Bob Deacon

Eastern European welfare states: the impact of the politics of globalization

This article is divided into four parts. First there is a summary of the social policy of the old state-socialist regimes, some description of the legacy of social problems which they bequeathed to those making the transition to capitalism and a brief summary of the major social costs of the early years of the transition process. Second, the broad social-policy strategies of the new governments of Eastern Europe and the former USSR are reviewed as they have attempted to manage both the legacy of social problems from the past and the new social costs of transition. Third, in more detail developments in five specific fields are described: levels of public expenditure on social welfare; income maintenance policy; health and medical care; housing; and education. The article concludes by attempting to explain these changes, asking whether the policy changes have been motivated by a perceived need to reduce social provision, with a view to becoming more competitive within the global economy.

Global social policy in the making : the foundations of the social protection floor

Introduction The Global Economic and Social Context The Development of the Social Protection Floor Recommendation The SPF, Social Dialogue and Tripartite Global Governance in Practice The SPF and Global Social Policy Synergy Implications for Understanding Global Social Policy Change Reflections and Prospects.

Social Policy in Central and Eastern Europe

changing social policy in central and eastern Europe. In a departure from our normal editonal practice, most of the articles derive from a seminar the Editorial Board organized with Czech colleagues in Prague in October 1992. The enormity of the changes in social policy in this part of Europe scarcely needs justification as a theme for a special issue. However, it was felt that it would be appropriate to open a series of debates about the direction social

Book Reviews : The Welfare State in Capitalist Society: Policies of Retrenchment and Maintenance in Europe, North America and Australia Hemel Hempstead, Harvester Wheatsheaf, pp. 152, ISBN 0-7450-0049.5 (ISBN 0- 7450-0211-0 pbk)

at the level of political ideas to the break-up of the post-war welfare state consensus (the Keynesian Welfare State). One was the neoconservatist response of the right. The other was the corporatist or integrated welfare state approach that could be the most effective response of the left. The second was characterized by a strategy of societal corporatist bargaining in which production, wage levels and level of employment on the one hand and welfare provision and benefits on the other would be considered as a

From `Safety Nets? Back to `Universal Social Provision?

This short article draws upon a number of recent reports from several international organizations to argue the case that, at least at the level of discourse, the tide has turned from the period in the 1990s when a targeted and means tested safety net future for welfare policy especially in the context of development was being constructed. Now even within the World Bank there is some evidence that the case for a universal approach to social welfare provision is again being recognized. This shift suggests that one locus of the struggle for the future of national and international social policy continues to be the international epistemic community of social policy analysts working for and advising international agencies.

The Making of Post-communist Social Policy: The Role of International Agencies

This article demonstrates that the making of post-communist social policy in Eastern Europe and parts of the former Soviet Union is being influenced by a number of international agencies. The implicit and explicit social policy advice being offered by the European Union, the Council of Europe, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the World Bank, to the countries of the region, is described and evaluated. The policy thinking of the Bank is given particular emphasis. Brief reference to the role of the International Labour Organisation and the International Monetary Fund, in this regard, is also made. The advice, both at the general level of the broad orientation of social policy and at the specific level of social security and social assistance of the agencies, is compared. It is suggested that the making of post-communist social policy is a testing ground for the future of social policy elsewhere in the industrialised world. This future, in Eastern Europe and elsewhere, is being influenced by the global social policy discourse that now exists within and between the global agencies studied here. This discourse is mapped and reflects both existing social policy orientations (liberalism, conservatism, social democracy) and the new post-Fordist social policy orientations of social liberalism, as well as that based on the concept of a citizenship income.

From the global politics of poverty alleviation to the global politics of social solidarity

This article argues that the important role of the middle class in helping to expand state responsibility for social welfare and a minimum standard of living has been long forgotten, particularly so when it comes to the analysis of how to address ongoing problems of poverty and inequality in the developing world. In light of the global recession and the predicted failure to achieve most of the Millennium Development Goals, this article makes the case for returning to the idea that strengthening the middle class can contribute to improving the quality of life of more vulnerable populations. The ‘global politics of poverty alleviation’, which has been the dominant development discourse for 20 years, needs to be replaced by the ‘global politics of social welfare state building’ or more precisely the ‘global politics of solidarity’. Equality, social mobility and collective welfare would thus become the focus of policy strategies rather than targeted populations and quantitative objectives. The article begins by investigating why the middle class has been neglected in international development and how it is experiencing a rebirth. The article then suggests why a shift in attention to the middle class is critical for addressing global social problems and offers a policy and research agenda for the future.

Global social policy studies: Conceptual and analytical reflections

This article reviews the conceptual and analytical contribution of one strand of ‘global social policy studies’ since the mid-1990s. It outlines some of the strengths and weaknesses of the core conceptual basis of the approach acknowledging that the theoretical aspects have remained more implicit than explicit in many core texts. The article advances the case for using the ‘Agency, Structure, Institution and Discourse’ (ASID) approach as a framework within which to advance the analysis of the formation and transformation of ‘global social policy’. The recent development of the ILO and UN policy on advancing social protection floors is then used to illustrate how the ASID approach might be applied to an actual global social policy change.

The Governance and Politics of Global Social Policy

This paper does four things. It reviews recent contributions to the literature concerning ‘global social policy’ – understood here as global social redistribution , global social regulation and global social rights . It traces recent developments and initiatives in one of these aspect of global social policy namely mechanisms of global redistribution . It discusses developments in the governance of global social policy arguing that this is increasingly the province of global networks, partnerships and tasks forces somewhat removed from public scrutiny. Finally, it reflects upon the need for and prospects of a global social reformist project and the contribution that both research and political alliances might play in this.

Transnationalism and the Making of Social Policy in South East Europe

This chapter first reviews some of the conceptual and analytical frameworks on the transnationalisation of policy making drawn from international relations, policy transfer and politics of scale literatures. We then go on to address how states and their sovereignty need to be reconceptualised before turning briefly to analytical approaches to social policy. The subsequent section focuses on South Eastern Europe and the countries and territories which make it up, addressing historical legacies, disruptions and continuities, and some of the region’ s social and economic trends. The final section poses a series of broad questions which we return to in the last chapter in the light of the case studies.