The four global worlds of welfare capitalism: Institutional, neoliberal, populist and residual welfare state regimes

What welfare state regimes are observed when the analysis is extended globally, empirically and theoretically? We introduce a novel perspective into the ‘welfare state regimes analyzes’ – a perspective that brings developed and developing countries together and, as such, broadens the geographical, empirical and theoretical scope of the ‘welfare modelling business’. The expanding welfare regimes literature has suffered from several drawbacks: (i) it is radically slanted towards organisation for economic co-operation and development (OECD) countries, (ii) the literature on non-OECD countries does not use genuine welfare policy variables and (iii) social assistance and healthcare programmes are not utilized as components of welfare state effort and generosity. To overcome these limitations, we employ advanced data reduction methods, exploit an original dataset that we assembled from several international and domestic sources covering 52 emerging markets and OECD countries and present a welfare state regime structure as of the mid-2010s. Our analysis is based on genuine welfare policy variables that are theorized to capture welfare generosity and welfare efforts across five major policy domains: old-age pensions, sickness cash benefits, unemployment insurance, social assistance and healthcare. The sample of OECD countries and emerging market economies form four distinct welfare state regime clusters: institutional, neoliberal, populist and residual. We unveil the composition and performance of welfare state components in each welfare state regime family and develop politics-based working hypotheses about the formation of these regimes. Institutional welfare state regimes perform high in social security, healthcare and social assistance, while populist regimes perform moderately in social assistance and healthcare and moderate-to-high in social security. The neoliberal regime performs moderately in social assistance and healthcare, and it performs low in social security, and the residual regime performs low in all components. We then hypothesize that the relative political strengths of formal and informal working classes are key factors that shaped these welfare state regime typologies.

Analysis of Urban Residents’ Willingness to Pay for Forest Ecological Services Based on the Multilayer Linear Model

This study takes 8 cities in Shaanxi province as the research object and uses the multilayer linear model specifically for nested structure data to introduce the urban macroexplanatory variables on the basis of individual level of residents and influence the willingness of urban residents to pay for forest ecological services. The factors are analyzed in multiple layers to find out the prediction effect on ecological payment, and on this basis, corresponding countermeasures and suggestions are put forward. The results show that regional differences have a significant impact on residents’ willingness to pay for forest ecological services; individual characteristics and regional characteristics can independently have a significant impact on residents’ willingness to pay; after introducing macrolevel variables, individual-level environmental awareness and per capita income, five variables, such as education level, place of residence, and age, have significant predictive effects on residents’ willingness to pay; among them, the interaction between consumer price index and environmental awareness is the largest, followed by the interaction between consumer price index and age. Per capita social security is the interaction between expenditure and environmental awareness. Finally, that is the interaction between the per capita social security expenditure and age and the interaction between the average salary of employees and the monthly per capita income.

Evolution of the rural social security system in a large country over 35 years: institutional transformation and the Chinese experience

Purpose This paper aims to review the institutional evolution of China's rural social security system in the past 35 years, focusing on major policy transformations of the rural social security system in a large country, and extract the Chinese experience on developing rural social security.Design/methodology/approach This paper systematically reviews the evolution of rural social security system via organizing policy documents, key events and research literature on the construction of rural social security since the Reform and Opening-up.Findings First, institutional transformation is a profound change in China's rural social security system; second, policy transformation has taken place in the main areas of China's rural social security system, including rural endowment insurance, medical insurance and social assistance; third, the policy evolution of China's rural social security system has a unique experience in a large country.Originality/value China is the country with the largest rural population in the world. The process and experience of transforming the social security system in the vast rural areas of China have important value and reference significance for other developing countries.

FINANCING THE SOCIAL SERVICES OF UKRAINE AT THE PRESENT STAGE IN THE CONTEXT OF BALANCED DEVELOPMENT OF THE TERRITORIES

Annotation. Introduction. The article investigates the main problems in the field of social protection of the population in Ukraine that require an immediate solution. The theoretical approach to the financial support of the social sphere is considered. The reasons for the negative impact on the implementation of budget policy in the social protection system are investigated. The financing of social protection and social security, health and education from state and local budgets of Ukraine is analyzed. Changes in the system of social protection through the transformation of financing of the social protection system are determined. The purpose of the article. It is worth exploring the financial support of social services in Ukraine in recent years. It is also worth offering possible ways to counteract the underfunding of the social sphere from the budgets of different levels. Results. Formation of national social security in the system of public finance management should be carried out on the basis of the system of fiscal norms and to be focused; to ensure effective forms of supporting various social groups that require social protection; transition to cash provision of welfare; Personal assistance to the state is included in income of individuals and families. Taking into account that wages are still the main source of income in Ukraine, it is necessary to increase its share in income, paying special attention to minimal hourly remuneration. Conclusions. The main reason for the negative impact on the implementation of fiscal policy in the social security system is mainly reflected in the implementation of the budget expenditures approved by the state. In addition, during the research process, we have found that in the state budget of Ukraine, social security expenditures and social insurance funds have increased more than doubled over the past five years, indicating the lack of funds in this area.