Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Social Policy, Social Welfare'
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1
Bidelman, Bernard M. "Social services and twentieth century social welfare policy." Virtual Press, 1988. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/536301.
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In 1962 Congress enacted legislation which made social services an important instrument of public welfare reform. The law represented the culmination of a half-century effort on the part of public welfare officials to secure recognition for public social services as a distinctive yet integral feature of progressive social welfare policy in the United States. This dissertation traces the evolution of this effort from its origins in the Progressive period to the passage of the Public Welfare Amendments of 1962.The Progressive ideal of social welfare focused on building an institution of public welfare which would satisfy the economic, social, and psychological needs of all citizens. Public welfare officials viewed social services as playing a key role in the realization of this goal. The paper examines how social services became a means of protecting and expanding the functions of public welfare.The history of public social services has been marked by controversy. Throughout most of the twentieth century, the institution of public welfare has been subjected to periodic assaults by the taxpaying public. The stigma associated with welfare has caused many professional social workers to oppose the idea of incorporating social services into public welfare. The response of public welfare officials to these sources of conflict is a major topic which the paper explores.The context for and the ramifications of the dispute between professional social workers and public welfare officials over the propriety of public social services are discussed in the first three chapters of the paper. The last three chapters recount the political strategies used by public welfare officials to gain acceptance of their plan for integrating social services with public welfare policy.Department of Sociology
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Hewitt, Martin. "Social policy and human nature." Thesis, University of Essex, 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.242258.
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Scobie, Willow Carleton University Dissertation Sociology and Anthropology. "Disciplining the workshay? Social policy constructs the policy subject." Ottawa, 2000.
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Mink, Tarin L. "Using Service Learning to Teach Social Welfare Policy." The Ohio State University, 2009. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1243281610.
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Bolesworth, Karen, and Susan Tufts. "Social welfare policy and the crisis of hunger." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 2001. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project/1891.
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The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 has lead to reduced welfare assistance to the needy. This thesis analyzes how families have become increasingly homeless and hungry during the welfare reform years.
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Vicary, Adrian Robert. "Social work and social policy in Australia from welfare state to contract state /." [Bedford Park] : Flinders University of South Australia, 1998. http://books.google.com/books?id=RkVHAAAAMAAJ.
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Shaffie, Fuziah. "British colonial policy on social welfare in Malaya : child welfare services 1946-1957." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2006. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/4113/.
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The purpose of this study is to illustrate the extent to which colonial welfare ideas and practices shaped social welfare in Malaysia, with particular reference to child welfare services. In particular, the study explores the scope in which social welfare services was established and developed by the colonial government, the degree of the colonial government's intervention in child welfare services, and the guidelines used by the colonial officials to resolve child welfare issues during the period of 1946-1957. Midgley's Social Welfare Models considers the role of diffusion of colonial welfare ideas and practices, and the residual conception in the approach to welfare within the context of colonialism. The study has employed archival materials on British colonial administration in Malaya kept in the UK National Archive and the Malaysian National Archive to illuminate Midgley's Social Welfare Model. Interviews with Malaysian ex-welfare officers who had personal experience of working at the Department of Social Work (OSW) during the British colonial period were also carried out. The study indicates that, as a contribution to historical and sociological knowledge, children welfare services in Malaya were first organized for immigrant labourers to ensure a regular and reliable supply of healthy workforce. This denotes that the focus of the colonial government was on the exploitation of Malaya's economy, and social welfare issues were peripheral. This standpoint taken by the British colonial government has indeed conformed to the abovementioned welfare model. The study has also revealed that during the period of 1946-1957, the British made efforts to provide welfare for the people of Malaya with the establishment of DSW in 1946. However, the DSW faced complexity of handling welfare issues, such as children welfare, within a multiethnic society because of the different cultures, values and beliefs that existed. The study also suggests that the needs of Europeans and key workers were the prime concerns of the colonial government for their commercial interests. The study has shown that ideas on welfare from the host country were instituted, although, on some occasions, the government made attempts to adapt these ideas to suit the local circumstances. The study concludes that Malayan welfare policy enacted by the British colonial officials followed British welfare ideas and accepted the role of voluntary bodies in the provision of welfare to children. Thus, the government took a residual approach to welfare in which welfare services were provided for the needy and the government played a minimalist role in welfare provision. Although the colonial government contributed to the development of child welfare services in Malaya during the period of 1946-1957, the implementation of the services did. not follow any specific welfare model and no definite child welfare policy was particularly drawn up for Malaya.
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Leung, Man-chu Grace. "Advisory committees and the making of social welfare policy." Click to view the E-thesis via HKUTO, 1989. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record/B31975987.
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Leung, Man-chu Grace, and 梁文珠. "Advisory committees and the making of social welfare policy." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 1989. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B31975987.
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林藹瑩 and Oi-ieng Lam. "Social welfare policy of Macau during the transitional period." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 1998. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B3125049X.
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Hodge, Andrew. "Essays on the social welfare effects of fiscal policy." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2015. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/1073/.
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This thesis contains three chapters, each concerning the social welfare effects of fiscal policy. The first chapter examines the changes to government spending and tax rates that achieve a potentially substantial reduction in government debt at least cost to social welfare. The consequences of altering the speed of debt reduction are also examined. The second chapter considers how differences in monetary policy regime and stance may alter the optimal mix of spending and tax rate changes for government debt reduction. These two chapters make use of the representative agent theoretical framework. By contrast, the third chapter uses a framework of heterogeneous agents, in which there is a non-trivial distribution of wealth and income. The framework includes both aggregate and idiosyncratic uncertainty. The third chapter characterises a constrained efficient outcome in this framework. This outcome is treated as a welfare benchmark. The competitive equilibrium outcome is compared to this benchmark and shown to be constrained inefficient in certain circumstances. The sign and magnitude of constrained inefficiency in competitive equilibrium depends critically on the way in which aggregate shocks affect the distribution of idiosyncratic shocks. The extent of wealth inequality is also an important determining factor. Competitive equilibria under different fiscal policies are then considered as potential welfare improvements.
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Lam, Oi-ieng. "Social welfare policy of Macau during the transitional period /." Hong Kong : University of Hong Kong, 1998. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record.jsp?B2013342X.
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Badia, i. Ibáñez Mònica. "Gendering welfare : social policy and poverty in Chile and Spain." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2003. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.619639.
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Neku, Ruby Junior Ntombinini. "Towards a model for social welfare policy formulation in KwaZulu." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 1988. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/14372.
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Bibliography: leaves 105-111.The study set out to establish the extent to which the needs of Community's were taken into consideration in the formulation of Social Welfare Policy. The Structure in the Government service is such that Policy's are formulated by top management. Top management in the Government Service is constituted by the Ministry. When the KwaZulu Legislative Assembly sits the Minister at one of these sessions delivers the policy speech. This policy is disseminated to the Community through the Department's Secretary by the Civil Servants. As Social Workers are concerned in their delivery of Social Welfare Services about minimising problematic situations, the study will examine the role played by Social Workers in the formulation of Social Welfare Policy. The involvement of Social Workers in policy formulation is seen as a helpful tool in enabling them to play the advocacy role. Their contribution would enable the policy formulation to have an idea about issues that policy must address.
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Farnsworth, Kevin. "Capital and welfare : business influence on social policy, 1979-1996." Thesis, University of Bath, 1999. https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.311455.
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Connelly, Dana D. "State Child Welfare Policy: Causes and Consequences." UKnowledge, 2014. http://uknowledge.uky.edu/msppa_etds/11.
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On any given day almost 400,000 children in the United States are living in an out-of-home care placement due to government intervention. Federal law allows for substantial variance in state child welfare policy on a number of topics. These policy decisions, however, are understudied both in terms of the forces driving them and also the impacts the policies have on actual outcomes for children in care.
Utilizing a unique panel data set comprised of thirteen child welfare policies that vary both between states and over time we examine how well redistributive theory (constituent, institutional, paternalistic and resource pressures) explains state policy decisions from 2004-2010. The results provide very little confidence that redistributive pressures are driving state variance, though there are some noteworthy patterns. Within the four categories of explanatory variables, it would seem that child welfare policies are much more sensitive to changes in the social factors associated with a paternalistic response (unmarried birth rate and program utilization) and resource pressures than to constituent or institutional characteristics.
Subsequently, a series of hazard models were conducted for each possible discharge outcome, using child level data from the 2010 AFCARS foster care dataset, with primary interest in the influence of policy and state level factors. Policy-level predictors primarily had negative impacts on discharge outcomes for children. Exceptions include better outcomes for children in states with higher generosity of access, increased rates of adoption and aging out with higher ASFA timeline compliance, and more discharges to reunification and adoption with more flexible adoption policy. State level factors consistently showed strong influences on child outcomes. While increased unemployment was associated with worse child outcomes, all other state level factors considered were associated with positive discharge outcomes for children in out-of-home care.
This research broadens the theoretical application of redistributive theory to a new policy arena and adds an additional layer of state level explanatory variables to the much-studied outcomes for children in out-of-home care. It establishes that children and families do not exist in a vacuum and that child welfare research must take broader state and policy factors into account for a complete picture.
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Corrie, Elizabeth M. "Social development and social policy in Guinea : health and education 1958-1984." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 1988. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/13702/.
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Guinea, a former French colony, experienced an abrupt severing of relationships with the colonial power when President Sékou Touré rejected De Gaulle’s offer of becoming part of a French commonwealth of nations and opted for total independence instead. France withdrew all support, trade and personnel within a matter of days, and Sékou Touré attempted to develop this new nation along strongly independent and ideological lines. He made a verbal commitment to social development and evolved an ambitious programme to develop the health and education services. This thesis uses dependency theory as a tool of analysis to ascertain whether independent, autonomous development indeed took place, particularly in the fields of health and education, once the break with the metropolis was made. The period under review, 1958 - 1984, was the period of Sékou Touré’s presidency. The four criteria used to assess the measure of development achieved are: a) The successful rejection of Western models of development. b) Equal development and an equal distribution of resources between the regions. c) No urban/rural imbalance. d) Services available for all rather than limited to an elite. In the light of these criteria, Guinea was indeed able to experience some measure of independent, autonomous development, more particularly in education. The health sector had been less developed as only 2.1% of the national budget was devoted to it in 1981, compared to 17.6% spent on education in 1980. The inequalities in the health service were particularly noticeable in the urban/rural imbalance, Conakry in particular enjoying a larger share of available resources, but this was not the case in education where no such imbalance appeared to exist. The area of Labé emerged as the least developed area of the country but the discrepancies in provision were not too marked. Guinea also achieved much in the promotion of women and the eradication of elites, especially among the different ethnic groups. With the death of President Sékou Touré in 1984, Guinea's experimenting with a revolutionary form of development came to an end. The nation's future, now in the hands of the military, is uncertain.
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Tong, Sui-yip. "The implementation of the policy of comprehensive social security assistance." Click to view the E-thesis via HKUTO, 2006. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record/B36449714.
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Sartorius, Christian. "An evolutionary approach to social welfare /." London [u.a.] : Routledge, 2003. http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0651/2003046901-d.html.
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Pearse, Janet. "Ontario works : mothering and neo-liberal social policy." Thesis, McGill University, 2000. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=31039.
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In 1995 the Government of Ontario introduced reforms that significantly changed the way welfare was delivered in the province. Welfare rates were cut and benefits became conditional on recipients participating in a workfare programme called Ontario Works. These reforms ignore women's responsibility for child care. Single mothers and their children will be the group most affected by these changes. Single mothers are interviewed about how these changes have affected them, with particular attention to their experiences with the Ontario Works programme and its impact on their ability to care for their children.
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Paszkiewicz, Natalia. "Care, welfare and enforcement : responses to asylum seekers and refugees." Thesis, University of Brighton, 2011. https://research.brighton.ac.uk/en/studentTheses/e53ebd58-94f4-4720-837f-598e5b5832a3.
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The aim of this research project is to critically investigate the intersection between british asylum policy and social care practice. The study evaluates normative frameworks present in the policy documents related to social care provision to asylum seekers and refugees, explores how front line social care workers' practice aligns with those policies, and looks into the consequences of their assessments and interventions on the lives of asylum seekers and refugees in England.
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Reyes, Fernanda D. "Social Safety Nets: An Analysis of American Social Safety Net Policy and The Ethics Behind Welfare Rights." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2016. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/1365.
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The purpose of this thesis is to analyze current housing and supplemental income programs on a national level to measure success and failures of different programs like Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, Earned Income Tax Credit, and Housing Vouchers. Furthermore, this thesis attempt to discuss questions of ethics and precedent in determining to what degree the United States should engage in social safety net policies. This paper analyzes contemporary American social safety net policies on the basis of their cost to American taxpayers as well as how well it benefits those in poverty.
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Cheng, Chi-ho Howard, and 鄭之灝. "A study of social welfare policies for youth in Hong Kong." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 1997. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B31236650.
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Hajighasemi, Ali Naghi. "The transformation of the Swedish welfare system : fact or fiction? : globalisation, institutions and welfare state change in a social democratic regime." Thesis, Durham University, 2002. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/1088/.
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Richards, Benjamin. "National identity and social cohesion : theory and evidence for British social policy." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2013. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/910/.
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Arguments that a national identity could create a sense of social unity, solidarity and cohesion in a national group have a long tradition in social and political theory. J. S. Mill, for instance, argued that “the boundaries of governments should coincide in the main with those of nationalities” because a state with several nationalities is one in which members are “artificially tied together” (2001, 288). In Britain in the 2000s these arguments resurfaced in public and political discourse through a distancing from multiculturalism, which was increasingly seen as divisive, and a new emphasis on national unity and social cohesion through the promotion of British identity. There is, however, a lack of empirical research in Britain on what the relationship between national identity and social cohesion might actually be, and the strength of the relationship as compared with other issues that might also be important for social cohesion. This mixed-methods thesis attempts to address the research gap both through analysis of the Citizenship Survey covering England and Wales, and through semi-structured interviews with respondents of Black-African and Black-Caribbean ethnicity in an area of London. I argue first that the type of national identity in question is of crucial importance; a distinction between constitutional patriotism, civic national identity, and ethnic national identity is helpful, and evidence suggests the latter form may in fact be detrimental to some aspects of social cohesion. Second, I argue that social cohesion might be better broken up into two separate concepts – one referring to a commitment to certain of the state’s institutions (termed ‘institutional cohesion’), and the other to associational types of behaviour (termed ‘associational cohesion’) – since the correlates of each of the two concepts are rather different and their separation would resolve many of the confusions in academic and public discussions of social cohesion. Third, I find evidence to suggest that British identity may be of more relevance for the associational type of cohesion than the institutional type, but overall both British and English identity are of marginal relevance for social cohesion as compared to education, deprivation, and perceptions of discrimination. This suggests that attempts to use British identity as a tool to create unity and cohesion in the context of increasing diversity may not work or even be counterproductive; issues of inequality and discrimination may be much more important to address. Fourth, I reflect on the extent to which issues of unity and cohesion at the level of the nation-state are still relevant in the context of identity politics on the one hand, and processes of globalisation on the other. I argue that nation-states, for the time being, remain important sites of redistribution and reference points for perceptions of equality; to the extent that these issues are important for social cohesion, nation-states are therefore important too.
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Boesenecker, Aaron P. "Defining work and welfare the politics of social policy reform in Europe /." Connect to Electronic Thesis (CONTENTdm), 2009. http://worldcat.org/oclc/461265191/viewonline.
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Cameron, Angus. "Globalisation, social exclusion and the discursive localisation of poverty." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2000. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.300598.
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Kotze, Frans Gabriël. "Social welfare policy for a post-apartheid South Africa: A developmental perspective." University of the Western Cape, 1995. http://hdl.handle.net/11394/8419.
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Philosophiae Doctor - PhDThis research project, in which social welfare constitutes the central focus of study, is undertaken within the broad field of development studies. The basic concern of the study is to determine the role and the place of social welfare in a post-apartheid South Africa. The study therefore seeks to produce some of the policy-making knowledge and a framework for formulating alternative social policies. With the emergence of the post-apartheid South Africa, social welfare as a system, and social policy in particular, finds itself at a water-shed. For many years social welfare has been practised on a racially-differentiated basis. Social policies were firmly rooted in the prevailing political ideology of apartheid. During its formal inception in the 193Q's, the primary objective of social welfare was to solve the Poor White problem. Currently we have reached a critical turning point in the history of our country. The establishment of an inclusive democracy should have a direct impact on the welfare of all citizens. In this new context we have to deal with mass poverty - the basic human needs of many South Africans not being met - and extreme inequalities. Meanwhile we are saddled with different models of welfare based on the fragmented social policies of the past. Various themes pertaining to social welfare are examined with the view to proposing some solutions to the dilemma. Theories of development constitute the frame of reference for the analysis and development of alternative social policies. Applying these theoretical foundations, a special study is made of the emergence and structuring of social welfare in South Africa. In an empirical study the views of stakeholders in the field are gathered using qualitative methodology. Theories of development, the Reconstruction and Development Programme, the idea of social welfare as a system to meet human needs, and the views of stakeholders, form the basis for the development of alternative social policies in the post-apartheid South Africa. Using this conceptual framework and analysis of contemporary realities, certain policy proposals are examined for their appropriateness to address post-apartheid challenges. The study demonstrates that a paradigm shift is absolutely necessary in order to deal with emerging realities in South Africa. This paradigm shift entails that social welfare adopt a developmental approach within an integrated policy framework.
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Threlfall, Perry A. "Social Capital and Welfare Reform: The Single Mother Quagmire." VCU Scholars Compass, 2007. http://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd_retro/171.
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This paper examines the effects of social capital in the lives of low-income single mothers and how it intersects with the goals of the Personal Responsibility Act (PRA). These explicit goals are to decrease reliance on public assistance through work and marriage; the implicit goals are to enhance social capital by increasing the trust, norms, and values that are evidenced by work and marriage. However, low-income single mothers are faced with limited repositories of social capital, which leaves them in a legislated quagmire. Tested here is the hypothesis that social capital impacts marriage, stable employment, and TANF use. The findings indicate that social capital impacts stable employment and economic stability in low-income single mothers, but it does not increase the likelihood of marriage. Further research that examines how social capital intersects with race and class will shed additional light on the efficacy of policy initiatives that focus on social capital reinforcement in low income female-headed families.
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Lessa, Iara. "Restaging the welfare diva, case studies of single motherhood and social policy." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1999. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape10/PQDD_0006/NQ40327.pdf.
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Pinthong, Jaree. "Clientelism, social policy and welfare state development : a case study on Thailand." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2015. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:57492483-eca6-4fda-b5cc-420cc8ee894c.
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This thesis consists of four independent chapters each of which addresses the relationship between clientelism and social policy in relation to welfare state development from different perspectives. The overarching research question examines whether the adoption of such policies leads to de-clientelisation, and, if so, to what extent. The research extensively draws upon both cross-national data and that from Thailand between 2000-2012 during which populist welfare policies have gained significant influence on political development. Chapter 1 employs a global dataset of developing countries to offer a comparative perspective on the subject and shows that political parties generally trade-off between social policy and their engagement in clientelism. The latter three chapters take Thailand as a case study empirically investigate clientelist mechanisms at different geographic levels. Focusing on the household level, Chapter 2 evaluates the role of patron-client relations in determining access to the Thailand Village Fund based on the Socio-Economic Household Surveys. The provincial level is examined in Chapter 3 which studies economic and political determinants of two types of provincial-level distributive transfers: social policy spending and discretionary spending. Chapter 4 examines the clientelist mechanism at the national level through an assessment of the electoral linkage dynamics by measuring changes in personal votes. The findings show some degree of resilience of clientelist relations as they intervene with social policy allocation, particularly at local level. The global trend contrasts with the case of Thailand where, as in-depth analyses of the latter three chapters have shown, clientelist relations often persist and convert into a new form, for example the southern model of welfare regimes.
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Sneddon, Nicola M. "Interest groups and policy-making the welfare state, 1942-1964 /." Thesis, Connect to e-thesis, 1999. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/922/.
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Spies-Butcher, Ben. "Understanding the concept of social capital: Neoliberalism, social theory or neoliberal social theory?" University of Sydney, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/1326.
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Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)This thesis examines the growing debate around the concept of social capital. The concept has been heralded by many as a means of uniting the social sciences, particularly economics and sociology, and of overcoming ideological divisions between left and right. However, critics argue that the concept is poorly theorised and provides little insight. More radical critics have claimed the concept may be a neo-liberal ‘Trojan horse’, a mechanism by which the atomistic thinking of neoclassical economics colonises social theory. I examine these more radical claims by exploring the origins of the concept of social capital within rational choice economics. I argue that we should differentiate between two types of potential colonisation. The first is a form of methodological colonisation, whereby overly abstract, reductionist and rationalist approaches (which I term modernist) are extended into social theory. The second is a form of ideological colonisation, whereby a normative commitment to individualism and the market is extended into social theory. I argue that the concept of social capital has been the product of a trend within rational choice economics away from the extremes of modernism. In this sense the concept represents an attempt to bring economics and social theory closer together, and a willingness on the part of rational choice theorists to take more seriously the techniques and insights of the other social sciences. However, I argue that this trend away from modernism has often been associated with a reaffirmation of rational choice theorists’ normative commitment to individualism and the market. In particular, I argue the concept of social capital has been strongly influenced by elements of the Austrian economic tradition, and forms part of a spontaneous order explanation of economic and social systems. I then apply these insights to the Australian social capital debate. I argue that initially the Australian social capital debate continued an earlier debate over economic rationalism and the merits of market-orientated economic reform. I argue that participants from both sides of the economic rationalism debate used the concept of social capital to move away from modernism, but continued to disagree over the role of individualism. Finally, I argue that confusion between moving away from modernism, and moving away from market ideology, has led some Third Way theorists to misconstrue the concept as a means to overcome ideology.
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Spies-Butcher, Ben. "Understanding the concept of social capital: Neoliberalism, social theory or neoliberal social theory?" Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/1326.
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This thesis examines the growing debate around the concept of social capital. The concept has been heralded by many as a means of uniting the social sciences, particularly economics and sociology, and of overcoming ideological divisions between left and right. However, critics argue that the concept is poorly theorised and provides little insight. More radical critics have claimed the concept may be a neo-liberal ‘Trojan horse’, a mechanism by which the atomistic thinking of neoclassical economics colonises social theory. I examine these more radical claims by exploring the origins of the concept of social capital within rational choice economics. I argue that we should differentiate between two types of potential colonisation. The first is a form of methodological colonisation, whereby overly abstract, reductionist and rationalist approaches (which I term modernist) are extended into social theory. The second is a form of ideological colonisation, whereby a normative commitment to individualism and the market is extended into social theory. I argue that the concept of social capital has been the product of a trend within rational choice economics away from the extremes of modernism. In this sense the concept represents an attempt to bring economics and social theory closer together, and a willingness on the part of rational choice theorists to take more seriously the techniques and insights of the other social sciences. However, I argue that this trend away from modernism has often been associated with a reaffirmation of rational choice theorists’ normative commitment to individualism and the market. In particular, I argue the concept of social capital has been strongly influenced by elements of the Austrian economic tradition, and forms part of a spontaneous order explanation of economic and social systems. I then apply these insights to the Australian social capital debate. I argue that initially the Australian social capital debate continued an earlier debate over economic rationalism and the merits of market-orientated economic reform. I argue that participants from both sides of the economic rationalism debate used the concept of social capital to move away from modernism, but continued to disagree over the role of individualism. Finally, I argue that confusion between moving away from modernism, and moving away from market ideology, has led some Third Way theorists to misconstrue the concept as a means to overcome ideology.
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Sirojudin, Sirojudin. "Toward welfare pluralism : policy and practice of the Islamic welfare effort in Indonesia." Thesis, McGill University, 2004. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=81465.
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This study reviews the policy and practice of Islamic social welfare efforts in Indonesia. Findings from this study suggest that Indonesian Islamic welfare policies are ambivalent. The ambivalent character is due, in part, to the need of the government to maintain the status of Indonesia as a secular state, while at the same time, to accommodate Muslim aspirations to practice Islamic social welfare. Some Islamic welfare organizations have succeeded in combining Islamic social welfare programs with a modern social development perspective that is relevant to large national development programs. Dompet Dhuafa Republika's (DD) experience of collecting Islamic welfare funds and developing social welfare programs reveals significant potentials of Islamic welfare efforts to contribute to statutory social welfare services. These findings have shown that there is a promising prospect for Indonesia to further augment a pluralistic social welfare system.
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Shon, Emily. "U.K. Welfare Conditionality: Helping or Hurting the Poor?" Scholarship @ Claremont, 2017. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/922.
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Conditionality has always been a feature of welfare benefit entitlements in the United Kingdom – however, over time, the extent to which conditionality has been exercised in order to change behaviour has drastically increased through the severity of sanctions. Universal Credit, the most recently enacted welfare programme in the UK, has strengthened conditionality even further through even more ambitious expectations, as well as stricter regulations and punishments.
The mission of UC is to tackle worklessness, welfare dependency, and poverty by decreasing unemployment and thus, the number of people on benefits. Although UC may have been successful in addressing the first two issues, it is important to recognise that as a welfare policy and a response to poverty, UC is supposed to protect and benefit the wellbeing of people. My findings contradict this idea – UC has failed to address poverty in many ways, by defining poverty through a narrow and solely quantitative lens, by focusing on incentivising employment amongst benefit claimants as a solution to poverty, and by insufficiently accommodating for the needs of marginalised groups. Even so, conditional welfare policies have become the norm, a tool of many Conservative leaders in the United Kingdom. This is where the social policy focus has shifted. My thesis found that while UC and conditional welfare policies may achieve their stated goals of reducing unemployment and the number of benefit claimants, they do not adequately address the issue of poverty, as they ignore structural causes of poverty and disadvantage amongst marginalised communities.
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Powell, Scott R. "Shifting the Employment Burden: The Social and Economic Foundations of Welfare State Reform." The Ohio State University, 2011. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1325176807.
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Sellars, Sean Christian Maurice. "Collective action, incentives and social welfare : an analysis of South African policy forums." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 1995. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/18289.
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This paper is concerned with the analysis of South African policy making forums. It attempts to develop an understanding of how such forums might contribute to the welfare of South African society, and what can be done to enhance this contribution. The widespread emergence of policy making forums in South Africa has not gone unnoticed. Much local literature has been produced in recent years on the issue (Baskin, 1993; Maree, 1993; Schreiner, 1994; Nattrass, 1994). All of these contributions adopt the framework of "neo-corporatism" in their analysis. By contrast, this paper is grounded in the theory of public choice. The concept of "neo-corporatism" has been developed in a body of international literature concerned with the institutional structures through which policy was developed and implemented in countries such as Austria and Sweden in the post war period (Grant, 1985). These institutional structures evolved out of the imperatives of post-war reconstruction and the balance of power between labour, capital and state. The prefix neo- is used to distinguish the institutional arrangements in these social democracies from those in place in fascist Italy which have been referred to as corporatist. There is much confusion over the exact meaning of "neo-corporatism", but there seems to be some agreement that it centrally involves the relationship between the state and organised interests such as business and labour. In the countries identified as neo-corporatist, this relationship was structured in such a way as to influence the behaviour of each of these parties towards the attainment of national objectives such as growth and low unemployment (ibid:4). There are two reasons why I have chosen not to use neo-corporatism as the means of analysis in this paper. Firstly, the thinking around the concept has been developed inductively from the experiences of particular societies, but a plausible deductive theory of what transpired in these societies has not been forthcoming (Olson, 1986). To use a crude example, it might thus be said that while we can observe that Sweden had very low levels of unemployment for most of the post-war period and that Swedish policy making was characterised at the time by a particular type of interaction between government, labour and business, neo-corporatist theory does not offer a robust (deductive) argument of why certain policy making institutions led to particular desirable social outcomes. In other words, the understanding of the causal relationship between existing institutions and social outcomes remains undeveloped. The second reason for not using a neo-corporatist framework in the analysis which follows is that the political and economic conditions in contemporary South Africa are very removed from those of European neo-corporatist countries, and thus inductive theory based on the European experience is not of much use. In particular, as is argued in Chapter Two, the state, seen as the primary factor directing the policy making process in neo-corporatist theory, has played a very ambiguous role in the South African experience of forum based policy making. As South African policy forums have arisen during a period of political transition, the government has had neither the confidence nor the legitimacy to play the directing role which has characterised episodes of neo-corporatism in other countries. The paper is divided into two chapters. The first considers a deductive theory of interest group behaviour developed from the literature of public choice and the second applies this to South Africa's recent experience of policy forums. Most public choice literature is concerned with the state, as processes influencing government such as voting and lobbying are seen as a central means through which individuals take collective action. In addition, it is through government bureaus that the goods and services demanded through this action are supplied (Mueller, 1976; Wolf, 1979). As stated, the emphasis in what follows is slightly different in that the activities of interest groups is the major subject of consideration.
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Page, Ivan L. "Social welfare policy: a comparative analysis of the attitudes of middle class White and African Americans toward welfare reform legislation." DigitalCommons@Robert W. Woodruff Library, Atlanta University Center, 2000. http://digitalcommons.auctr.edu/dissertations/2548.
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The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of race, social class status (middle income) and political party affiliation on the attitudes of middle class White and African Americans toward welfare reform legislation. This study focused on the comparison of the two groups: (1) African Americans with an annual income between $35,000 - $99,999; and (2) White Americans with an annual income also between $35,000 - $99,999. Specifically, a comparison was done to identify what similarities and/or differences exist between the two groups in relation to the dependent variable (attitudes toward welfare reform legislation), and the independent variables (race, social class status: income and political party affiliation).
The sample population was randomly selected from a total of ten sites using the systematic sample process. This explanatory study used the survey questionnaire research method to collect data on each independent variable in relation to the dependent variable. The questionnaire contained 46 statements and was divided into three sections: (1) Demographics, (2) Poverty and Welfare Knowledge, and (3) Welfare Reform Attitudes. Data collected were analyzed by employing the Chi-square statistical technique.
The findings of this study suggest that race and social class status (middle income) were not key factors in determining the public’s attitudes toward the issue of welfare reform legislation, while political party affiliation was a issue. Conclusions drawn from the data indicated that White and African Americans have very direct and adamant attitudes about the work ethics of poor people. In fact they share similar concerns about making America a more productive society through encouraging work and self- sufficiency among welfare recipients. Their attitudes about supporting welfare reform legislation transcend racial lines.
Particular attention was given to understanding the level of support for welfare reform legislation expressed by African Americans. Finally, the author concluded this study with a series of recommendations that may assist the field of social work in addressing the issue of poverty. Specific emphasis was placed on the presentation of a strategic model for social work practitioners to address poverty.
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Hustwit, Holly. "The Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978: A Policy and Field Study." The Ohio State University, 1994. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1392908941.
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Dósa, Mariann. "Citizenship undermined : messages received through the social assistance system in contemporary Hungary." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2016. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:4a5aa65f-259f-4206-9f07-5f8524389d18.
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Very few narratives go as unchallenged about the transition of Central and Eastern European countries from state socialism to market democracies as the following: before the transitions people in these countries had strong social rights but were lacking any civic and political rights, and while the transformations provided the people with firm civil and political citizenship, they lost out on social rights. In my dissertation I argue that this is an oversimplifying and highly distorted narrative that is blind to the deep inequalities in these societies. My research focused on one particular means of reproducing these inequalities, namely welfare institutions, and explored what recipients of social assistance provision learned about their citizenship in the post-transition Hungarian welfare complex. This analysis not only demonstrated an inextricable interrelationship between civil, political and social citizenship, but also allowed for a deeper understanding of the mechanisms through which apparent political inequalities were reproduced in practice. By the innovative method of institutional ethnography I constructed a mosaic of the various component elements of the institutional system of social assistance provision in contemporary Hungary and investigated the influence that each had on recipients' civil and political citizenship. This study indicated a marked discrepancy between recipients' ideal and their lived experiences of citizenship, and found that certain characteristics of the system of social assistance provision played a crucial part in reproducing this discrepancy. The high level of discretion in the system, recipients' lack of information, the treatment they underwent in the welfare office, as well as the lack of institutional guarantees that could ensure that they enjoyed equal and fair treatment in all the welfare offices in the country proved to be the most important characteristics of social assistance provision that had direct or indirect effects on recipients' democratic subjectivity.
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Israel, Azaliah, and Anna Zajicek. "The Social Construction of Black Fatherhood in Responsible Fatherhood Programs." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2018. https://dc.etsu.edu/secfr-conf/2018/schedule/19.
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Since the mid-1990, promoting responsible fatherhood has remained on the national policy agenda, but fatherhood-related policy initiatives have yet to generate tangible outcomes for low-income communities. Almost 1 billion dollars have been allocated to address the combined efforts of marriage and fatherhood education, but the results have been minimal. Recent literature reveals a deep seeded legislative misunderstanding about the reasons behind low marriage rates among low-income couples. Contrary to popular cultural narratives that imply a blatant disregard for marriage, there is evidence that low-income couples respect the institution of marriage. Socio-economic barriers, however, inhibit that union from taking place. Despite this plausible explanation, policy-driven initiatives often employ program curriculums that seek to modify the behaviors of fathers by instilling in them the value of hard work as opposed to addressing the socio-economic circumstances they face. This partly stems from the broader cultural narrative and a related public perception that Black fathers are lazy and unwilling to work. Responsible fatherhood grantees have the potential to begin deconstructing negative perceptions of Black fathers by uncovering new information in these federally funded programs. Using qualitative interviews, this study utilizes a three-article style format to examine the presence of the dominant cultural narratives regarding Black fatherhood in Responsible Fatherhood policies and organizational narratives of the agencies tasked with policy implementation.
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Plaatjies, René. "An evaluation of the social welfare policy of the Eastern Cape provincial government." Thesis, Port Elizabeth Technikon, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1011328.
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A background of serious disparities in past welfare policies, legislation and programmes, necessitated the need for a far-reaching new social welfare policy in South Africa. The adoption of the White Paper for Social Welfare by Parliament in February 1997, set the path for the new social developmental approach to social welfare, dealing with key substantive issues in addressing the restructuring of social welfare services, programmes and social security. The Eastern Cape Province is one of the poorer provinces in South Africa. Negative radio and print media reports on social welfare in the province in the past three years has made it clear that serious problems and disparities face the provincial department. Several of these media reports highlighted issues relating to poor service delivery and unacceptable conditions of underdevelopment and poverty still prevailing in the province. The Eastern Cape Welfare Department has been plagued by fraud and corruption, and in a report of the Eastern Cape legislature’s standing committee on welfare in 2001, it was found that fraudulent activities, corruption and misconduct by government officials are still prevalent in the welfare department. The objective of this research was to assess whether the Eastern Cape Department of Social Development (Welfare) is implementing this new social developmental approach to social welfare, as set out in the 1997 White Paper for Social Welfare.
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Colechin, jane. "Expansion despite permanent austerity? : innovative aspects of social policy in Liberal welfare regimes." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2010. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/944/.
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This thesis seeks to challenge the entrenched academic consensus that there are no opportunities for welfare state expansion in liberal welfare regimes in the face of neo-liberal economic ideology and new public management reforms to decision-making. It does so though an examination of social policy expansion in early years education and care (EYEC) in England and Canada/Ontario; two liberal welfare states. This thesis contends that EYEC policy, often neglected in comparative welfare literature, is an important social dimension of the welfare state which can potentially alter the relationship between the state, parents and children. Utilising a multi-level discursive institutionalist framework the thesis examines the processes underlying EYEC policy innovations in the two cases. Its first major contribution is an innovative framework of six competing and contrasting discursive EYEC frames and the evidence and expertise pivotal to them. Though this lens, the thesis identifies common institutional reforms that have altered practices of policy making; presenting openings in the bureaucratic structure to new forms of expertise and particular EYEC frames. It also extends the analysis above the national context to examine the influence of the OECD as a form of ideational pressure and the extent of ideational circulation between the two cases. In so doing this thesis captures complex rather than linear trajectories of development and moments of convergence and divergence between the two cases. This thesis finds that in both cases a multiplicity of competing frames and ‘evidence-based’ forms of policy innovation have led to strategic incoherence and an unstable basis for the concrete implementation EYEC policy.
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Breznau, Nate. "Social welfare and economic equality an analysis of policy preferences in five nations /." abstract and full text PDF (UNR users only), 2008. http://0-gateway.proquest.com.innopac.library.unr.edu/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:1460751.
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Gigliotti, Katherine M. "Immigration and Welfare: Policy Changes Brought by the 1996 Welfare Reform Law." Thesis, Boston College, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/381.
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Thesis advisor: Timothy DuketThe United States of America's official seal is inscribed with the quote “E Pluribus Unum.” Translated from the Latin, this phrase means “From Many, One.” Modern America is in fact one nation, built from many; many cultures, religions, and citizens from many different origins comprise the American polity. America is a nation of immigrants. The first immigrants to this country were fleeing religious persecution. Others have come escaping a life of poverty or political repression. Whatever the reason, immigrants come to America in hope of a better life. Despite America's strong immigrant tradition, the issue of membership in the American polity has been a contentious issue throughout our history. Chinese Exclusion, and the National Origins Quota System are merely two policies implemented with the express purpose of keeping foreigners out of America. Over time, anti-immigrant sentiment in America has been fueled by nativism and the desire to allow economic prosperity to benefit American citizens. While nativism has played an important role in determining American immigration policy, many modern-day arguments for a restrictive immigration policy are based on economic considerations. It is often claimed that immigrants take jobs away from citizens. Economic research has shown that modern-day immigrants tend to be lower skilled and have a lower economic performance than natives. As a result, the presence of a large number of immigrants does create greater job competition and lower wages for citizens in low-paying jobs. The desire to keep jobs available for American citizens has been a primary cause of existing restrictions on immigration
Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2003
Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences
Discipline: Sociology
Discipline: College Honors Program
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Hung, Suet-lin Shirley. "Professional power and policy formulation an analysis of youth welfare services in Hong Kong /." Click to view the E-thesis via HKUTO, 1993. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record/B31964485.
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Sandoval, Laura. "The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986| A policy analysis." Thesis, California State University, Long Beach, 2013. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=1523205.
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This policy analysis examined the purpose, goals, implementation, and impacts of mandatory minimum sentences as outlined in the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986. After reviewing government documents and scholarly literature that address the policy, a modified version of David Gil's 1992 framework was used to conduct the analysis.
Significant findings include the misalignment between the policy's objectives and the factual American condition regarding drugs and drug-related crime. Since implementation, people and communities of color have been disproportionately disadvantaged by this policy. New social problems, such as prison overcrowding, have resulted from lengthy prison sentences.
From this analysis, social workers can learn the importance of educating the public about drug use and related systemic issues. Social workers can use this information to advocate for relevant and effective policies to respond to problematic drug use in America from a public health, rather than criminal justice, perspective.
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Alle, Bruno Azevedo. "An evaluation of centralized provision of social services: the case of Lisbon’s police department." Master's thesis, Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Políticas, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/5866.
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Dissertação de Mestrado em Gestão e Políticas PúblicasThe European crisis and the subsequent Portuguese financial bailout put social policies under heavy pressure as the current debate focus mostly on budgetary cuts. Contrasting with this tendency, the social services from the Portuguese police have been expanding its services through a centralized service provision policy, starting in Lisbon but with plans to expand it to other cities during the next five years. Whether these services should be provided centralised or decentralised is a matter to be researched as how to use the limited public resources more effectively is now more important than ever. This thesis contributes in this direction by evaluating if there is a rationale for a centralized social policy delivery, if these services are demanded by the users themselves and what is the best alternative to follow. We find that while its beneficiaries state their interest in this kind of service provision they do not seem to use it, which is quite puzzling. The results show that most of them are unaware of the center’s existence and even the majority that is aware does not use it. After applying a regression analysis we find that the major reasons relate to distance issues, particularly when the potential users take more than half an hour to reach it.
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Zarate, Tenorio Barbara Astrid. "Social policy, protest participation and violent crime in Latin America." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2015. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:5dcad1e6-ef54-4fba-a6b4-38d68cf7d0c7.
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This thesis consists of four self-contained articles which focus on different aspects of citizens' demand for and governments' supply of social policy in Latin American democracies. The underlying questions that link the four papers are a) do social and economic grievances affect citizens' propensity to protest? and, b) do democratic governments in the region use social policy as an instrument to mitigate social discontent and violent crime? In the first two papers, I use public opinion data in order to examine the determinants of citizens' participation in protest with a special focus on dissatisfaction with the quality of public services, demands for inequality-reduction policies and economic deprivation. The results show that among other factors, protest participation is motivated by citizens' discontent over the quality of basic social services, support for redistributive policies, and relative economic deprivation. The third and fourth papers analyze the "supply side" of social spending in the region focusing on collective protest and violent crime, respectively. The third article argues that under democracy, organized labor is in a better position relative to other groups in society to obtain social policy concessions as a consequence of their collective action efforts. The results show that whereas social security spending increases as a consequence of labor militancy, cutbacks in human capital spending are less likely as peaceful large-scale demonstrations increase. The fourth paper argues that political leaders use education spending as an instrument to mitigate violent crime. It also argues that the effect of violent crime on education spending is larger when leftist governments are in power. The empirical analysis provides support for these arguments.