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Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Social welfare & social services > Welfare & benefit systems
This comparative study is the first to center on the key issues of homeownership and control today in a number of industrialized countries. Experts from Canada, Great Britain, Russia, and the United States draw a cross-national and interdisciplinary, informed picture of basic issues and values, current trends, and different policy approaches that have been tested in recent years. This overview of various national policies and programs is intended for students and scholars, policymakers and public administrators dealing with fundamental problems in homeownership and control. Ownership and control has long been a central theme in the heated public debates in different countries over housing policy. How are notions about ownership and control tied to culture? What are some of the basic values about homeownership in western societies? What place has homeownership played in the life cycles of black and white families in the United States? What limitations to privatization exist in housing reform in Russia now? Who benefits or loses from public housing sales in Britain? How are multi-family public housing projects of the 1960s in the United States being converted to community-corporation control? What different kinds of tenant attitudes exist toward tenant management in two U.S. public housing developments? What type of role do nonprofit housing cooperatives in Canada play? These are only some of the questions that the ten chapters set out to answer. Reference lists accompany each of the chapters, adding to the usefulness of this public policy study for text purposes.
Social security systems throughout the world are faced with unprecedented challenges in response to growing criticisms about unacceptable expenditures for government programs and questions about the appropriate role of government in providing social protection through social insurance and social assistance programs. The challenges are also a result of dramatic demographic, social, and cultural changes around the world. A variety of radical and modest reform measures are currently being discussed which have the potential of significantly impacting the means of income and health care for the elderly, children, and families. This book examines these challenges from the perspective of local analysts in both industrial and economically developing nations. The purpose of the analysis is to promote a better understanding of the integral role that social security plays in the social and economic development of diverse societies. The chapters examine the wide range of challenges to social security in Britain, Egypt and Turkey, the Netherlands, Poland, the United States, Uruguay, and Zimbabwe. An overview of the most prevalent issues are discussed, including fiscal viability, economic development, equity, administration, public confidence, and the role of social security as the primary government instrument for social protection against the loss of income and health. Essential reading for students and researchers in social policy, gerontology, and comparative social welfare.
This volume provides a Europe-wide comparative analysis of the role of civil society organizations active in the field of unemployment and precarity. It illustrates how crucial civil society organizations are for the inclusion of the young unemployed, mainly in two ways: by delivering services and by advocating policy.
Mark Kleinman's new book explains what has happened to housing policy in Europe over the last two decades, and what housing policy can tell us about welfare development more generally over the period. Housing, Welfare and the State in Europe identifies a divergence in housing policy between, on the one hand, the majority of relatively affluent households and, on the other, an impoverished minority. The legal, financial and economic concerns of the well-housed, owner-occupier majority have preoccupied public policy across Europe, with the impoverished minority often badly housed or homeless. In Britain this has been particularly evident with elections won and lost on the level of the mortgage rate rather than the level of housing output, and still less on the level of homelessness. Housing policy occupies a unique place in public policy at the intersection of social with economic policy, involving a mixed economy of welfare. Consequently, Dr Kleinman's study offers insights into the future direction of public policy as a whole, the balance between economic and social goals, and the relative weighting given to free markets and state intervention in a variety of countries.
By virtue of a quiet revolution over nearly a hundred years, Britain has evolved into a home-owning society. The impact of this on British society has been barely understood, but it has helped to shape the Blair 'workfare' state and to draw Britain firmly towards the English-speaking world while distancing the country from other European nations. Taking a policy-analysis approach and drawing from the burgeoning comparative literature, this textbook explores what has happened to British housing since 1900. Providing more than an account of British housing, the book reinterprets the housing system in a way that is sensitive to the historical and cultural contexts of British policy and society. Examining the nature of 'housing' and how it helps to shape society, Lowe sets British housing in its global context. Written in an accessible style, Housing Policy Analysis leads the reader through the basic concepts to more challenging themes. It will be important reading for students of housing studies, social policy, public policy and applied social studies.
Currently, works on poverty constitute only a small part of contemporary economic research; however, the field of poverty and deprivation is undoubtedly one rising in popularity and relevance. Encompassing chapters that address both unidimensional and multidimensional poverty, this timely Research Handbook explores all aspects of poverty and deprivation measurement, not only detailing broad issues but also scrutinising specific domains and aspects of poverty, such as health, energy and housing. Succinct and highly focused, it brings together a diverse range of authors to employ a combination of theoretical and empirical methodologies to offer well-rounded explorations of complex topics. Expansive in scope, the Research Handbook includes case studies that examine poverty across the globe, with a particular focus on covering Africa, China, India and Latin America, producing a comprehensive, rigorous and interdisciplinary resource. The Research Handbook will be an invaluable resource for not only economics researchers and graduate students but also policy makers dealing with issues related to poverty and deprivation. Chapters are designed to provide the reader with foundational knowledge of a topic that they can subsequently deepen by exploring the cited literature.
The transition from central planning in Central and Eastern Europe has resulted in a decline in social security. Transformation of Pension Systems in Central and Eastern Europe provides an in-depth examination of systems of social protection for the elderly. The authors begin by analysing the urgent measures required to respond to a changing economic system. They also consider the fundamental questions of redesigning old-age financial security which is embedded in an international debate on pension reform, taking into account the political and economic factors from a comparative perspective. Covering the Baltic states, Poland, the Czech and Slovak Republics and Hungary, the development of pension security is traced from the late 1980s to the end of the 1990s. Using local pension experts with academic and administrative backgrounds, the country studies are characterized by a detailed and interdisciplinary perspective, and provide an economic, political, legal and institutional approach to pension systems development.
This study has been written during my time at the Institute of Public Finance at the Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg, Germany. I am indebted to a number of people who have made this work possible. First and foremost, I thank my teacher Prof. Dr. Bernd Raffelhuschen .. with whom I had the pleasure of working for many exciting years. The German term "Doktorvater" alludes to the fatherly role of a thesis supervisor, and he has truely lived up to this role. Also, I am grateful to Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Hans-Hermann Francke for his co-correction and the valuable comments he has given me. In addition, I wish to thank my family. Especially, my wife, Daniela, has not only supported me with her love and affection but has also kept an eye on my discipline when the going got tough. The greatest sacri?ce in the course of working on this thesis, have been the miles and many hours away from her. Unfortunately, the yearsofmydoctoralstudieswereovershadowedbythedeathofmyfather. Tohimand mymother,Eva-MariaBorgmann,Iamimmenselygratefulfortheirloveandsupport throughout my life. Daniel Besendorfer and Erik Luth .. have been close companions and friends at the Institute of Public Finance from my ?rst days in Freiburg, and I have gained from their friendship enormously. This work has largely pro?ted from comments and suggestions of many colleagues who have also been great fun to work with. Among them, I especially thank Holger Bonin, Oliver Ehrentraut, Matthias Heidler, Stefan Fetzer, Pascal Krimmer, and Stefan Moog.
Although many scholars have emphasized the shortcomings of federal housing programs, few have examined their successes and failures on a case-by-case empirical basis. With the possibility that federal involvement in housing may increase in the future, we need to have more precise knowledge of what works, what does not, and why. Donald Rosenthal's new book is the first study to focus on the Section 8 Neighborhood Strategy Area program (NSA)--one of the last major housing initiatives of the Carter administration. Reporting on his extensive field research, the author examines the development and implementation of the program and documents its results. In the process, he provides valuable new insights on American intergovernmental relations between 1977 and 1984 and traces the evolution of federal policy on assisted housing and community development under the Carter and Reagan administrations.
This book explores the role of the welfare state in the overall wealth and wellbeing of nations and in particular looks at the American welfare state in comparison with other developed nations in Europe and elsewhere. It is widely believed that the welfare state undermines productivity and economic growth, that the United States has an unusually small welfare state, and that it is, and always has been, a welfare state laggard. This book shows that all rich nations, including the United States, have large welfare states because the socialized programs that comprise the welfare state-public education and health and social insurance-enhance the productivity of capitalism. In public education, the most productive part of the welfare state, for most of the 19th and 20th centuries, the United States was a leader. Though few would argue that public education is not part of the welfare state, most previous cross national analyses of welfare states have omitted education. Including education has profound consequences, undergirding the case for the productivity of welfare state programs and the explanation for why all rich nations have large welfare states, and identifying US welfare state leadership. From 1968 through 2006, the United States swung right politically and lost its lead in education and opportunity, failed to adopt universal health insurance and experienced the most rapid explosion of health care costs and economic inequality in the rich world. The American welfare state faces large challenges. Restoring its historical lead in education is the most important but requires investing large sums in education, beginning with universal pre-school and in complementary programs that aid children's development. The American health insurance system is by far the most costly in the rich world, yet fails to insure one sixth of its population, produces below average results, crowds out useful investments in children, and is the least equitably financed. Achieving universal coverage will increase costs. Only complete government financing is likely to restrain long term costs. In memory of Robert J. Lampman Colleague, Co-author, Friend and Mentor
Although there has been general improvement in America's housing since 1949, when the U.S. Congress proclaimed the goal of a decent home and suitable living environment for every American family, this stated national aim has clearly not been achieved. Substandard housing conditions are still prevalent anong various racial, ethnic, and economic groups. This book, edited by a leading population and housing scholar with contributions from nationally recognized housing experts, reviews recent data derived from census reports and housing surveys. It focuses on the reasons why the quality and quantity of housing available to blacks, Hispanics, Asian Americans, and American Indians remains significantly below standards for whites.
"Creating the Welfare State" investigates how private business and public bureaucracy worked together to create the structure of much of the modern welfare state in America. Covering the period from the 1980s to the present, this important volume employs interdisciplinary techniques to demonstrate how politics, economics, law, and social theory merged over the course of a century of policy formulation and implementation. The authors also draw upon previously unconsulted sources from government warehouses and archives to analyze the operation of early federal social welfare programs such as vocational rehabilitation. Their discussions range from those early programs to modern ones such as cost of living pay adjustments and social security disability benefits. This emphasis on the notion of the continuing development of welfare programs is a significant factor in the welfare state controversies--a factor often ignored by other historians and writers.
This book offers unprecedented insights into both the workings of the Commonwealth and into the contrasting experiences of member states within it, with regard to social exclusion. Chapters on British social policy tradition and on concepts of social inclusion/exclusion, preface a series of case studies illustrative of different member states' experiences to date. The book concludes by re examining the Commonwealth per se, with reference to its own problems of development and, nevertheless, its social policy development potential for the future. PATRICIA HARRIS is Professor of Sociology and Social Policy, and Director of the Centre for Social and Community Research at Murdoch University, Australia BARBARA HARRISS-WHITE is Professor of Development Studies and Deputy Directory of Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford University, UK LAKSIRI JAYASURIYA is Emeritus Professor and Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the School of Social and Cultural Studies, University of Western Australia, Australia JAMES LEE is Associate Professor at the City University of Hong Kong, China W.DAVID MCINTYRE is Emeritus Professor at the Macmillan Brown Centre of Pacific Studies at the University of Christchurch, N
This book sets out unique findings on whether social capital influences health and health inequalities in European welfare states. Drawing on cross-national data from the European Social Survey (ESS) as well as Swedish national survey data and registers, the book develops a new theoretical definition of social capital that guides the books empirical studies. The findings suggest that welfare state generosity is a decisive factor for social capital and that social capital is of significance for health inequalities both between and within European welfare states. The book also discusses the potential dark sides of social capital and examines evidence of circumstances in which social capital has negative health externalities.
While social welfare programs, often inspired by international organizations, are spreading throughout the world, the more far-reaching notion of governmental responsibility for the basic well-being of all members of a political society is not, although it remains a feature of Europe and the former British Commonwealth. The welfare state in the European sense is not simply an administrative arrangement of various measures of social protection but a political project embedded in distinct cultural traditions. Offering the first accessible account in English of the historical development of the European idea of the welfare state, this book reviews the intellectual foundations which underpinned the road towards the European welfare state, formulates some basic concepts for its understanding, and highlights the differences in the underlying structural and philosophical conditions between continental Europe and the English-speaking world.
One of our most celebrated historians shows how we can use the lessons of the past to build a new post-covid society in Britain The 'duty of care' which the state owes to its citizens is a phrase much used, but what has it actually meant in Britain historically? And what should it mean in the future, once the immediate Covid crisis has passed? In A Duty of Care, Peter Hennessy divides post-war British history into BC (before covid) and AC (after covid). He looks back to Sir William Beveridge's classic identification of the 'five giants' against which society had to battle - want, disease, ignorance, squalor and idleness - and laid the foundations for the modern welfare state in his wartime report. He examines the steady assault on the giants by successive post-war governments and asks what the comparable giants are now. He lays out the 'road to 2045' with 'a new Beveridge' to build a consensus for post-covid Britain with the ambition and on the scale that was achieved by the first.
This title offers a front-burner issue on the public policy agenda today is the increased use of partnerships between government and nongovernmental entities, including faith-based social service organizations. In the wake of President Bush's faith-based initiative, many are still wondering about the effectiveness of these faith-based organizations in providing services to those in need, and whether they provide better outcomes than more traditional government, secular nonprofit, and for-profit organizations. In "Faith, Hope, and Jobs", Stephen V. Monsma and J. Christopher Soper study the effectiveness of 17 different welfare-to-work programs in Los Angeles County - a county in which the U.S. government spends 14 per cent of its entire welfare budget - and offer groundbreaking insight into understanding what works and what doesn't. Monsma and Soper examine client assessment of the programs, their progress in developing attitudes and resources important for finding self-supporting employment, and their experience in finding actual employment. This study reveals that the clients of the more explicitly faith-based programs did best in gaining in social capital and were highly positive in evaluating the religious components of their programs. For-profit programs tended to do the best in terms of their clients finding employment. Overall, the religiously active respondents tended to experience better outcomes than those who were not religiously active but surprisingly, the religiously active and non-active tended to do equally well in faith-based programs. "Faith, Hope, and Jobs" concludes with three sets of concrete recommendations for public policymakers, social service program managers, and researchers.
This book provides an up-to-date survey of existing economic literature on the dimensions of growing income inequalities in both advanced and emerging countries. The different explanations and dimensions of inequalities are addressed, particularly globalization, technical progress, in-work poverty, changes in labour market institutions, education and intergenerational mobility, growth and development. The nine chapters provide simplified models exploring each of these elements, and assess commonly accepted explanations and mechanisms.
In the midst of growing criticism of current economic orthodoxies and welfare systems, basic income is growing in popularity. This is the first book to discuss existing at examples of basic income, in both rich and poor countries, and to consider its prospects in other places around the world.
Welfare State, Universalism and Diversity is a thought-provoking book dealing with key ideas, values and principles of social policies and asking what exactly is meant by universal benefits and policies? Is the time of post-war universalism over? Are universalism and diversity contradictory policy and theory framings? Well-known scholars from different countries and fields of expertise provide a historically informative and comprehensive view on the making of universal social policies. Universalism is defined and implemented differently in the British and Scandinavian social policies. Service universalism is different from universalism in pensions. The book underlines the multiple and transformative nature of universalism and the challenge of diversity. There certainly is need for a greater diversity in meeting citizen s needs. Yet, universalism remains a principle essential for planning and implementing sustainable and legitimate policies in times characterized by complex interdependences and contradictory political aims. This impressive book is an attempt to untangle the multiple meanings of universalism and clarify the concept's relevance to contemporary policy debates. It will prove invaluable for students, researchers and practitioners in social policy, public policy, social administration, social welfare, social history, social work, sociology and political sciences. Policy makers and administrators involved with social and public policies, social services, social welfare, and social work will also find this book groundbreaking. Contributors: A. Anttonen, A. Borchorst, J. Clarke, J. Goul Andersen, L. Haikio, B. Hvinden, M. Kautto, J. Newman, J. Sipila, K. Stefansson, M. Szebehely, M. Vabo
Since the early 1990s, European welfare states have undergone substantial changes, in terms of objectives, areas of intervention, and instruments. Traditional programmes, such as old age pensions have been curtailed throughout the continent, while new functions have been taken up. At present, welfare states are expected to help non-working people back into employment, to complement work income for the working poor, to reconcile work and family life, to promote gender equality, to support child development, and to provide social services for an ageing society. The welfare settlement that is emerging at the beginning of the 21st century is nonetheless very different in terms of functions and instruments from the one inherited from the last century. This book seeks to offer a better understanding of the new welfare settlement, and to analyze the factors that have shaped the recent transformation.
Using an analytical framework based on Foucault's concept of governmentality, and through unique case-studies, this volume explores the ongoing transformations taking place in the Swedish welfare state.
This book fills an important gap in housing research, covering the impact of recent changes in housing policies and markets on the development of state-of-the-art asset management within the social rented sector in various countries.
This unique project explores one of the increasingly popular
policies for long-term care: the provision to care users of cash,
rather than services so that they can employ their own caring
labour directly. The authors are scholars from Austria, France,
Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, the USA and the United Kingdom in
the fields of social policy and gerontology. The book includes
introductory and concluding chapters by the editors, which develop
new theories of care commodification and present a comparative
overview of these important policy trends. |
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