Week 1 - CSP

• Academic disciplines have different perspectives on _____ _____

  
  

  Welfare states
• Social policy


  • The welfare state is the publicly organized and funded benefits/ services to achieve goals around public welfare, social protection, and earnings/opportunities
  • It is normative; draws on ideologies and value judgements about what welfare is, and the appropriate role of the state
  • Examines who benefits? Which systems work? Under what conditions?
  • Guiding question: does the welfare state redistribute to the poor, or is it mainly beneficial to the better off?
• Richard Titmuss: 'The Social Division of Welfare (1976)'
• Titmuss's accounts


  • Led to social policy being focused on the public domain
  • Public domain = public goods and services provided by the government (education, transportation, and sanitation)
  • The private domain of the family was then seen as inherently altruistic and should be free from state intrusion, leading to an implicit understanding of policy as the male world of state AND the economy
• We take for granted that redistribution is actually the primary purpose of the welfare state
• Insider/outsider divide


  • Insiders = well-integrated in the labour market, secure employment → strong protections and voice through unions
  • Outsiders = marginalised or less integrated into the labor market, e.g., part-time or contract-based workers, less job security and access to social protections, not well-represented, so have less influence in policymaking
  • Strong insider groups (e.g., civil servants) have access to generous welfare programs, while weaker outsider groups rely on family or charity
• Core concepts in CSP


  • Welfare
  • Organized social policy
  • Welfare state
  • Welfare regimes
• Welfare


  Individual or collective well-being
• Organized social policy


  A set of principles and systems oriented around social security, social protection, and social services
• Welfare regimes


  The clustering of different dimensions within clusters of countries into ideal typologies
• Perspectives on welfare


  • Neo-classical economics
  • Political philosophy (Conservative, Liberal, Egalitarian)
  • Political economy
  • Social policy
• Neo-classical economics view of welfare


  Welfare is seen as preference satisfaction for the largest number of people in an efficient way, focused on the individual and self-supportive functioning
• Political economy view of welfare

  Welfare is embedded in the state-economy relationship, concerned with power and the struggle for power, dominated by capitalism and class
• Social policy view of welfare

  Welfare is seen as addressing social problems, meeting needs, and distributing resources
• Concepts like well-being and capability, which focus on individual agency, are more used now instead of welfare as a goal or statement of conditions
• Core components of organized social policy


  • Social insurance
  • Social protection
  • Social services
• Social insurance


  Entitlement to insurance against certain risks, tied to employment (i.e., financed by payroll taxes -> earned benefits)
• Social protection


  Benefits and services to prevent and manage situations that adversely affect people's well-being, pushed by IOs (e.g., ILO and World Bank)
• Social assistance


  A specific type of social protection that provides targeted support for immediate need or extreme poverty (i.e., a last-report), often means-tested
• Social services


  Services of public goods, provided on a free or publicly-subsidised basis oriented to individual well-being and development, family functioning and sometimes community development
• Approaches to social protection/income support in the welfare state


  • Universalism
  • Social insurance
  • Social assistance
• Universalism


  • Basis of eligibility is for Citizen/Resident, financed by Taxation/public resources, provides Flat and universal benefits, aims for Equality/social justice
• Social insurance


  • Basis of eligibility is for Worker/Insured person, financed by Workers and employers paying payroll contributions, provides Contribution-based benefits, aims for Status reproduction/ Occupational Integration
• Social assistance


  • Basis of eligibility is for 'Poor' or 'needy' person, financed by Taxation/public resources, provides Means-tested benefits, aims for Poverty reduction Societal/economic functioning/integration
• Welfare state


  Describes situations where the state has a major responsibility for welfare provision via social security systems, offering services and benefits to meet people's basic needs for housing, health, education, and income
• Welfare state


  • Constructed on different conceptions of social rightssome stress equality and solidarity, others freedom, generally exists to enhance the welfare of people (esp vulnerable)
  • Emerged in the 1940s due to policy innovation and increases in social expenditure budgets after WW2
• T.H. Marshall's essay Citizenship and Social Class


  Argued that people need civil, political, and social rights to participate fully in society

  • Justified state expansion in welfare
  • Saw social rights as citizenship rights exactly like civil and political rights
• Decommodification


  The degree to which individuals/families can uphold a socially acceptable standard of living independent of market participation
• Keynesian approach

  • Government intervention to stabilize the economy; expansionary fiscal policy; focused on full employment and increasing aggregate demand
• Neo-liberal approach


  • A role for the state to bring about market-like reforms: financial liberalisation; privatised and marketised social provision
• Goals of the welfare state over time


  • Pre WW1: less ambitious, concentrated in the workplace
  • Interwar: increased scope, coverage, and generosity
  • Post-war: provide welfare as a social right
• The welfare state originated from liberal and conservative ideas
• The notion of the welfare state coincided with the emergence of the nation state
• All welfare states developed through welfare creep: the incremental growth of welfare programs, coverage, and budgets
• Reasons for state interest in welfare and the core goals of social policy


  • Promoting economic growth
  • Reducing poverty
  • Promoting social stability
  • Promoting social equality
  • Promoting social integration
  • Promoting autonomy
• WW1: initially, welfare programs were only focused on workers and ex-workers (not full suite of programming)
• Reasons for state interest in welfare and the core goals of social policy(Goodin, 1991)


  • Promoting economic growth
  • Reducing poverty
  • Promoting social stability
  • Promoting social equality
  • Promoting social integration
  • Promoting autonomy
• Promoting economic growth


  A neoliberal position; sees the function of the state as having a role in economic growth
• Promoting social stability


  Sometimes seen as social control; Stability = absence/management of conflict, and conflict comes from inequality, disadvantages, etc.
• Varying characteristics of welfare states


  • The extent of intervention
  • The state's relationship with wider society
  • The role/nature of the state
  • Relationship with the economic system