Vic George

Social Values and Social Policy

Social values are clearly an important influence on the development and administration of social policies. In discussions about social values, however, different political groupings use the same words but with different meanings. This article compares and contrasts ‘ideal-type’ liberal and socialist conceptions of the three social values of freedom, individualism and equality. It then goes on to discuss how far social policy reflects these differing conceptions. The conclusion drawn is that, so far as social policy is concerned, in the clashes between liberal and socialist conceptions of social values liberal values tend to emerge as dominant.

Globalization, the State and Human Welfare

Welfare states are experiments in politics, in the exercise of state power to manage the economy and to establish a range of services to meet social needs. The economic and political capacity of the state are, therefore, central to the success of the welfare state project. The impact of globalization on state capacity is an important area of enquiry because of the significance of state capacity to the promotion of human welfare. In this chapter, we explore the nature of the relationship between globalization and the nation state and the impact of economic globalization on national economic policy and on the state’s capacity to pursue nationally chosen economic and social policies.

The Future of Global Social Policy

This chapter discusses the nature of the social policies required ‘to make globalization work for human development’ (UNDP, 1999, p. 9) and to secure a sustainable global future. Running through the discussion is a fundamental issue — the inherently political and contested nature of social policy. In a world sharply divided by differences in levels of economic development and so in interests between AICs and IDCs, social policy cannot be seen simply as a neutral instrument of rational actors concerned solely with the general good. It has to be seen as a site and instrument of conflict in the historic struggle between haves, have nots and have not yets. Social policy can be an instrument for the general promotion of human welfare. But it can also be used by those in positions of power to bolster their own position and maintain an inequitable status quo. The WTO, for example, is dominated by the world’s richest nations. Only 34 of the 134 members are from the world’s poorest countries and around half of them have no representatives in Geneva to defend their interests. In contrast, the USA has around 250 negotiators based there permanently.

Globalization and Human Welfare in Industrially Developing Countries

The last quarter of the twentieth century witnessed an acceleration of the process of globalization and a deeper incorporation of the industrially developing countries (IDCs) into the global economy, polity and culture. Global investment and trade with IDCs increased; a greater number of IDCs espoused western democratic forms of government or joined the various UNO bodies; and, on the cultural domain, the influence of western culture reached heights that are considered by many as a threat to indigenous cultures.

Globalization and Gender Inequalities

The effects of globalization on women are mixed: they can be positive and negative, direct and indirect. It is a matter of fine judgement, laced with a touch of ideology, as to whether or not the evidence points, on balance, towards a positive rather than a negative influence. Although no contemporary society treats its women as well as its men, gender inequalities are less severe today than they were half a century ago. There are many reasons for this improvement; globalization is just one of them.

Globalization and Human Welfare in Advanced Industrial Countries (AICs)

Our concern in this chapter is with the overall impact which globalization has had, and is having, on human welfare in advanced industrial societies. The chapter has two parts. First, we analyse the impact of globalization on a number of key social problems. Second, we explore its impact on social policies starting with a discussion of key general issues. Then we look at the impact on the heartland social policy areas, health, education and social security. We leave on one side the question of the impact globalization has had on economic growth, on culture and values and what that has meant for human welfare.

Global Social Policy Today

One of the most important insights which gathered support in the 1990s was that markets need states and states need markets, that unless capitalism is regulated, supported and civilized by public policies it will not survive. This was first accepted at the national level and more recently has begun to be asserted and accepted at the international level — a striking contrast to the dominance of neo liberal ideology in the 1980s. Deacon, for example, writes of ‘the socialisation of global politics’ (Deacon, 1995, p. 56). Shaw argues that ‘The development of global society requires a new politics of global responsibility’ (Shaw, 1994, p. 187). The Human Development Report 1999 warns that ‘Globalization offers great opportunities for human advances — but only with stronger governance’ (UNDP, 1999, p. 1). The World Bank view is that ‘Actions at the global level are…crucial complements to country level action’ (World Bank, 2000, p. 179). Globalization, it is being realised, is too important to be left to the play of market forces. To achieve the universal economic gains which it promises, to avoid the damaging emergence of ‘core’ and ‘marginalized’ states and to ensure the social and political stability on which its success depends, it needs to be ‘managed’.

The Nature of Globalization

Globalization was the concept of the late 1990s and remains dominant today. It has come to pervade debates in the social sciences and to be used increasingly by politicians, including many on the left, as a justification for their policies. Governments of the left, according to this view, have no option but to abandon their traditional welfare state policies. Any attempt to resist globalization will eventually fail.

Globalization, Migration and Ethnicity

During the second half of the twentieth century, migration became truly global. Multi-ethnic immigrant communities from around the globe were firmly established in all AICs with important political, economic, social and cultural implications. As a result, migration has become a high profile political issue and, as globalization proceeds to include more fully all countries, migration and its effects will gain even greater prominence at both the national and the international level. As migration gains momentum, it will also become clearer that the current adversarial philosophy underlying migration movements is unhelpful and that a new approach is necessary — one that brings together sending and receiving countries in an effort to find solutions to migration issues that are to their mutual advantage.

A Sustainable Society

This book had three main aims: first, to provide a critical account of the issues and problems in the five areas that were considered central to a sustainable society; second, to compare and contrast the policies advocated by conventional and radical approaches to the solution of these problems; and third, to put forward a programme of policies, borrowing from both the conventional and the radical approaches, in order to secure a sustainable society in Britain.