Download Socio-Cultural Influences and the Evolution of the Welfare State

Socio-Cultural Influences
and the Development of the
Welfare State
S = Socio
C = Cultural
E = Evolution
W = Welfare
S = State
The SCEWS Model
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Problem Statements
Welfare State Analysis
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Cross-national welfare state analysis rarely accounts for the sociocultural foundations of each nation which have a unique influence
on the way that poverty is interpreted and addressed as a social
problem.
Discipline-specific research (political, economic, sociological etc.)
of welfare states using discipline favored theories that analyze
only particular welfare state attributes results in a lack of
conceptual analysis of the welfare state in its entirety.
The macro conceptualization of the welfare state incorporating
social rights, equality and eradication of social exclusion versus
the micro level of individual services, in which these goals are put
into practice, results in ambiguity in the analysis within and
between nations.
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Problem Statements
Social Work Discipline
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The social work discipline lacks the requisite grounding in
history, social philosophy, political theory and political
economy to proactively influence social policy relative to
poverty reduction.
Social work’s legacy of remedial intervention at the
individual level has hindered consideration for the broader
systemic problems of poverty and involvement in welfare
state analysis.
Social workers have a poor understanding of how
globalization influences domestic practice.
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Rationale for the Model
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Facilitate interdisciplinary research to develop a
comprehensive perspective of cross-national welfare state
and poverty state analysis.
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Provide a common model for international comparative
analysis of social policy.
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Enhance the intellectual rigor of social sciences.
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Incorporate social science principles into economic and
political realms of welfare state influence.
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Enhance the social work role in domestic and global arenas.
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SCEWS Model Rationale
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Account for the pervasive influence of history, ideology and
culture in all dimensions of welfare state analysis, within
and between nations.
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Explain the evolution of welfare states by virtue of sociocultural interactions with political institutions.
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Identify the circular interaction between economics, politics
and culture in the social policy process.
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Enhance socio-economic and political interpretations of
welfare state poverty differences.
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Questions that Underlie the Model
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What is the unifying social history of poverty?
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How is poverty defined as a social problem?
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How have societies dealt with poverty?
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What are the different types of welfare states?
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What are the similarities between them?
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How have historical, cultural, economic and political
experiences influenced welfare state emergence?
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What are the ramifications of the model for the social work
profession?
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The History of Poverty in Western
Culture
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The Evolution of Civil Society
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Greek Political and Moral Philosophy
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Roman Law and the Justinian Code
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The Church and Early Poor Relief Endeavors
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The Elizabethan Poor Law
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Philosophical Underpinnings of the
Welfare State
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Politics and Social Contract Theory –
Hobbes, Locke, Rosseau
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Moral Philosophy – Hume, Kant
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The Political Economy Paradigm – Smith,
Malthus, Owen, Mill
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History and Perceptions of the Poor –
Hegel, Marx
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SCEWS Model Assumptions
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The desire for a balanced society is instinctive to all
cultures, but nations do not interpret social justice in the
same way due to unique historical experiences.
The ideologies on which each nation was founded and have
developed over time have formed for that particular nation
a unique culturally defined basis for that nation’s political
action.
In time, friction between the emerging market economy
and the well-being of the impoverished became a universal
problem presenting a catalyst for the appearance of the
welfare state.
The recognition that poverty resulted from systemic socioeconomic reasons coincided with the refinement of political
systems based on democratic principles.
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SCEWS Model Assumptions (2)
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The political system cannot be considered separate from
the power of the market economy in welfare state
comparisons.
Nonetheless, economic influences are subordinate to
political systems in defining variances between welfare
states.
History, ideology and culture represent pervasive influences
in all dimensions of welfare state analysis.
Ideology is a precursor to, and a reflection of, the political
extremes which determine differences in the way that
welfare states define and respond to poverty.
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SCEWS Model Assumptions (3)
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At the macro level of social insurance which includes
unemployment, pension and healthcare benefits, the
welfare state is balanced by the relationship between
capitalist and socialist ideologies.
At the micro level of individual services ideologies of social
justice represent the foundation of the process that defines
social welfare policy, and the welfare state culture. This
occurs within the framework of the political system as
influenced by socio-economic factors.
The economic, political and ideological results of
globalization are overarching influences relative to future
constructs of welfare states and the social work discipline.
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SCEWS Model Elements
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Civil Society and Globalization
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History, Ideology and Culture
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The Economic Sphere of Influence
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The Governance Sphere of Influence
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Welfare State Defined Quadrant
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Social Policy Process and Welfare State Culture
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Future Challenges and Social Work
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Globalization and Civil
Society Ring Rotates in
Clockwise Direction
Civil Society.. America
..Individual exercises rights
above state (God given)
Europe..exercise rights with
state provided by law
Ring started with Greeks
slow movement over time
much faster now blurs civil
society in world relationship
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History, Culture,
ideology .. Moves in
Counter Clockwise
Direction..Foundational
Aspects of the Welfare
States.
Pervasive Effect in All
Parts of Model
Found in economics,
political and social
spheres of any country
Counter to globalization
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Globalizations Relationship to Socio-Cultural
History
Hungary 900-1400 (Not welfare States)
Globalization
Holy
Roman
Empire
Poland
China
Byzantium
Dalmatia
Hungary
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Globalizations Relationship to History
Hungary 1400-1700 (not welfare states)
Globalization
China
Hapsburg
Empire
Hungary
Ottoman
Empire
Transylvania
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Globalizations Relationship to Socio-Cultural
History Hungary 1700-1900
Globalization
China
Prussia
Russia
Austria
Hungary
Bavaria
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Globalizations Relationship to Social-Cultural
History Hungary 1900’s (emerging welfare states)
Globalization
China
Russia
Germany
Hungary
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Globalizations Relationship to Socio-Cultural
History Hungary 2000’s
Globalization
EU
China
Hungary
Russia
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Wave the Flag! Each nation state
has been influenced differently as
depicted by different colors in the
flag.. A unique multi-hued sociocultural foundation established for
each nation.
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Economy Sphere
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Rotations
Longitude
=political
aspects of
economy
Latitude =
differences
between
surplus of rich
and scarcity of
the poor in
welfare states
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Governance Sphere
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Rotations
Like a planet the
governance sphere has
gravitational pull on
each welfare state
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Orbit of Economy and Governance
Spheres
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These spheres orbit around the
Welfare State Defined
They pull the Welfare state toward
either a Liberal Democracy or
Democratic Socialism
There is a vacillation between SELF
INTEREST AND ALTRUISM that is
based upon economic and political
influences
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Orbits of Governance and
Economy Cont.
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Liberal Democracy is a belief in economy
based on commercial activity of free
individuals and strong central government
and a paternalistic political system
Democratic Socialism is based on
utilitarian principles of individual
happiness and happiness of society.
Private control is seem as oppression and
governance is more aligned with social
engineering to make society more socially
oriented and less individually oriented.
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Welfare State Defined
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The Welfare State Defined is a quadrant
that had multiple influences
As shown the governance and economy
spheres are influenced by the rotation of
the globalization and ideology discs
In turn these spheres create pull that can
be visualized as political regimes on a
continuum from liberal to social
democratic
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Ideology Fluctuations in US
1800 rugged individualism, liberal democracy
robber barons
1900-1920 Progressive Era more socialistic
1930 Depression – Democratic Socialism
1980 Reganomics – political and economic to liberal
democracy
2009 Recession – Obama moves to more
democratic socialism reversing Reganomics
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MACRO
MICRO
MACRO
MICRO
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Macro Conceptualization
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The upper part of the model presents the
Macro conceptualization and influences of
the political and economic spheres on the
welfare state from capitalism to socialism.
Thus, various regimes vary over time
within a nation state resulting in
movement along the continuum and
subsequent changes in how the welfare
state is defined
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Liberal
Regime
Conservative
Regime
Social Democratic
Regime
Capitalism
Socialism
Welfare Regime Continuum
WELFARE STATE DEFINED
Social Welfare Policy
Universal
Individual
Mixed Government
and Individual With
Requirements
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Welfare State Defined by “Social
Welfare Policy”
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The Welfare State is not only defined
by how larger systems influence its
definition and its overarching welfare
state construct, but also by how the
nation state implements ideological
paradigms into actual services at the
personal level.
Thus the bottom half of the model
refers to the realization of services
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MACRO
MACRO
MICRO
MICRO
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Policy Process
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The process of moving ideology from the
economic and political spheres through
the welfare continuum into the “real
world” rests upon the different policy
processes employed in each welfare state.
Each welfare state has different policy
processes and as one can see from the
model policy is also informed by
globalization, history, culture and ideology
both indirectly from the definition of the
welfare state and from them directly
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Welfare Culture
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Another result of the interactions of
the model is a viewpoint of the
welfare culture
The welfare culture is what the
people residing in the welfare state
perceive as “welfare services” and
those individuals who receive
welfare.
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Future Challenges
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As we have seen in the recent past there
are many challenges to what is a welfare
state and how it will be defined.
Demographics and environment are some
of the major challenges to the welfare
state as populations are aging and
environmental situations are creating
different views of what constitutes the
common welfare.
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Social Work
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One of the dilemmas for social work is to see how
the profession fits into the model.
Social work has vacillated back and forth from
the macro to micro delivery of services without
ever being fully engaged in the overall process of
developing the “welfare state”
Thus, for social work there are 2 challenges: (1)
to be able to navigate within this complex system
with understanding and (2) to be able to
successfully provide services based upon both the
macro and micro levels of intervention.
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SCEWS Model Implications
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The manner in which the common analytic elements of
SCEWS are incorporated into an overarching, inclusive
analytic tool establishes a unique methodology for crossnational welfare state poverty analysis.
SCEWS is applicable to a) both domestic and international
analysis, b) non Western nations who are transitioning into
capitalist economies, and c) social policy analysis of
countries not typically considered welfare states.
The model is adaptable to various types of analysis ranging
from poverty research to the development of enhanced
curriculums for the social sciences.
SCEWS can assist in the development of a global service
role for the social work profession.
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SCEWS Model Potential
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Can physical science paradigms be incorporated into
analysis of social science phenomena?
Is there a means to calculate the “force” of SCEWS
elements to predict their respective influence in welfare
state poverty analysis?
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How can research contributions of respective disciplines be
integrated within the SCEWS model construct?
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Can SCEWS facilitate development of an overarching
welfare state theory?
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Can SCEWS facilitate development of an overarching theory
of international social work?
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