Transcript Delivering Social Welfare

Delivering Social Welfare
Social Agendas and the
Future
Discussion
• In just off the plane from Wales,
someone explain American Healthcare
– Who gets it?
– Who pays for it?
• What about education, school and
college?
• American checkbook stories
What is social welfare?
• Dual meaning of social welfare
– Wellbeing of citizens of a state
– Private and public programs to alleviate social
problems through specific policies and programs
• Second is designed to increase the first
• Not to be confused with state welfare (or social security)
• Welfare state is governmental apparatus for
addressing social problems
– Sometimes used disparagingly
– For others (socialists) it is a model for universal
and guaranteed human wellbeing
– Economic model associated with John Maynard
Keynes (1930s)
• ‘The middle way’
– ‘Swedish model’
Key areas of Social Welfare
• Healthcare
• Education
• Education Income Support
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Unemployment benefit
Pensions
Supplementary income
Tax breaks (Students; OAPs; low income earners)
• Other areas
• Social services
– Social workers
– Disability and elderly care
• Emergency services
– Fire, paramedics, police
• Public services
– Parks
– Cleaning
– libraries
“Our Welfare State”
• Differing attitudes to welfare and the welfare
state define cultural and social differences
between US and Europe
• “Europe’s welfare states arise from . . . Core European
values and the European settlement. They define
Europeanness. They are non-negotiable European
realities” (Will Hutton, quoted in TR Reid, 2004)
• “Social rights cannot depend on the voluntary goodwill of
others. . . . The welfare state, enforced by law, is a
defining feature of Europe” (James Wickham, cited in
Reid)
• European Social Model is ‘Cradle-to-theGrave’
– Egalitarian
– Expensive
• Results: lowers poverty levels, higher lifeexpectancy; improved quality of life?
Norwegian Family Story
Quality of Life
– Not measured in GDP
– Free from fear of health costs
– Feeling of providing for children regardless
of income
– Family values
• Norwegian family: P. 153 Reid
Saving the Welfare State in Europe
• Margaret Thatcher made Britain
question welfare state in the 1980s
– Issues of efficiency, cost, choice
– Appealed to British class consciousness
– Rise of private healthcare alternatives
• Drain from NHS: doctors, nurses, social
resources
• New levels of healthcare
– Private rooms
– More treatments available (at a price)
• ‘New Labour’ party (Blair) unable
(unwilling) to reverse pattern
EU-ropean Welfare State?
• Welfare standards are not uniform
across the EU
– Welfare is not instituted or funded through
EU
• Consistent with EU principle of subsidiarity
– To be dealt with at national level (for now)
– “Core” European value: akin to universal or
‘natural’ human rights
• Brussels sets the minimum
• Fiscal challenges across the EU, even
Sweden, challenging this model