bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Public Spending and Social Policy: The United Kingdom 1950–1977
Authors: Gould Frank , Roweth Barbara 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTThis article, in which we examine developments in public expenditure on social policy in relation to total public spending in the United Kingdom (UK) in the period after the Second World War, is part of a larger international study on developments in social welfare spending on which we are currently engaged.In Section 1 we briefly sketch in the theoretical background to the study of public expenditure growth in general and social welfare spending in particular. We shall not in this article attempt to evaluate the validity of the competing hypotheses – this exercise is in hand as part of the international study, and we shall report the findings at a later date. Section 2 examines the growth of public expenditure in the UK at the aggregate level. In Section 3 we analyse public expenditure at the individual programme level and in Section 4 we summarize the conclusions.
The State, Class Ideology and Social Policy
Authors: Taylor-Gooby Peter 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTThis article suggests that a central tradition in social administration finds difficulty in accommodating theoretical perspectives which offer a thorough-going critique of the suitability of the state as a vehicle for maximizing welfare. The point is illustrated through consideration of social administration's treatment of marxist work on the problem of how contemporary capitalist welfare states can retain political legitimacy. Two possible solutions to the problem in the work of Marx and subsequent marxists are identified. One stresses the success of the dominant class in persuading the subordinate class of the legitimacy of its power. The other argues that this process is aided by the ideological framework in which it takes place and that this framework of ideas results not only from the activity of the ruling class but also from the experience of everyday life in capitalist society. The former tends to be the version of marxism presented in social administration treatment. It offers a less radical critique because it can be taken to suggest that the main barrier to welfare lies in the individual members of a particular social group who can in principal be defeated in a ‘battle for consciousness’; and not so much in a particular kind of social life, which represents a more profound obstacle.
Public Opinion and the Demand for Social Welfare in Britain
Authors: Whiteley Paul 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTThis article discusses the role of public opinion in the social policy making process. It argues that existing accounts of social policy formation are inadequate in their treatment of public opinion, and inconsistent in their estimation of its importance. It then goes on to examine detailed examples of the role of public opinion in policy making; and finally tests two hypotheses concerning the sources of the demand for social welfare spending on the part of the British electorate.
Disability, Retirement and Unemployment of Older Men
Authors: Piachaud D. 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTAmong older men in England from 1971 to 1981 the increase in the extent of those defined as disabled was of the same order as the increase in unemployment. Using Census data for the forty-six counties of England, changes in disability, retirement and economic activity are related to changes in unemployment. A substantial proportion of the overall increase in disability and the decline in economic activity is attributable to the general rise in unemployment.
Increasing Patient Charges in the National Health Service: A Method of Privatizing Primary Care
Authors: Birch S. 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTFrequent increases in the real value of National Health Service (NHS) patient charges have been made since the Conservative Party's return to office in 1979. For those patients subject to these charges the increases have led to a substantial reduction in the level of subsidization of the cost of the service. The rationale for the subsidization of health care is shown to be unrelated to ‘ability to pay’ considerations. Consequently the ‘backdoor privatization’ of these services is inconsistent with the objectives of the NHS even though the Government has continually committed itself to these objectives. Alternative policies to increasing patient charges are suggested which would encourage the efficient use of NHS resources without compromising NHS objectives.
The Strange Case of British Earnings-Related Unemployment Benefit
Authors: Micklewright John 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTThe abolition in 1982 of the Earnings-Related Supplement (ERS) to unemployment benefit, which had been introduced in 1966, left the UK with no element of income support for the unemployed linked to previous earnings. The ERS scheme represents an important case study of economic and social policy but it has been little researched hitherto. The paper examines the history of ERS, showing how the original legislation and subsequent development produced a benefit that bore little relation to schemes in other countries. Unpublished administrative data on the receipt of ERS are used to help document the scheme's failings, and the paper closes by placing ERS within the context of the development of unemployment insurance in Britain.
Social Policy and Public Organizational Values
Authors: Kogan Maurice 
Published: January 2009

This paper began by referring to assumptions of conflict. It seems inevitable and beneficial that two sets of values should run through organization. Conflict between control and dynamism, anxiety and uncertainty, constraint and freedom, relates to the sort of work that any organization has to perform – someone has to make the running while others have to count the cost. Such conflicts are similar to general human ambivalence and form part of the dynamics of change as well as of control. But the balance to be struck between development and control is a matter of choice, which can be reinforced by structural and training patterns. This does not dispose of the issue as to whether the civil service in fact does obstruct change. This essay has argued that there are concepts relating to those values that are particularly important to public organizations. But it is virtually impossible to argue, as some have done, as to whether our present breed of administrators, are friendly or inimical to change. Nor does it answer the question of where and how social policy values are formed.In summary, my argument has been as follows:(a) social policy values can be classified in several different ways. A classification used here is a distinction between basic values or ‘oughts’ and concepts concerned with the ‘hows’ or with the instruments and institutions with which values are pursued. There are reciprocal relationships between these concepts but they are usefully analysed as separate relata;(b) the values of central government civil servants and ministers will tend to be instrumental in form, though not necessarily in conflict with social policy-values, because they control complex organizations in which non-operational abstractions have to be made over the whole range of public policies;(c) policy formulation is becoming more sophisticated, but the functions of government concerned with development and value analysis are not adequately structured or legitimated. As a result disciplined enquiry, much of which is financed by government, has inadequate impact because there is no overriding change model in which training has a part.
Urban Land Policy in Five Western Countries
Authors: Neutze Max 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTWestern governments often attempt to regulate the use of privately owned urban land, while still relying on private landowners and developers to initiate development. This requires restrictions on the ways owners can develop their land, which restricts supply and increases land prices. The incentive of landowners to maximize the value of their land leads them to resist any restrictions on their right to develop.Different countries have responded to these difficulties in achieving land use policy objectives in different ways. In the United States, and to a lesser degree Australia, the private market largely determines the way cities grow and land use planning has only a minor influence. In Sweden and the Netherlands most land for development is purchased by the municipalities who also initiate the development. Britain, with strong land use controls, still relies on private development initiatives. Those controls restrict the land available and contribute to high land prices.
The Provident Fund Approach to Social Security in the Eastern Caribbean
Authors: Fletcher Leonard P. 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTThe paper describes the introduction of National Provident Fund Schemes in the British Leeward and Windward Islands under the guidance of the British Government during the 1960s. Adopted on the recommendations of technical experts from the United Kingdom, the schemes are very similar (except for the inoperative one in one of the territories where unfavourable political developments occurred); they are funded by payroll taxes levied on both employers and employees, cover nonpensionable employees between ages 16 and 60 and make provisions for retirement and other benefits which have mostly been deferred. The operations of the schemes are discussed, with critical attention being given to the use made of the accumulated funds. Many weaknesses of the schemes are discussed, some of which make them inferior, in the writer's view, to alternate programmes suggested several years earlier. The paper concludes with the hope that in spite of the schemes' limitations, improvements will be made so as to improve the prospects for social security in the region.
Rent Benefits and Tenants' Attitudes. The Batley Rent Rebate and Allowance Study
Authors: Taylor-Gooby Peter F. 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTThis article discusses a study of the factors affecting rent rebate and allowance take-up carried out by Batley Community Development Project. The scope and limitations of an action-research approach in monitoring the impact of publicity, and the importance of attitudinal explanations of the take-up of means-tested benefits are discussed.The research shows that take-up is relatively low, especially in the case of private tenants, and little affected by experimental publicity. Take-up cannot be explained as a simple function of publicity initiatives. Complex attitudinal factors only disclosed in depth-interview affect the impact, relevance and credibility of campaigns. Such factors, and particularly stigma, are likely to limit the potential of publicity for raising the take-up of rent benefits.
Some Economics of Hospital Waiting Lists in the NHS
Authors: Culyer A. J. , Cullis J. G. 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTThe article concerns waiting for inpatient admission in the NHS and focuses on three aspects of this persistent problem. These are the merits or otherwise of rationing health care through waiting as opposed to pricing, the interpretation of waiting lists as a proxy for excess demand in the ‘market’ for inpatient care, including a critical examination of the logic and empirical evidence underlying the view that inpatients pay a time price for their admission, and the question of an admissions index to replace the largely inconsistent admission criteria currently employed in the hospital service. In particular the construction of an index incorporating the values of fairness and efficiency is discussed and the following characteristics suggested for inclusion: time already spent on the waiting list; urgency based on expected rate of deterioration of the patient's condition; urgency based on the patient's health status; urgency based on the ‘social productivity’ of the patient and the number of economic dependants; and urgency based on other social factors.The conclusions are that emphasis should be placed on waiting times rather than lists, that systematic admissions criteria should be developed and that the latter should incorporate social judgements which to date have been ignored or dominated by clinical judgements.
Neighbourhood Information Centres – Access or Advocacy?
Authors: Butcher Hugh 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTTwo approaches to Information and Advice Centre provision are reviewed and their consequences for work with individuals and groups outlined. The approaches – called the ‘extension’ and ‘advocate-organizer’ models of Centre function – are then examined in the light of findings from research on an ‘Information and Action Centre’ in West Cumbria. Policy implications of the ‘advocate-organizer’ type of service are discussed with reference to questions of management and auspice.
Decision-making by non-elected members: an analysis of new provisions in the 1972 Local Government Act
Authors: Richardson Ann 
Published: January 2009

AbstractThis paper draws attention to new provisions in the 1972 Local Government Act which enable non-elected persons to determine local authority policies, through their co-option on to sub-committees with delegated powers. It sets out these provisions in the light of previous legislation and discusses why they were introduced. It then points out one area of local authority administration in which they are likely to be implemented, involving new systems for tenant participation in council housing management. A concluding section raises some questions about the implications of these provisions for the legislative process in general, in particular the ability of legislative changes to have unintended consequences.
The Development of Welfare States: The Production of Plausible Accounts
Authors: Carrier John , Kendall Ian 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTThis article is intended to extend our previous analysis (Journal of Social Policy, Vol. 2, Part 3, July 1973) of explanations of the development of social policy. Some problems associated with the preparation of historical accounts are examined and we proceed to review the value of international comparisons of welfare developments as a device for avoiding some of these problems. We look at some examples of studies that have utilized international comparisons and the problems involved in attempting such studies. Our conclusion is that the use of the comparative method is valuable, not because it enables us to get any nearer the truth about welfare developments, but rather because the range of plausible explanations that it will generate makes us more aware of the variety of perspectives on welfare activities that can exist and of the multitude of value-systems that are embodied in these perspectives.
Hotel and Dependency Costs of Residents in Old People's Homes
Authors: Davies Bleddyn , Knapp Martin R. J. 
Published: January 2009

AbstractA comparison of costs to the organization of alternative forms of care requires estimates for similar types of client. The degree of dependency is the main characteristic in which comparability is necessary with regard to services for the aged. This paper presents estimates of the costs incurred in providing residential care for clients of four degrees of incapacity for self-care – the capacity implicit in Bevan's residential hotel model of the old people's home, and three progressively more severe states of dependency. The estimates are for two cost concepts – average (unit) costs and marginal costs (the cost of caring for an additional person). The paper also estimates both long-run costs (costs that it is appropriate to take into account in decisions in which capital investment in new plant is being considered), and short-run costs (costs that it is appropriate to consider when the issue is the allocation of existing capacity between client groups). It also examines the consequences of the size of the home with regard to costs. Inter alia the paper shows:(a) that the size of home beyond which costs do not fall with scale provides for as many as fifty places (equivalent to an average daily census of forty-six residents); and(b) that, although the dependency components of costs are much smaller than the hotel components, dependency costs are large enough for it to be important to base comparisons of alternative forms of care on estimates of costs for clients which are comparable with respect to dependency.
Youthful Offenders in Israel
Authors: Fishman Gideon 
Published: January 2009

AbstractThis study investigates the legal status and treatment of the youthful offender in Israel. Due to a legal provision, in the case of the youthful offender, the court is required to receive a pre-sentencing report from a probation officer; however, there is no institutionalized indication as to how or to what degree the judges should follow the report. Our findings reveal that both judges and probation officers adhere to high professional standards and make their decisions according to the specific case brought in front of them, and that they are not affected by social class or ethnic stereotypes. In spite of a considerable correspondence between the recommendations made by the probation officers and the decisions made by the judges, one cannot avoid noticing also some discrepancy. This is attributed to the strong therapeutic values which characterize the probation officers' training and which are less evident among the judges. The consequences of this discrepancy are analysed and discussed and a few steps to narrow the gap are suggested.
Analyses in the Social Division of Welfare
Authors: Sinfield Adrian 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTRichard Titmuss's ‘The Social Division of Welfare’ has been neglected as a framework for assessing changes in social policy and society. The analytical, as opposed to the descriptive, value of the original essay becomes more evident, and more significant, when the relations between the social divisions of labour and welfare are examined in terms of the distribution of benefits and services through the public, fiscal and occupational systems; the growth and differential recognition of needs and ‘man-made’ states of dependency; the variations in the primary objectives of welfare including control; the interrelationship of the different systems and the ways in which they legitimate the existing social structure. This paper seeks to show that, combined with a consideration of power and the state, time and security and the institutions of capitalism, the ideas of the original essay encourage a more dynamic analysis of the impact of the three systems of welfare on society than has so far been attempted.
Paternalism and Social Policy
Authors: Weale Albert 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTThis paper discusses the notion of paternalism, and its application to the evaluation of social policies. It attempts first to define the concept, using Mill's distinction between self- and other-regarding actions. A paternalistic policy is one in which the government renders a self-regarding action less eligible for a citizen, with the intention of benefiting the citizen in question. This concept is then applied to the analysis of redistribution by means of social policy measures. Two questions are discussed: (a) whether any redistribution must be paternalist, and (b) whether redistribution in kind is more paternalist than redistribution in cash. It is argued that paternalism need not be the explanation for the policy in either case. Finally three criteria are specified in terms of which paternalistic interventions by the state might be assessed as justified or not.
Who Cares for the Family?
Authors: Land Hilary 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTAlthough Britain has never had a set of policies explicitly labelled ‘family policies’, most if not all social policies are implicitly family policies because they are based on certain assumptions about the nature of relationships between the sexes and the generations. By careful examination of the detail of the legislation and administrative rules, together with the way in which services are allocated and used, it is possible to expose these assumptions and show that they are not only consistent between policies but very persistent over time. This paper first examines the assumptions concerning the division of unpaid labour within the family whereby women care for the young, the sick and the old and for able-bodied adult men (their husbands). The examples are selected from a variety of income maintenance systems and services for children, the old and the disabled. Particular attention is focused on the extent to which it is recognized that women are at the same time workers in the labour market and unpaid domestic workers in the home. The second part of the paper analyses the impact on their participation and opportunities in the labour market of the ideology which accords to women the primary responsibilities for caring for other members of their family. The perpetuation of such an ideology favours the interests of men and frequently the interests of the economically powerful, but it is not assumed that these interests always coincide.
War Conditions and Narcotics Control: The Passing of Defence of the Realm Act Regulation 40B
Authors: Berridge Virginia 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTThis paper analyses the determinants of social policy through a study of a crucial stage in the evolution of British narcotics legislation. Conditions in the First World War fundamentally altered the way in which narcotics were controlled in England and established a ‘hard-line’ reaction to drug use later reflected in the firstDangerous Drugs Act(1920) and the debates of the 1920s. Wartime needs formulated a pattern of governmental responsibility which, with control vested in the Home Office, still persists. The paper analyses the tendencies inherent in nineteenth-century poisons legislation, and argues that, despite Britain's reluctant adherence to the American-inspired system of international narcotic control, domestic narcotics legislation as considered prior to the outbreak of war was more liberal than the wartime regulation. Drug smuggling from England to the far east and fears, largely illusory, of a cocaine ‘epidemic’ in the army in 1916 brought more stringent regulation. Narcotic controls in Britain appeared set on a path similar to that of America'sHarrisonAct, which was being interpreted in an absolutist way. Only the report of the Rolleston Committee on Morphine and Heroin Addiction in 1926 marked a victory for the medical approach, but the influence of the events of 1916 lived on in other ways.
The Unemployed on Supplementary Benefit: Living Standards and Making Ends Meet on a Low Income
Authors: Clark Marjory 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTThe level of income which supplementary benefit provides can be viewed as the government-approved minimum income level for this country. This article reports on a study which looked at a particular group of people who are living on this state minimum, and investigated how they were managing financially. The study discovered that most of the male unemployed claimants who were interviewed had suffered an appreciable drop in their incomes and living standards compared with when they were in work, and this caused budgeting problems as they tried to cut back on their normal expenditure or to supplement their weekly income in various ways. Contrary to popular belief, the study found that it was the unemployed men with families who were least able to cope, although for them the relative drop in income between work and unemployment was less. They appeared to be hard pressed both in and out of work, and had less in the way of savings and stocks of clothing to cushion them for their period on benefit. The paper concludes, with the Supplementary Benefits Commission, that supplementary benefit incomes for the unemployed, especially those with families, are barely adequate to meet their needs at a level which would allow them to participate fully in the society in which they live.