Part VIII: International Issues
Chapter 52: The Role of Comparative Study
Margaret May
- Comparative analysis is a crucial and burgeoning constituent of social policy.
- The development of comparative policy reflects broader shifts both in the discipline and national welfare strategies.
- The study of comparative policy raises a number of distinct conceptual and methodological issues.
Chapter 53: Globalization and Social Policy
Rob Sykes
- Globalization is a highly contested concept best understood as a number of interlinked processes.
- There are four main perspectives on globalization and its relationship with social policy developments.
- The simple ‘globalization causes welfare retrenchment’ argument is a gross oversimplification, and that a complex pattern of links between globalization and social policy change in different countries is emerging.
- There is a dynamic, two-way relationship between globalization processes and the development of national social policies.
Chapter 54: Social Policy in Europe
Jochen Clasen
- European countries have consistently been the highest spenders on social policy within the economically advanced groups of OECD countries.
- European countries provide the most generous benefit levels within the OECD.
- Typically European (but not British) is the use of employment protection as a mechanism for securing income for wage earners.
- Typically European (but not British) is the involvement of social partners in social policy making.
Chapter 55: Social Policy in Liberal Market Societies
Michael Hill
- Liberal market societies are defined as ones where social policy development has been particularly inhibited by political value systems that see social policy as a threat to the working of the capitalist market.
- While the United States is seen as the archetypical example of a liberal market system ‘regime theory’ identifies a group of other predominantly English speaking nations with similar characteristics including the UK.
- There are problems about this regime categorisation as issues about the role of social insurance throw up complications and ambiguities.
- Within the liberal market regime group an alternative grouping of nations engaging in direct resource transfers from the better off has been identified.
- Underlying the whole categorisation problem is the fact that liberal market approaches to the management of the economy are now dominant in the economically advanced world
Chapter 56: Social Policy in East Asian Societies
Michael Hill
- There is a case for looking at social policy in East Asian societies simply because of the increasing importance of those societies in the global scene.
- An examination of East Asia helps to enhance the explanatory power of comparative analysis.
- Comparative theory's claims to be of universal applicability mean that examination of societies other than those for which it was developed provides an opportunity to test it.
- There are suggestions that new distinctively different regimes may be emerging in East Asia.
- The impact of rapid economic and demographic change raises crucial questions for social policy in this region.
Chapter 57: Social Policy in Developing Societies
Pat Kennett
- The study of welfare arrangements in developing societies is a relatively new and expanding domain within social policy.
- A range of classification systems have been devised to explore and account for these arrangements.
- International institutions and overseas development assistance play a key role in shaping social policy in developing societies.
- From a social policy perspective the current development paradigm presents many challenges.