Showing papers in "Journal of Social Policy in 2019"

The Impact of Cash Transfers: A Review of the Evidence from Low- and Middle-income Countries

Abstract: This article presents the findings of a review of the impact of non-contributory cash transfers on individuals and households in low- and middle-income countries, covering the literature of 15 years, from 2000 to 2015. Based on evidence extracted from 165 studies, retrieved through a systematic search and screening process, this article discusses the impact of cash transfers on 35 indicators covering six outcome areas: monetary poverty; education; health and nutrition; savings, investment and production; work; and empowerment. For most of the studies, cash transfers contributed to progress in the selected indicators in the direction intended by policymakers. Despite variations in the size and strength of the underlying evidence base by outcome and indicator, this finding is consistent across all outcome areas. The article also investigates unintended effects of cash transfer receipt, such as potential reductions in adult work effort and increased fertility, finding limited evidence for such unintended effects. Finally, the article highlights gaps in the evidence base and areas which would benefit from additional future research.

Exploring what the Notion of 'Lived Experience' Offers for Social Policy Analysis

Abstract: In this article, we suggest that social policy may be on the cusp of a large-scale adoption of the notion of lived experience. However, within social policy and allied disciplines, the growing use of the term ‘lived experience’ is unaccompanied by discussion of what it may mean or imply. We argue that now is a good time to consider what this term could mean for social policy analysis. The peculiarities of Anglo-centric usage of the broader term ‘experience’ are explored, before we identify and discuss several roots from which understandings of ‘lived experience’ as a concept and a research strategy have grown: namely, phenomenology, feminist writing and ethnography. Drawing on multiple historical and contemporary international literatures, we identify a set of dilemmas and propositions around: assumed authenticity, questioning taken-for-grantedness, intercorporeality, embodied subjectivity; political strategies of recognition, risks of essentialising, and immediacy of unique personal experiences versus inscription of discourse. We argue that lived experience can inform sharp critique and offer an innovative window on aspects of the ‘shared typical’. Our central intention is to encourage and frame debate over what lived experience could mean theoretically and methodologically within social policy contexts and what the implications may be for its continued use.

How the Social Determinants of Indigenous Health became Policy Reality for Australia's National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan

Abstract: The paper analyses the policy process which enabled the successful adoption of Australia's National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan 2013–2023 (NATSIHP), which is grounded in an understanding of the Social Determinants of Indigenous Health (SDIH). Ten interviews were conducted with key policy actors directly involved in its development. The theories we used to analyse qualitative data were the Advocacy Coalition Framework, the Multiple Streams Approach, policy framing and critical constructionism. We used a complementary approach to policy analysis. The NATSIHP acknowledges the importance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (hereafter, Aboriginal) culture and the health effects of racism, and explicitly adopts a human-rights-based approach. This was enabled by a coalition campaigning to ‘Close the Gap’ (CTG) in health status between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians. The CTG campaign, and key Aboriginal health networks associated with it, operated as an effective advocacy coalition, and policy entrepreneurs emerged to lead the policy agenda. Thus, Aboriginal health networks were able to successfully contest conventional problem conceptions and policy framings offered by government policy actors and drive a paradigm shift for Aboriginal health to place SDIH at the centre of the NATSIHP policy. Implications of this research for policy theory and for other policy environments are considered along with suggestions for future research.

The Dynamics of Co-Production in the Context of Social Care Personalisation: Testing Theory and Practice in a Scottish Context

Abstract: Increasing pressures on social systems have spurred innovations in service delivery models. One such innovation is an increased focus on co-production-based models of care, which focus on increased personal autonomy and service-user self-determination. However, there is little empirical evidence on how co-production interacts with other social policies, such as personalisation. This paper uses data from two qualitative case studies to explore the role of co-production for personalisation in the context of recent Scottish policy initiatives. We use Osborne et al.’s (2016) [‘Co-production and the co-creation of value in public services: a suitable case for treatment?’, Public Management Review, 18, 639–653] co-production matrix to understand what forms of co-production are used in personalisation, what factors act as drivers and barriers, how co-production relates to outcomes, and how co-production theory can inform social policy and legislative reform on personalisation.

Contrasting Supply-side, Demand-side and Combined Approaches to Labour Market Integration

Abstract: In social policy discussions about activation or ALMP (Active Labour Market Policies), most attention is paid to supply-side approaches, directed towards jobless individuals. In these discussions, little attention is given to demand-side approaches aimed at activating employers, or combined workplace-oriented approaches that combine supply and demand-side elements. The aim of this article is to introduce demand-side and combined approaches developed within the fields of disability policy and vocational rehabilitation to scholarly discussions about activation and ALMP.By comparing these three approaches, we show that demand-side and combined approaches challenge key assumptions underlying the dominant supply-side approaches. They do so by representing different views of a) work – as a right instead of a duty; b) the problem of reduced work capacity – not as individual failure, but rather as a prejudice in attitudes among employers or as a gap between capacities and demands; c) the employers and the labour market – as transformable instead of fixed.Supply-side, demand-side and combined workplace-oriented approaches share the aim of labour market integration; however, their developments seem to have taken place largely in isolation from each other. We argue that when brought together they could form a more comprehensive base for further development of labour market integration.

Effectiveness of Active Labour Market Programmes on the Job Quality of Welfare Recipients in Germany

Abstract: Using rich administrative data on unemployed welfare recipients in Germany and propensity score matching, the author analyses the effects of participating in four major active labour market programmes (ALMPs) on various dimensions of job quality. In Germany, welfare recipients may suffer from poor job quality because they are forced to accept any reasonable job offer. However, few studies consider the effects of participation in ALMPs on job quality. The results imply that participation in a programme not only increases the probability of taking jobs but also increases the probability of holding a high-quality job for some dimension of job quality. In particular, further vocational training is very effective in terms of job quality for West German women. Thus, job centres should focus on the activation of unemployed welfare recipients.

Long-term Care for Older People in South Africa: The Enduring Legacies of Apartheid and HIV/AIDS

Abstract: This paper sets out a general framework for analysing long-term care (LTC) systems for older people in different countries and then applies this framework to a specific national setting. The paper considers the extent to which South Africa's emerging LTC system conforms to broader patterns observed across low- and middle-income countries and how far it has been shaped by more local effects. It finds that patterns of demand for LTC vary across different racial categories. Despite having lower rates of ageing that the white population, Africans account for the majority of LTC demand. Residential services cater primarily for older whites and there is a widespread perception that LTC for Africans should be a family responsibility. Across the sector there is evidence of gaps in service availability, limited state oversight and uneven service quality. In 2016 this led to a high-profile political scandal which may prompt more effective state responses to this growing societal challenge.

Shared Parental Leave: Exploring Variations in Attitudes, Eligibility, Knowledge and Take-up Intentions of Expectant Mothers in London

Abstract: In April 2015, the UK introduced Shared Parental Leave (SPL), allowing mothers to transfer their maternity leave to their partners from two weeks after the birth or adoption of a child. There has been very limited research conducted on this leave policy to date and knowledge on take-up is poor. We present findings from an in-depth survey conducted with expectant mothers in two NHS trusts in England on their knowledge, views and plans around leave after the birth of their child and examine variations across educational and ethnic groups. A total of 575 expectant mothers took part in the survey. Around 7.4 per cent of expectant mothers who were (self-)employed or in education intended to take SPL. Finances and worries over fathers’ careers were cited as the primary barriers to take up of SPL. Individual entitlement for fathers and knowing others who took SPL increased individuals’ reported intention to take SPL. Applying logistic regression models, we found that knowledge of and access to SPL is correlated with education, ethnicity and home ownership. Future research and policy design should attend to such issues to ensure equitable access across families.

Why Countries ‘Get Tough on the Work-Shy’: The Role of Adverse Economic Conditions

Abstract: t There has been a clear trend toward greater conditionality and coercion in labour market and social policy in recent decades, a key part of which is tougher sanctions for unemployment benefit claimants who refuse offers of employment or otherwise fail to comply with their obligations. Our understanding of this trend and its determinants is so far built only on a corpus of small-N evidence, while systematic comparative large-N analyses are lacking. As a result, the broad patterns of policy change and their general political drivers remain underexplored. This paper fills this gap by examining unemployment benefit sanction reforms in 20 democracies between 1980 and 2012 using an original dataset. It is shown that governments introduce tougher sanctions in order to reconcile two competing pressures that arise during economic downturns: an increased need for social protection and reduced fiscal revenues. The findings, which are also applicable to other historical periods and policy areas, provide an impulse for future comparative large-N research on ‘demanding activation’ policies.

What is the Relationship between Benefit Conditionality and Mental Health? Evidence from the United States on TANF Policies

Abstract: This article provides new evidence on the relationship between benefit conditionality and mental health. Using data on Temporary Assistance for Needy Families policies (TANF) – the main form of poverty relief in the United States – it explores whether the mental health of low-educated single mothers varies according to the stringency of conditionality requirements attached to receipt of benefit. Specifically, the article combines state-level data on sanctioning practices, work requirements and welfare-to-work spending with health data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and evaluates the impact of conditionality on mental health over a fifteen-year period (2000 to 2015). It finds that states that have harsher sanctions, stricter job search requirements and higher expenditure on welfare-to-work policies, have worse mental health among low-educated single mothers. There is also evidence that between-wave increases in the stringency of conditionality requirements are associated with deteriorations in mental health among the recipient population. It is suggested that these findings may reflect an overall effect of ‘intensive conditionality’, rather than of the individual variables per se. The article ends by considering the wider implications for policy and research.

Compensation or Social Investment? : Revisiting the Link between Globalisation and Popular Demand for the Welfare State

Abstract: The debate on effects of globalisation on welfare states is extensive. Often couched in terms of a battle between the compensation and the efficiency theses, the scholarly literature has provided contradictory arguments and findings. This article contributes to the scholarly debate by exploring in greater detail the micro-level foundations of compensation theory. More specifically, we distinguish between individual policy preferences for compensatory social policies (unemployment insurance) and human capital-focused social investment policies (education), and expect globalisation to mainly affect demand for educational investment. A multi-level analysis of International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) survey data provides empirical support for this hypothesis. This finding provides an important revision and extension of the classical analytical perspective of compensation theory, because it shows that citizens value the social investment function of the welfare state above and beyond simple compensation via social transfers. This might be particularly relevant in today's skill-centred knowledge economies.

Welfare state attitudes and support for social Europe: Spillover or obstacle?

Abstract: This study investigates how support for Social Europe is related to citizens’ welfare attitudes. On the one hand, welfare attitudes can spill over from the national to the European level, given that Social Europe aims to achieve similar goals to those of national welfare states. On the other hand, support for the welfare state can be an obstacle, if citizens perceive the nation state and the European Union as competing or substituting governance levels. Using data from the 2014 Belgian National Election Study, we take a multidimensional approach to Social Europe, capturing attitudes toward social regulations, member state solidarity, European social citizenship, and a European social security system. Results demonstrate that citizens who are more positive about the welfare state are also more supportive of Social Europe. However, positive welfare attitudes do not affect all dimensions of Social Europe to the same extent. The spillover effect of support for basic welfare state principles is strongest for policy instruments of Social Europe that are less intrusive to national welfare states (EU social regulations). By contrast, welfare state critique has a stronger impact on support for more intrusive instruments (European social citizenship).

The Emerging Welfare Mix for Syrian Refugees in Turkey: The Interplay between Humanitarian Assistance Programmes and the Turkish Welfare System

Abstract: This paper explores the key features of the emerging welfare mix for Syrian refugees in Turkey and identifies the modes of interaction between humanitarian assistance programmes, domestic policy responses and the Turkish welfare system. The welfare mix for Syrian refugees is a joint product of humanitarian assistance programmes implemented by international and domestic non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and domestic social policy programmes. Three policy domains are considered: social assistance schemes, employment and health care services. The paper suggests that granting of temporary protection status to Syrian migrants in Turkey and the agreement between Turkey and the EU shaped the welfare mix by empowering the public sector mandate vis-a-vis the humanitarian actors. As a result, the role of the public sector increases at the expense of NGOs, especially in social assistance and health care, while NGOs are increasingly specialised in protection work (especially in mental health support), where the Turkish welfare system has been weak. Employment has been essentially disregarded, in both humanitarian and social policy programmes, which casts doubt on the prospect of successful economic integration. Finally, this paper argues that the convergence of the rights of immigrants and citizens may well occur in mature components of less comprehensive welfare systems.

Employer Participation in Active Labour Market Policy: from Reactive Gatekeepers to Proactive Strategic Partners

Abstract: Active labour market policy (ALMP) is a well-established strategy but one aspect is greatly neglected – employer participation – about which there is a lack of systematic evidence. The question of why and how employers participate in ALMP, and whether there may be some shift from employers solely being passive recipients of job-ready candidates to having a more proactive and strategic role, is addressed by drawing on new research into Talent Match, a contemporary UK employability programme which places particular emphasis on employer involvement. The research findings point to a conceptual distinction between employers’ roles as being reactive gatekeepers to jobs and/or being proactive strategic partners, with both evident. It is argued that the Talent Match programme demonstrates potential to benefit employers, jobseekers and programme providers, with devolution of policy to the local level a possible way forward. The conclusion, however, is that the barrier to wider replication is not necessarily a problem of practice but of centralised control of policy and, in particular, commitment to a supply-side approach. Empirical, conceptual and policy contributions are made to this under-researched topic.

The Illiberalism of Behavioural Conditionality: A Critique of Australia’s ‘No Jab, No Pay’ Policy

Abstract: Internationally the payment of welfare benefits is increasingly being made conditional on recipients’ behaviour. Behavioural conditions and the payments to which they apply are diversifying. This article aims to contribute to the debate among scholars and policymakers over the ethics of welfare conditionality. While other assessments of the ethics of welfare conditionality have focused on the potential harm caused to vulnerable welfare recipients, this paper develops the argument that welfare conditionality is illiberal. Drawing on findings from behavioural science, it argues that relying on extrinsic motivation in the form of financial incentives is a less desirable approach to behavioural change than bolstering intrinsic motivation. The argument is illustrated with the case of the Australian ‘No Jab, No Pay’ policy, under which family payments and childcare subsidies are denied to parents whose children are not fully immunised. As behavioural conditions and the payments to which they are applied diversify, the cumulative effects of these conditions pose an underappreciated threat to citizens’ autonomy.

Revisiting ‘The Birth of Biopolitics’: Foucault's Account of Neoliberalism and the Remaking of Social Policy

Abstract: The article charts the history and trajectory of neoliberalism provided in Foucault's 1979 lectures on ‘The Birth of Biopolitics’ In these fascinating contributions, first published in English translation ten years ago, Foucault identifies German and American forms of neoliberalism, defined in opposition to both the Beveridge reforms and Roosevelt's New Deal In seeking to comprehend Foucault's articulation of neoliberalism it is important to locate it in the context of contemporary debates on the future of socialism and the reconfiguration of social policy Despite theoretical problems with his account, the lecture series continues to aid our understanding of the contemporary evolution of social policy

User Participation Policies in Norway and England: The Case of Older People and Social Care

Abstract: User participation has become one of the most important concepts in the social care sector in many European countries, but the literature has mostly paid attention to disabled people or those with mental health problems. This article compares the user participation policies directed at social care for older people in Norway and England. Using a discourse analytical approach, a selection primarily of White papers from the 1960s until today are analysed. The analysis draws on the literature's discourse discussion, including a democratic/rights based discourse (full citizenship), a consumer discourse (consumers’ rights to choose welfare services), a co-production discourse (users and state/local authorities partnerships), and nuances of these discourses. The analysis shows that, while both countries start with variations of a democratic discourse, Norway develops a temporary and weak consumer discourse in a middle phase, then moves to co-production in current times. England, on the other hand, develops a comprehensive consumer discourse but also a surprisingly strong co-production discourse – the idea of a ‘Big Society’ – in early and current times.

Policy Practitioners’ Accounts of Evidence-Based Policy Making: The Case of Universal Credit

Abstract: This paper draws on insider accounts from UK Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) officials to analyse the relationship between evidence and policy making at a time of rapid policy development relating to Universal Credit (UC) The paper argues, firstly, that evidence selection within the DWP was constrained by the overarching austerity paradigm, which constituted a Zeitgeist and had a significant bearing on the evidence selection and translation process, sharpening the focus of policy officials and analysts on the primacy of quantitative evidence when advising Ministers Secondly, while methodological preferences (or an ‘evidence hierarchy’) impacted on evidence selection, this was not as significant as practitioners’ perceived capabilities to handle and develop evidence for policy These capabilities were linked to departmental structures and constrained by political feasibility Together, these dimensions constituted a significant filtration mechanism determining the kinds of evidence that were selected for policy development and those omitted, particularly in relation to UC The paper contributes to debates about the contemporary role of evidence in policymaking and the potential of the relationship between future evidence production and use

Age war as the new class war? contemporary representations of intergenerational inequity

Abstract: This paper examines intergenerational justice discourses that feature prominently in both the contemporary UK media and beyond, arguing that these constitute both a continuation of previous debates about the economic and social burden of the dependent ‘fourth age’ and a newer and more prominent denigration of the ‘third age’, both of which possess deep cultural and psychological roots. Both themes are subsumed in the trope of the old as in some ways stealing the future of the nation, represented by youth. Analysing media depictions of intergenerational injustice across several themes, the paper suggests that, whilst justifying welfare retrenchment and other aspects of neoliberalism, the portrayal of social problems in terms of generational war emerges from age ideology and an age system that, among other things, intersects with and naturalises other forms of stratification. This partly accounts for the fact that the attack on the ‘third age’ is particularly prevalent in left of centre, or progressive, media on both sides of the Atlantic. That the age system has been overlooked and underplayed in sociological terms is an important oversight since the former materially and ideologically facilitates the ever-growing socio-economic inequality that is a feature of our times.

The Politics of Minimum Income Protection in OECD Countries

Abstract: Minimum income protection (MIP) determines the disposable income a person obtains when she has no market or social insurance income, few assets and no family support. This last-recourse income, usually social assistance benefits plus associated transfers, constitutes a significant indicator of a country's commitment to social justice. Yet, we know little about the politics of MIP, in part because welfare state scholars have focused on more encompassing social insurance programmes, and in part because of a lack of good comparative data. This article takes the measure of MIP adequacy in 18 OECD countries for the 1990–2010 period, for single, able-to-work individuals, tracks its comparative evolution, and proposes an explanation of its determinants, with a times-series cross-sectional model. The main positive determinant of adequacy is a generous welfare state; the main negative force is the importance of the public debt. Overall, the politics of MIP appears consistent with that of the welfare state.

Resilience, Agency and Coping with Hardship : Evidence from Europe during the Great Recession

Abstract: This paper aims to contribute to the growing literature on resilience by focusing on coping with hardship during the Great Recession, drawing upon primary data gathered through household and key informant interviews in nine European countries. As the resilience approach highlights agency, the paper examines the nature of household responses to hardship during this period on the basis of the ‘structure-agency problem’. An important contribution of this paper is to identify different forms of agency and discuss their implications. More specifically, we conceptualise three different types of agency in coping with hardship: absorptive, adaptive and transformative. Analysis of the findings indicates that structural constraints remain prominent. Most coping mechanisms fall under the category of absorptive and adaptive agency characterised here as burden-bearing actions that ‘conform’ to changing circumstances rather than shaping those circumstances.

Pressure without Pain: What Politicians (Don’t) Tell You about Welfare State Change

Abstract: How do political leaders politicise welfare state “reform pressures”, e.g. unemployment, ageing or globalisation, in election campaigns? Competing expectations range from no politicization at all to a clear and unbiased coupling between pressures and intended policy responses. Eighteen speeches held by prime ministerial candidates at election-year party congresses in Germany, Norway and Sweden (2000–2010) reveal an unfinished and biased problem-solution coupling. On the one hand, even in these affluent countries pressures are frequently politicised. On the other hand, leaders either cherry-pick less painful policy solutions, or refrain altogether from debating them. So, while citizens learn that the welfare state is pressured, they are not exposed to the full range of policies they increasingly have reason to expect after elections.

The Illusion of Class in Welfare State Politics

Abstract: Social class, with its potentially pivotal influence on both policy-making and electoral outcomes tied to the welfare state, is a frequent fixture in academic and political discussions about social policy. Yet these discussions presuppose that class identity is in fact tied up with distinct attitudes toward the welfare state. Using original data from ten surveys fielded in the United States and Western Europe, we investigate the relationship between class and general stances toward the welfare state as a whole, with the goal of determining whether class affects how individuals understand and relate to the welfare state. Our findings suggest that, although class markers are tied to objective and subjective positional considerations about one's place in the society, they nevertheless do not seem to shape stances toward the welfare state. What is more, this is equally true across the various welfare state types, as we find no evidence that so-called ‘middle-class welfare states’ engender more positive middle-class attitudes than other regimes. Based on our analysis, we propose that researchers would do better to focus on household income rather than class; while income may not be a perfect predictor of attitudes toward the welfare state, it is a markedly better one than class.

Reclaiming Responsibility: The Case of Welfare-to-Work Policy

Abstract: Welfare-to-work programmes have a contested normative foundation. Critics argue that ‘citizen responsibility’ is being promoted to the sacrifice of more important social values, such as solidarity and fairness. This paper seeks to recapture what is valuable in citizen responsibility and to challenge the idea that the concept is intrinsically bound up with detrimental policy strategies. The paper develops a view of the responsible citizen as an appropriate addressee of moral expectations. This view highlights how addressing someone as responsible involves a presumption of reasonableness. Thereafter, the view is applied to conditions of street-level interaction, the design of policy instruments, and political discourse.

The Economically Responsible Single Mum who Sees to her Future: Welfare-to-work programmes and pension savings

Abstract: In response to the economic vulnerability of single mothers and in keeping with a neoliberal ideology, many Western countries have encouraged increased labour-market participation, often through welfare-to-work (WTW) programmes. One practice adopted in these programmes is deepening knowledge of pension savings and increasing financial savviness. Feminist research points to women's lower economic status than men at retirement, especially divorcees and widows. Based on perceptions of single mothers participating in a WTW programme in Israel and their trainers, this study examines how such mothers, in a framework of vulnerability, experience policy imperatives regarding paid labour and examines their attitudes to pension savings. Findings reveal that, in reaction to the imperative of pension savings, some single mothers believed their present employment provided them with a more secure economic future, while others rejected this belief. The trainers also had divided opinions, despite their role in encouraging mothers to follow the imperative.

Reconfiguring Rights in Austerity Britain: Boundaries, Behaviours and Contestable Margins

Abstract: This paper addresses policy change in Britain since 2010 across the three fields of domestic welfare, migration and asylum, and analyses the association between welfare, conditionality and control through the lens of civic stratification. Drawing on the work of Richard Munch and Mary Douglas, it moves beyond existing literature in this area to show that the more complex the classification in play, and the more severe its boundary implications, the more likely the emergence of contestable margins. Informed by Munch's ‘battlefield’ approach, it provides a discussion of contestable margins in each of the three policy fields and outlines the nature and source of challenges that emerge within the ‘institutional battlefield’. A concluding section reflects on what is revealed by viewing welfare, migration and asylum within the same conceptual frame, identifying an emergent welfare paradigm that displays recurrent problems across all three fields.

Who are the Asset-Poor in China: A Comprehensive Description and Policy Implications

Abstract: There is a large body of literature asserting that household asset holdings play a critical role in prospects of economic and social well-being. This study examines asset-poverty rates in China using the 2013 survey data from the Chinese Household Income Project (CHIP). The results indicate that asset-poverty rates in urban China were lower than those of developed countries, whereas rural and migrant households experienced more serious asset poverty than their counterparts in urban China. In addition, the asset-poverty rates were at least twice the income-poverty rates in China according to the different poverty lines used in the study. Several demographic characteristics were found associated with asset poverty. To assist the Chinese government in reaching its goal of eradicating absolute poverty by 2020 through targeted poverty alleviation, this study suggests including assets in the description and alleviation of poverty.

Distribution of Local Social Services and Territorial Justice: the Case of Estonia

Abstract: Distribution of public resources has always been a central issue in public policy. The question of spatial variation in resource allocation as a reflection of differing local conditions is particularly important in decentralised countries with a large number of subunits. On the local level, studies have shown variations in distribution of local welfare but have usually focused on single social policy fields and/or target groups, and often ignored territorial structures. By taking Estonia as a case, this study investigates whether and how the distribution of a range of social services and the structure of disaggregated local social spending corresponds to local socio-demographic conditions. We identify municipal clusters and analyse service provision and social spending on vulnerable groups within them. We use a spatial perspective by taking into consideration the distinction of rural-urban and core-peripheral settings. We show that resource allocation in Estonian municipalities mirrors quite well local socio-demographic structures but the division of municipalities between towns and rural municipalities used in the common discourse of local social policy is too simplified.

The Neoliberal Targeted Social Investment State: The Case of Ethnic Minorities

Abstract: Neoliberal governance has been associated with rising inequality and economic exclusion. Recent scholarship proposes that the social investment state (SIS) is a turn away from such inequality and exclusion-enhancing neoliberalism. The ideal SIS responds to neoliberalism-generated social ills by investing in the productive capacities of all its citizens. However, commentators ask whether an SIS addresses the plight of weaker elements in society, specifically that of disadvantaged ethnic minorities. This paper looks specifically at this question by utilising a critical-case study research design of a surprising example of social investment in disadvantaged ethnic minorities: the extensive labour market policies for Israeli Arabs. This paper introduces the concept of a neoliberal targeted SIS in which social investment programmes are developed for economic reasons, promoted by neoliberal actors (right-wing parties and Ministries of Finance), target narrow groups instead of being applied to all, and the preferred mode for the delivery of services is private. Egalitarian outcomes – to the extent that they materialise – might be thought of as a policy by-product.