social policy and the welfare state revision Flashcards
Key characteristics of nation states
- Sovereignty: Nation-states have full authority over their territory and can govern themselves without interference from external entities.
- Defined Territory
- Centralized Government:
- Common Identity: The population of a nation-state usually shares a common cultural, linguistic, ethnic, or historical identity that binds them together.
- International Recognition
industrialisation
- Industrialization is the process of transforming an economy based on agriculture and handcrafted goods into one dominated by manufacturing, mechanization, and factory production
role of class struggle in creation of the welfare state
Enlightened’ capitalists were prepared not only to concede some of the demands advanced by organised labour, but to promote measures that would compensate for the foreseeable failures and correct the inherent insta¬bilities of free-market capitalism. The extension of state welfare, therefore, was implicated in the transition from industrial to post-industrial or ‘advanced’ capitalism in which both the state and the market play a role.
Russia and China as examples of class struggle in creation of welfare state
- There were in the course of the twentieth century examples of socialist revolutions – most notably in Russia in 1917 and China in 1949. The societies that resulted were called ‘communist’ regimes, despite the fact that in none of them did the state wither away. On the contrary, what characterised such societies was a highly centralised and enduring form of state planning.
withering away of class’ explanatory power
- a new politics of identity has tended to displace the old politics of class. The past few decades have witnessed the emergence of new social movements, which address issues hitherto neglected in class-based struggles over the distribution of power and resources. These movements address human rights, global poverty and ecologi¬cal issues, but significantly they also include second-wave feminism, the black power and anti-racist movements and, for example, move¬ments of disabled people, older people, gays and lesbians….. They are concerned with social injustices arising from social divisions other than class.
formation of the welfare state and patriarchy
- The post-war welfare settlement in the UK was built upon the male breadwinner model, rooted in the principle of cohabitation based on a family wage system, where benefits were paid to men for the support of their wives and children. Thus, where a woman cohabited with a man her benefits were withdrawn. This system created, supported and maintained a structured dependency between men and women.
social investment states and welfare
- By the late 1990s, feminists had capitalised on discourses around ‘social investment’ to argue for the positive contribution of care and the caring role within welfare and society as a whole. So-called ‘social investment states’ developed more gender inclusive ‘citizen-worker-carer’ models directed towards investment in children and young people as the future of economic stability and growth, resulting in more child-, family- and mother-friendly policy.
New Labour and female inclusive Labour policies
- In the UK the New Labour Government pur¬sued similar policies (to Scandinavian countries), such as:
o the National Care Strategy committing to the universal right to child care;
o the National Carer’s Strategy for those pro¬ viding various forms of home care;
o Sure Start support for parents and family, and more generous parental leave rights.
Men’s health and welfare
- Debates over men’s health, such as their higher mortality rates, including suicide, and particular forms of ill-health, relate these phenomena to certain ‘inappropriate’ or risky masculine behav¬iours, for example, the reluctance to seek medical help or an apparent propensity to violence. Another prominent debate since the late 1990s has been over the disproportionately lower edu¬cational attainment of boys:
o asking schools to send children’s reports to fathers who live outside the family home;
o a drive to encourage fathers to read to their children;
o training for professionals who work with children to communicate with fathers;
o the promotion of childcare services to black and ethnic minority fathers.
feminist activism and welfare
- Even within the more paternalist context of UK welfare, feminist activism’s challenging of women’s economic dependency on men had early success with the introduction of family allowances payable directly to women
In 1929 Rathbone, now an independent MP, took her campaign to parliament. She convinced Lord Beveridge, on whose 1942 report the postwar welfare state was based, to recognise the work of the housewife with “family allowances in cash”. He later commented that it was “a new idea” that “part of the total national income … should be assigned to those individual citizens who were undertaking the rearing of the citizens of the future”. It became the first measure of the welfare state. Rathbone was disappointed. The small amount, paid only for the second and subsequent children
When Edward Heath, in 1972, tried to incorporate family allowance into the father’s wage, the Wages for Housework campaign pulled a national network together to prevent it happening. (tax credits for breadwinners)
o Wages for housework’campaign- single mothers on benefits. They had a lower standard of living than women with male partners but they were freer because the money they had was their own.
1995 we won the UN commitment to measure and value unwaged work in national accounts
Universal family allowance paid for first time 1946, now known as child benefit and no longer universal
o The Women’s Budget Group has also been actively scrutinising the budgets of UK governments since the early 1990s;
inequality in post war welfare state
- Post-war expansion of the welfare state drew its workforce from the reserve army of cheap labour – Black and white women and Black men.
- As well as constituting the low paid workers in the welfare system, they have been the unpaid welfare workers in the home and in the community. In addition to this, the British state has shown at best an ambivalence about bearing the social costs of black immigrant workers.
- Doyal, Hunt and Mellor show clearly how, since the 1950s, the NHS has been dependent on overseas workers – one third of the doctors in Britain in 1981 were born overseas.
- Post-war gov: Because they were British citizens, commonwealth workers were deemed to have come ‘individually and on their own initiative’ and thus there was no need to make welfare provision for them. When Black immigrants did use welfare services they were seen as scroungers.
critique of shifting care into the community
- When care is shifted to the ‘community’ this means shifting it to women. – important critique of communitarian vision of the welfare state
Power resources theory
Social policy is created by interest groups using their power to make a difference and advocate for their interests. Not necessarily separate from industrialist theory- can work together. Once we have democracy and working class vote, politics is now about competing control. Is the state a neutral actor or an actor in itself?
social movements
- Social movements are in conflict with some opponent.
- Social movements are made up of informal networks.
- Social movements display a collective identity.
- The central aims of many social movements in the past have been based on this ability to secure recognition and full inclusion of a certain group within a society’s definition of citizenship.
- they do not field candidates for elec¬ tions and cannot therefore influence policy directly through the ballot box
Marshall on the power of social movements
- Writing in 1950, Marshall saw the efforts of the labour (or trade union) movement as necessary for securing the rights of ‘industrial citizenship’, including, for example, sick pay and better working conditions. Moving back in time, the suffragette and suffragist movements can also be understood in this way. Campaigning for universal suffrage was essen¬ tially a demand for women to be fully included in the definition of citizenship, of which the right to vote is an essential part.
example of power of social movements globally
- First, they argue, the threats to ordinary peo¬ple posed by the cuts of the austerity agendas – particularly in European countries subject to ‘bailouts’ – manifest themselves locally. Thus, the movement in Spain is very active in preventing the repossession of homes, while the Occupy movement in the USA has bought up debt sold off cheaply by banks, subsequently clearing those that owed money
- The 18th century saw the introduction of groups, such as friendly societies which would provide social welfare benefits such as support in old age and other provisions.
earliest form of social welfare
- The earliest form of social welfare were the poor laws in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. (Pre-dates the industrial revolution.)
poor laws
Statute of Labourers (1349): During the Black Death and its aftermath, the Statute of Labourers was enacted to regulate wages and prevent laborers from demanding higher pay. It also included provisions for providing relief to the poor.
(1601): Commonly known as the Elizabethan Poor Law, this legislation established the framework for poor relief in England and Wales. It introduced the concept of the parish as the primary administrative unit responsible for providing relief to the poor.
Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834, often referred to as the New Poor Law, was a major reform that aimed to centralize and standardize poor relief, reduce costs, and discourage dependency on welfare. It established the Poor Law Commission and implemented stricter eligibility criteria for relief recipients
Industrialisation - refocused attention
- Percival highlighted poor working conditions, due to the increase in industrial works, which led to employment regulation, such as the Factory Acts.
- Buildings labelled insanitary were also now allowed to be demolished by councils and acts were introduced which led to the first council house projects post WWI.
- Social investigations by individuals like Booth, 1886, raised concern for the high levels of destitution in inner city areas where tax levels were low.
- These areas were overcrowded and mainly contained the working class, therefore low tax base.
- Unemployment bred employability. This led to a want for intervention to end this cycle. This is known as the social question.
industrialisation and welfare policy changes
- 1848 General Board of Health was set up due to urbanisation. Grants for education funding in 1833, first made compulsory in 1870.
- Compulsory education and the demands this placed on families led to the creation of public education funding. Elementary school fees waived in 1891.
industrialisation and mobilisation
- Led to economic decline and lowering of labour standards. This led to the growth of trade unions and increasing levels of strikes.
- This led to disruption in the economy, meaning less innovation and growth.
- Organisations such as trade unions and socialist groups formed the Labour Representation Committee in 1900, which then became the Labour Party.
global policy changes in accordance with industrialisation
- thirty-two countries in the world had introduced some kind of legislation on insurance or compensation for industrial accidents or occupational hazards by the end of the First World War, eighteen countries had introduced some kind of sickness insurance or benefit scheme. Some kind of old-age, disability, or survivors’ insurance or assistance scheme was in place in thirteen countries, and only seven countries had introduced unemployment benefit schemes.
sequence of welfare policies
- The United Kingdom (including Ireland) manifested the sequence accidents—old age—sickness—unemployment, while the Danish sequence was old age—sickness—accidents—unemployment. No country introduced a scheme for unemployment insurance as its first social insurance law, but Finland and Norway exceptionally introduced measures of unemployment protection as their second laws. – perhaps not only employment related
how did old age and sickness fit into industrialisation and welfare
- Old age or sickness had been perceived as a threat to the well-being of individuals from time immemorial. Now, however, a new-found understanding of unemployment and of the operation of the business cycle made for a rethinking of the whole notion of welfare