980 uprising, but also because they broaden our understanding of the pivotal role that cities played in the governance of migration and diversity already during the post-war decades.

Roads less travelled

My life and career can be characterized as a series of roads less travelled. I began my academic journey as a woman with family responsibilities at a time when the academy was largely dominated by men and women were expected to know their place. I pursued service-oriented scholarship in an environment that favored more basic research. I was unexpectedly thrust into the policy arena as a result of my scholarly pursuits. I became a dean when I had never aspired to this type of leadership. The following describes my journey on these roads and the lessons I learned along the way.

Neoliberal Governmentality and Social Policymaking in India: Implications for In/Formal Workers and Community Work

This article explains the contemporary context that influences the policies and practices of community work in India. The transformation in the policy arena and welfare approach underlines the influence of neoliberal governmentality. We observe that neoliberalism as a political–economic approach is persuading socio-economic decisions and increasing market influence. Precisely, we are tracing the policy trajectory vis-à-vis informal sector workers who have adverse implications for their social security and social protection. By illustrating the current policy and legislative approach, we explain an uneasy relationship between neoliberalism, governmentality and welfare. The changes through new labour codes have restrained the minimal protection that was available to the workers. By granting significant flexibility to the employers at the cost of workers, neoliberal policies accentuate the predicament of precarity. Besides, recent policy changes have impacted community engagement with the poor and vulnerable. Through an analysis of neoliberal policies and strategies of governmentality, this article underscores the challenges for community engagements.

Competency-based education in the state policy arena: Comparative case study of two neighboring states

Educational leaders and policymakers are reconsidering the role of competency-based education (CBE) to meet the needs of all students, address issues of equity and enduring achievement gaps, and demonstrate college and career readiness outcomes for PK-12 students. This study sought to understand the policy conditions where CBE policies were adopted in two neighboring states as well as describe the two states’ implementation plans for policy diffusion. The study used a comparative case study design to study Idaho and Utah due to their geographic proximity, socioeconomic status, and state legislative structures. We argue that although the policies in both states have many similarities and were passed under similar political conditions within each state’s policy arena, the planned implementation and diffusion of those policies was very different and influenced a divergent population of local education agencies (LEA) in each state. We also explore the role intermediary organizations played in the development and diffusion of policy in both states.

Is small beautiful? A scoping review of 21st-century research on small rural schools in Europe

Small rural schools in many countries have historically been viewed as less desirable than their larger urban counterparts, being treated less favourably in the policy arena and facing a risk of closure or amalgamation. Within Europe, they have been the focus of a range of research studies and have been defined in different ways, based mostly on the number of pupils enrolled (typically around 100), but also their geographical isolation or small number of staff. However, the last notable attempt to review the literature in this area was carried out over 10 years ago. Since then, there has been a large volume of research conducted in many European countries. This rigorous scoping review has brought together what we know from research (published in English since 2000) on small rural schools in Europe. The most common themes identified were school leadership, the importance of context (including education policy and school closures/amalgamations), and school-community relationships. Case studies and ethnographic qualitative methods were the most popular, with a stronger use made of theoretical frameworks since the previous review. Nonetheless, the current review found still significant gaps in the literature including an under-theorization of certain topics and a lack of research with children.

Organizing State Intervention in an Authoritarian State: From Fascist Import Substitution to French Developmentalism in Postwar Spain

The economics of the authoritarian regime of Francisco Franco in Spain are often narrowed to a bespoke form of fascism. This paper suggests that this regime’s rather inchoate economic regimes were in fact a series of experiments that blended varieties of statism and liberalism. Thus, a form of import-substitution industrialization colored by Italian fascist features (1939-1959) lasted fifteen years longer in Spain than in the country of importation. In contrast, a local version of French developmentalism (1964-1975) was largely in sync with what was being tried in France at the time. However, this French developmentalist template imbued with fiscal Keynesianism was layered with liberal economic projects, particularly in the monetary policy arena. But while fascist import substitution (the so called “autarky”) collapsed mostly due to its internal problems, Spain’s translation of French developmentalism was associated with economic growth and was only extensively damaged by the crisis of the global capitalist core ushered by the 1973 oil shock. Critically, while in the symbolic terrain of Spanish politics the liberal economic projects that accompanied the local translation of French developmentalism were always associated with reformist and even “dissident” elite circles, the stigma of developmentalism’ association with the core elites of authoritarianism removed developmentalism as a source of alternatives to the liberal economic reforms ushered by Spain’s transition to liberal democracy in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

“The Innovation Imperative”: The Struggle Over Agroecology in the International Food Policy Arena

As the gravity of the global social and ecological crises become more apparent, there is a growing recognition of the need for social transformation. In this article, we use a combination of narrative case study and discourse analysis to better understand how transformative concepts, such as agroecology, are shaped as they as they enter mainstream discursive arenas. We probe the different characteristics of the “innovation frame” and how they qualify and give meaning to agroecology. Our case study narrates the recent emergence of agroecology in the UN space and its relationship to the discursive frame of innovation. We then undertake a systematic discourse analysis of comments provided in an online consultation process on the “Agroecology and Other Innovations” report by the 2019 High-Level Panel of Experts (HLPE) in the World Committee on Food Security. We examine how different actors positioned themselves vis-a-vis the innovation frame and we analyse the discursive strategies used to advance particular political agendas. Our analysis reveals three primary sub-frames within the innovation frame (Evidence; Technology; Rights) which were deployed by both proponents and detractors of agroecology. We focus on the notion of social agency, and its different presentations, within the three sub-frames which raises a number of problematics of the innovation frame, not only for agroecology, but for sustainability transformations more widely.