scholarly journals SOCIAL POLICY, STATE, AND ‘SOCIETY’

SER Social ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 15 (33) ◽  
pp. 262-279
Author(s):  
Bob Jessop
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
World Market ◽  
World Society ◽  
Welfare Regimes ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
Developmental States ◽  
State And Society ◽  
The World ◽  
The Status

This contribution explores the relations among social policy, the state and ‘society’ in the light of recent changes in capitalist social formations, including the increasing integration of the world market and the increasing significance of ‘world society’ as the ultimate horizon of communication, calculation, and policy deliberations. It builds on my earlier work on welfare state restructuring but updates it in four ways. First, it provides stronger foundations for analyses of welfare regimes in the nature of capitalism, looking beyond a general critique of the capitalist mode of production to consider specific configurations of capitalist social formations and their insertion into the world market. Second, it extends my earlier work beyond the economies of Atlantic Fordism and their crises to include export-oriented economies and developmental states and the differential implications for welfare regimes of knowledge-based economies and finance-dominated regimes as potential bases of post-Fordist accumulation. Third, especially in relation to finance-dominated accumulation, it considers the problematic status of the welfare state and/or social policy in neoliberal regimes that are strongly inserted into a competitive world market. And, fourth, it addresses the status of ‘global social policy’ as a response to the integration of the world market and the emergence of ‘world society’. The contribution ends with some general conclusions about the study of welfare regimes.

Preventing the Retrenchment of the Welfare State: Switzerland's Competitiveness in the World Market for Protection

2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 315-335 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Nollert ◽  
Sebastian Schief
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
World Market ◽  
Service Economy ◽  
Welfare Regime ◽  
Policy Mix ◽  
Social Expenditure ◽  
The World ◽  
Political Entrepreneur ◽  
To Receive ◽  
The Welfare State

Most welfare state typologies still characterize Switzerland as a liberal welfare regime. However, recent research shows that its welfare state did not retrench but instead moved towards the conservative type. Nevertheless, higher social expenditure has not been accompanied by increases in taxation. Moreover, Switzerland managed to overcome the so-called trilemma of the service economy. After analyzing the shift of the Swiss welfare state from a liberal to a conservative welfare regime, we argue that the Swiss economic success story of the twentieth century is based on a favourable policy mix (tax system, labour market, financial sector) used to compete successfully in the world market for protection. We conclude that, as a political entrepreneur, Switzerland has the capability to receive taxes and investments from foreign individuals and enterprises, wealthy residents and high-skilled and well-paid immigrants to finance the welfare state and to overcome the trilemma of the service economy.

The Scandinavian Origins of the Social Interpretation of the Welfare State

1989 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Baldwin
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Initial Development ◽  
Sufficient Power ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Cost ◽  
The Welfare State

If a question can be mal posée, surely an interpretation can be mal étendue. This has been the fate of the social interpretation of the welfare state. The cousin of social theories of bourgeois revolution, the social interpretation of the welfare state is part of a broader conception of the course of modern European history that until recently has laid claim to the status of a standard. The social interpretation sees the welfare states of certain countries as a victory for the working class and confirmation of the ability of its political representatives on the Left to use universalist, egalitarian, solidaristic measures of social policy on behalf of the least advantaged. Because the poor and the working class were groups that overlapped during the initial development of the welfare state, social policy was linked with the worker's needs. Faced with the ever-present probability of immiseration, the proletariat championed the cause of all needy and developed more pronounced sentiments of solidarity than other classes. Where it achieved sufficient power, the privileged classes were forced to consent to measures that apportioned the cost of risks among all, helping those buffeted by fate and social injustice at the expense of those docked in safe berths.

Rethinking the Western Construction of the Welfare State

1996 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Walker ◽  
Chack-Kie Wong
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Policy Research ◽  
Welfare Regimes ◽  
Asian Pacific ◽  
Welfare State Regimes ◽  
Populous Country ◽  
Pacific Area ◽  
The Welfare State

This article employs case studies of China and Hong Kong to question the western ethnocentric construction of the welfare state that predominates in comparative social policy research. The authors argue that welfare regimes, and particularly the “welfare state,” have been constructed as capitalist-democratic projects and that this has the damaging effect of excluding from analyses not only several advanced capitalist societies in the Asian-Pacific area but also the world's most populous country. If welfare state regimes can only coexist with western political democracies, then China and Hong Kong are excluded automatically. A similar result occurs if the traditional social administration approach is adopted whereby a “welfare state” is defined in terms only of direct state provision. The authors argue that such assumptions are untenable if state welfare is to be analyzed as a universal phenomenon. Instead of being trapped within an ethnocentric welfare statism, what social policy requires is a global political economy perspective that facilitates comparisons of the meaning of welfare and the state's role in producing it north, south, east and west.

scholarly journals Worlds of Welfare and the Health Care Discrepancy

2005 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clare Bambra
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Health Care Provision ◽  
Care Provision ◽  
Welfare Regimes ◽  
Ongoing Debate ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Welfare State Regimes

The nature of welfare regimes has been an ongoing debate within the comparative social policy literature since the publication of Esping-Andersen's ‘Three Worlds of Welfare’ (1990). This article draws upon recent developments within this debate, most notably Kasza's assertions about the ‘illusory nature’ of welfare regimes, to highlight the health care discrepancy. It argues that health care provision has been a notable omission from the wider regimes literature and one which, if included in the form of a health care decommodification typology, can give credence to Kasza's perspective by highlighting the diverse internal arrangements of welfare states and welfare state regimes.

France at a Crossroads

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Leruth
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Great Recession ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Internal Security ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
The World ◽  
Future Challenges ◽  
Generous Welfare ◽  
The Welfare State

France has established itself as one of the most ‘generous’ welfare states in the world. The Great Recession of 2007–8 confronted French social policy with escalating unemployment and deepening inequalities. Combined with major pension reforms, these led to strong levels of dissatisfaction across the country, exacerbated by tensions over immigration, Euroscepticism, and internal security problems. This chapter examines how these issues developed in political context and uses material from attitude surveys to analyse existing and future challenges for the welfare state in France. It assesses recent reforms: governments of right and left offered contrasting programmes but failed to win public trust. France now stands at a cross-roads, facing a strong presidential challenge from the anti-immigrant, anti-EU right.

scholarly journals Global Educational policies and its effects on the academic profession in Brazil

2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
José Ronaipe Machado
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Academic Career ◽  
Academic Profession ◽  
Educational Policies ◽  
Higher Education System ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
Knowledge Based Economy ◽  
The World ◽  
Neoliberal Ideology ◽  
The Status

This paper discusses the relationships between the current situation of professors of higher education institutions in Brazil and the changes that have come about in the Brazilian educational system as it has been affected and guided by neoliberal ideology principles through influence of International Organizations such as the World Bank and the IMF. Concepts like globalization, global governance and neocolonialism in the field of educational policy making achieve strong relevance as one intends to understand and explain the roots that are in the origins of the situation which academic professorate faces in countries like Brazil as well as in many others across the world. As part of this broader world and global context, Brazilian professors have to face similar, and sometimes even tougher challenges, as educational policies regulated by a new educational act have been implemented in the country throughout the last fifteen years. Under the influence of neoliberal ideas, massification and diversification in the higher education system have led to what many scholars call a state of fragmentation of the academic profession, which is characterized by increasing bureaucratization, heavy accountability requirements, inadequate remuneration and insufficient intellectual preparation to meet academic demands. Accountability and university bureaucratization have reduced teachers’ autonomy. The development with the greatest impact on the academic profession is the growing amount of professors with unstable and part-time appointments. As an apparent symptom of the decline of the status of the professoriate, they are paid a low salary to teach a few courses. In such a context, the value of academics is declining and new generations have been unwilling to embrace the academic career. Having well-trained, fairly paid and academically engaged faculty members is as crucial as ever, since countries count on good professors to prepare and form young people to be actively involved in the knowledge-based economy and in the information society.

Managing Social Change and Social Policy in Greater China: Welfare Regimes in Transition?

2014 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 235-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ka Ho Mok ◽  
John Hudson
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Policy Analysis ◽  
Policy Research ◽  
Initial Study ◽  
Welfare Regimes ◽  
Welfare Capitalism ◽  
Ideal Types ◽  
Greater China

Discussion of welfare regimes and welfare state ideal types continues to dominate comparative social policy analysis, but the focus of the debate has expanded considerably since the publication of Esping-Andersen's (1990) groundbreaking The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism. Shifts in this debate have been prompted by a mixture of theoretical and empirical concerns raised by comparative social policy scholars, but they have also resulted from a more general internationalisation of social policy research agendas within the academy too. In particular, there has been a strong desire to expand the scope of the debate to encompass nations and regions not included in Esping-Andersen's initial study of just eighteen high income OECD states.

scholarly journals ASSESSMENT OF THE STATUS OF THE MODERN PARK OF DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN FOREST TRANSPORT VEHICLES

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 144-163
Author(s):  
Vadim Nikonov ◽  
Valerii Posmetev
Keyword(s):  
Road Transport ◽  
World Market ◽  
Hydraulic Manipulators ◽  
The World ◽  
The Status ◽  
Characteristic Features

The article presents the results of the analysis of information on the manufacturers of timber road transport available on the world market. The features of the used timber haulers are described, their layout diagrams are given. The characteristic features of the existing timber trucks and trailers for them are considered. Possible layout diagrams of timber-carrying road trains, as well as the features of the placement of hydraulic manipulators on them are presented.

The Limits of Selectivity as a Recipe for Welfare Reform: The Case of Greece

2005 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 235-253 ◽  
Author(s):  
MANOS MATSAGANIS
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Welfare Reform ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Pension System ◽  
The Core ◽  
Policy Paradigm ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Government ◽  
Of Greece

Selectivity emerged as the core of a new social policy paradigm in Greece when a new ‘modernising’ government took office in 1996. Though it was adopted energetically, its real impact eventually proved negligible, except for an initial flutter of activity. The article argues that its failure as a recipe for welfare reform was inevitable. The nature of social protection arrangements in Greece severely constrained the scope for selectivity, while the particular version pursued was poorly designed and badly administered. Moreover, the elevation of selectivity to the status of a ‘Big Idea’ was an indirect cause of serious lateral damage: while fruitlessly puzzling over the place of selectivity in the ‘new social policy’, the government was losing the crucial battle on the reform of an unviable and inequitable pension system. The article concludes that selectivity has little relevance to the priorities for reform in a welfare state still struggling to cope with its Bismarckian, south European contradictions.

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