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1 Chapter 6: Astralian Social Policy in an International Context 11 ll IIi I,11 IJ 1 II ill li,l!i' Astralian Social Policy in an Internatio.nal Context ' '. Social policy analysis is taking on an ever increasing international and comparative character. Interest in comparative social policy emerged in' the early 198s, several decades after the great postwar expansion of welfare states in indstrialised contries, and this left its mark on the early literatre. The focs of early comparative research was very mch Eropean and Anglo-American, and reflected a concern first to pt together statistical evidence of expenditre growth in welfare states that had become so central a featre of postwar political life. Initial stdies tended to be less developed in terms of theory. A second phase of comparative research was more preoccpied with classifying particlar national. experiences within a welfare state typology. Today we witness an explosion of comparative social policy. In part this is driven by the concentration of nation states into regional blocs sch as the Eropean Union. It also reflects the rise of social policy in rapidly indstrialised Asian contries. Beyond that, everywhere there is a mch more global discorse arond welfare and development. Earlier, artificial distinctions between the stdy of'social policy' as a stdy confined to indstrialised contries and 'social development', which is reserved for developing economies, are breaking' down. All of this makes comparative social policy analysis an exciting and essential item for the research and stdy of social policy today. Comparative social policy data can have a jolting effect on many takenfor-granted assmptions regarding national social policy perfomance. Many Astralians, for example, have an ingrained belief that their contry has an extravagantly high level of social expenditres and a correspondingly heavy brden of taxation. The data invariably comes as a shock. Table 6.1 provides a smmary of how Astralia compares with selected OECD contries ' 'I l I i i ' I I I I, I I' "' ;N '" a ;5.s.: "'... J:i ;:l.o Q '" C]) a:l "' "'....,r<l C]) l=i C])... <2 4-< :.: n1 o "' '" J:i r;j U - -,g C]) '- "'....:a J:i -"":.<.!.c fj.. : 'l:.. Q) c E. :!. >-... c I1I'Q) c.3e E a. o w a.._ 3:.... 'l: E -g >-:;::: 111 =II: c.3c E a. a w a.._ E c Q) :::J :;::: c 111 Q) >< > fj. iii 'ij OCI Ill c a. CJ :a Q = c :::J a. (;":.C Gl o a. Ill --.z:. Q) " E :::J!.. 8 g :5.5.!: >o t: "C Q) ".c = > (;": a.-- 'l: :::J ' illmmmillroillrot--illn ro m N o o ro o m m o illill -1'-illillillillt--t-- -illillill r--illroillnoro N m N o m N N o ror--roror--r--ror--t--rorororororororo q c q t--illt--t--nro'-r--orooillo T""", C\J T""" N N C\J C\1 N C\J T""" C\1 T""" C\1 ('!') C\J T""" N.,- LO f'... C\.1 ) T""" CX) :T""" C\J T""" T""" LO CO " LO T""" g cry g;] g) - cry' N ill ro ill ill N N ;T"""T"""T"""T"""T""" T"""C\JT""" C1J ::t:. = C1J C1J Cii E,-g E en en c c :J :J C1J Q) <(<( " Q) c C1J c c C1J :U:: >- c Q) C1J E w... Q) Q)... en " " c c C1J C1J c C1J C1J Q) Q) :t:-,zz >- c. C1J Q) 13 o:::cc75 ZCI)::::l::::l Q) OJ Q) ro Cl.-!. ol{) UJO < "' - ';,; "' c :> ":;:::; Q) "' Q) "S.c a..- ffi a. - Q) "' Ol "' Ol Ol Q) c :5 Q) 5':1: Olij:: Q) Q) :5 Q) "' Q) :;: Ol "' a;c :5 I ffi >.a. O "' :> co c-o Q)"' -.ccl :!:=' "' UJ Q) :;: "" (5..:-::. Q) r-- Eg.o"' {).s.e. Q) Q).c "' rn Q) Q) - Ol,"' Q) -c :> Q) {) "' Q) & E "' Q) - "' co _a c Q) "' ;g8 -UJ :go {) < : - OlM OJO.cO 1-"'..-:.. -ceo OJ "' m Cl Ol fa.s. i {).. ID '<? a. co - o.o or- "'a Cl 9 ;,; Q) :> UJ I, o..!.! -112

2 114 Part 2: The Historical, International and Changing Context for Action Chapter 6: Astralian Social Policy in an International Context - '115 (for which most comparable data is available) according to some key indicators. It shows, for example, that compared with most other contries we had very low levels of taxation and of government social expenditre. And while a nmbr of cntries have higher levels of poverty than we experience, we are certainly not on of the contries with very low levels of poverty or ineqality. What we do have thogh is exceptionally high social mobility with the edcational attainment and earnings of parents having mch less effect on their children than most other contries. Sch data gets s thinking. How did these differences happen? Does high spending translate into more well-being for the people? Or, perhaps, less? And what abot policy transfers? Can policies that work in one contry be easily imported by another? Sch qestions become increasingly rgent as globalisationintensifies comparative scrtiny. Can social policy generosity coexist with economic fficiency? What are the optimal welfare arrangements that shold be recommended by international organisations with a responsibility for raising living standards across the globe: organisations sch as the United Nations, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fnd? Sch social policy comparisons arise with increasing rgency arond the globe as economic internationalisation proceeds apace. Comparative social policy research The first wave of comparative analysis was at a very general level. It focsed on identifying the broad aggregates of social spending in the newly developed welfare states (Flora & Heidenheimer 1981). Explanations of welfare state growth were of a fnctionalist or strctralist type. There were two rival interpretations: the 'indstrialisation' accont and the Marxist. {strctralist) version--:-a rivalry that broadly reflected the dminant sociological paradigms of the time. Some viewed welfare states as the more or less logical otcome of the indstrialiatin process. Pre-indstrial societies were mch more rrally based, with longstanding traditional arrangements for meeting social need via extended families, larger civil society gropings, chrches and other social forms encoraging reciprocity. Indstrialisation broght not jst ew prodctive technologies bt also a wider transformation of social life characterised by rbanisation, individalisation and an increasing dependency on the market to meet socio-economic needs. In this view, it was more or less inevitable that some grops wold be exclded from the market, sch as the aged, disabled and sick, and those for whom there were no longer the traditional spport systems in place. A 'welfare state' inevitably evolved to cater for these grops {Ctright 1965; Wilensky 1975). The Marxist {strctralist) interpretation saw the evoltion of the welfare state less as a natal evoltion and more a prodct of a fndamentally conflicting set of class relations at the heart of capitalist pathways to modernisation. In this view, welfare states did not arise as a natral,. rational or inevitable response to meeting social need. Rather, they arose as a way to resolve or contain the class conflict created by the adoption of a capitalist mode of prodction and the need to reprodce labor. On the one hand, governments were compelled to garantee and promote the capital accmlation of the rling class in order to drive forward the development process. On the other, if the system as to srvive, the working class had to acknowledge it as legitimate and in their interest. With the development of the prototypical welfare state in Germany in the 188s by Chancellor Bismarck, for example, the growth of social policy was thoght to follow this logic oflegiiation (O'Conn?r 193). Parallel to this early acconting for welfare state development was an everincreasing comparative literatre looking at particlar social policy areas or particlar scial. gros, and doing s from lierse range of disciplinay perspectives. By the lat 19SOs cpmtive scial polic had becoe adistincive field of both soial,. ' policy research and teaching (Clasen 1999).. The ecod a ofompartive. scial policy deloped in the 199s. Attention began t shift from.com:pijxing boad aggregates fsocial spnding to nderstanding de d,iffereo:r prpses?{ sh sr,ding ithin.th. overll pattern of pblic policy. Gross spedig figes do not differentite. beteen. how money is spent: For exmple, 'a cservaixe welf;re.state aybeabig spe.de bt inways that simply reiforce exi i g soial rlations in. tem of eqality and acess to ervices. ; The fnctionalistitrctralist eplntins of wlfar. state development also came nder criticisn1. They implied an inevitability. abot; welfare state deeloplll:ent that was not matche by evidece; For example, they did not' accont fo the different time frams,for 'welfare state emergence, nr for social policy diversity within similarly.idtrialised. scietis. New.explanions bga to focs on the P<?litisi' gency that had prded these. differencs: State.cenred ccnts, for eapl,' fosed on the, role of politicai instittins. nd policy legacies. (see, for exapl,. Hbe, &.Stephs 2P: Most: infl,ential.,was te socalld power resorces approach that highlighted the role of the working class as political agent in <Kil policy devlopent. Here, o;king-class trength was. n as a precondition of elfare stat strength. Stdie, focsd on: orrelations betwen left-wing political strength (evidenced, for example, in peri.ds f left party government; or in voting behaviors) and welfare state advance. A ore recent approach has qeried this Fnking of welfare strength to effectixetrade O:ionism and labor. representation in parliaments with its assmption that employs wold resist social legislation as a sorce of exta csts. Hitoriclwritig by Iversen (25), Swenson (22) and

3 116 Part 2: The Historical, International and Changing Context for Action -, Chapter 6: Astralian Social Policy in an International Context 117 Mares (23) have shown. that there has in fact been a propensity for employers to spport social policies as a way of improving the operation of labor, markets. Notably, secrity derived from generos nemployment benefits has been a way of secring and retaining labor with high or specific skills. Of particlar note in these stdies was the importance ofhistorical_beginnings of welfare regimes, often interpreted in terms of'historiccompromises' or 'historical settlements'. This emphasis on the apparent long-term drability. or immtability of original instittions. once set in. place has been of endring importance as the passage of globalisation has failed to prodce that welfare state convergence which many had threatened (Castles 24). Types C?f welfare regimes Besides these concerns with acconting for dh"feret developmental pathays, di niajr preoccpation in comparative stdies has been with developing typologies of welfare states. Decdes 'earlier, researchers 'like Wilensky and Lebeax'{1965) had written of the difference between a resiclal and instittional phase of welfare state development, 'a 'distinction later takn p into comparative social poliy by Titmss (1974). 'Titss observed that there was llo li,nearhist6rical seqence fro the residal to the instin1tional, bt that botli forms cold be fond in 'contris of otherwise similar economic develop merit. His concern with taxonomy as re. invigorated by th very infle1ltia Swedish comparativist, Esping-Andersen. (199): His approach to welfare state classification reflected an U:ridestanding of social expenditre as expressing the achievement of the social rights of citizenship. In line with T.H. Marshall's (195) ndrstanding, people's.citizemhip. stats is thoght to compete with their class posii:ion. A strong welfare state in :this view is one where there is a high level ofdecommodification and also redction incl:iss stratification: An important if difficlt concept, commodification' efers to. the way in which a. capitalist eonoiny trns people's labor into a co'minodity to be boght and sold in the marketplace (indeed, everything becmes 'for sale' in a flly rnarketised society). The granting of social rights, by coni:ast, decommodifies people by giving them access to resorces throgh the_ state on the basis of their citizenship. To this extent they become able to live withot relying on the niarket, ths allowing people's welfare to be less dependent on.thei'marketvale. From this point of view, Esping-Andersen obsered that in some welfare states, sch as the USA, social policy fnctiond as a mere safety net of last resort, offering little by way 'of decommodificiltion and in fact compelling people into the market in 'order to satisfy their needs. Others, like Germany, involved all citizens in complsory social insrance, bt the benefit payments closely mirrored market earnings so that little decommodific.ation actally reslted. A third type of welfare state, Sweden for example, was high on decommodification. Here Esping-Andersen pointed to the policy ideal of enabling citizens to freely: opt ot of work when they thoght it necessary, withot losing their employment ' or 1 diminihing, ' ' their welfare.. ' ' ' Esping-Andersen' second criterion p.derstands.elfare states to be also in conflict with scial sr,tification: Again, -mparaiv nalysis highlighted fndamental differences of approach. The safety net model was designed in fact to reinforce stratification and stigmatise those who did not attempt to climb the social ladder. The reward strctre of the social insrance model was also designed to reinforce traditional distinctions among professional, labor, chrch andother social rganisatins. Government contribtions to sch schemes were also meant to cement loyalties to the state. A third type of welfare state had had niform benefits for all citizens as a basic goal. Wher attempted, this eqalising objective had been modified over time, with a need to satisfy the growing middle' Classes. Different combinations of flat-rate and second-tier models had reslted with varying' commitments to redcing class stratification. These criteria led Esping-Andersen to a three-type classification of the 'words of welfare capitalism;. The first as called the 'liberal' welfare s'tate. This was low on decommodification and high on stratification. Contries sally inclded in this categry are Atralia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, United Kingdom and the USA. Here. we find:. payr;nets and services, are mea tted:. a clientele coprised of lowice ea!lrs. trict entitlement rles cre.ati!lg a social tigtp.a for recipients governments encorging private provision 'as the ideal, even with expensive state sbidies.",.. The second world of welfare is called the conservative model and incldes Astria, France, Belgim", Italy, Japan, Switzerland and Germany. In Erope, Christian democratic politics was a strong inflence on many contries, giving a characteristic emphasis on families and civic associations ahead of the state throgh i:he very inflential principle. of sbsidiarity. This regime emphasised: ' '.. niversal social rights, nlike the liberal model preserved stas dif-'rerencs to which right-attach. benefits faring the preservation of traditioml family. type services provided as a right, bt delivered. throgh. non-state organis.ations where possible.

4 -118 Part 2: The Historical, International and Changing Context for.action Chapter 6: Astralian Social Policy in an International Context -119 The third regime was called the social democratic regime and inclded contries sch as Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. It was called social democratic becase of the social democratic politics that had been its driving force. High on decommodification and eqality, it ideallyaimed at: benefits that were 'niversal rather i:hal1 selective social services designed to' offer an eqlity' of the highest standard. a 'socialisation 'of th costs of family '(encoraging men ad women e<lally in work). This threefold. typology has proved markedly resilient as a. focal point; for: comparative social policy research for more. than a decade. Over. that time, of corse, significant critiqes have emerged. Some related. to the emphasis on, class-based ineqality at the expense of gender and race:. Oters were. more, concerned with national policy experiences that did. not obviosly fit the three: types. Very recently, this latter critiqe has been felled by the discssion of th relevance of the typology to contries with developing economies.. ;, ".,; Critiqes of welfar tate. an:alys.is..,;, ' 1:' Esping-Andersen's se of decommodification,as a criterion.for welfare state differentiation, as well as his foctis on working class, social democratic plitics in the development of welfare states, alerts s to the emphasis placed on class in his analysis. Other comparativists have soght to give 'geatr attention to the way national social policy systems have dealt wii:h isses of gender and race In. this regard, the Astralian feminist lii:ertre on the place of citizenship i the development of welfare states povided sefl platfor for ari instrctive critiqe ofesping Andersen's work. ' ' ' Writers like Pateman.(1989) and Cass. (1995) drew attention to; the ways in which it was assmed that the social rights ofcitizenship-;-which T;H. Marshall and others linked to the. formation of welfare states in the 194s-were niversal, when in fact they were not. They arged in particlar that this liberal conception of citizenship prported to be gender netral when it in factprivileged the fuale, pblic realm of paid work and ignored the private worlds of family, caring and npaid work. With its central focs qn decoinmodifidtion; EspingAndersen's typology was also fond to be gender blind. First yo have to be in the labor market before yo can be decommodified!in this vin, Shver'and others (O'Connor et al. 1999) examined a variety of liberal elfae regimes to see how mch they enhanced or redced women's atonomy. This atonomy, they fond, was heavily circmscribed where childcare, maternity leave and parental care were not legal entitlements bt left to private prchase.' With the trend in these contries to treat men and women as the same, when they are not becase of women's greater involvement.in the private sphere, the opportnities for atonomy for. women were reserved for only the higher-inc'6me earners (Ginsbrg 24, p. 28; O'Coimor et al. 1999). Other writers have now developed different typologies in order to take greater accont of gender by making 'defamiliarisation' a key criterion. In the postwar period, different welfare states created different policies in relation to the traditional male breadwinner model. These athors examined the extent to which women's presence in the paid labor forcehad been encoraged, what proportion ofwelfare entitlements had been granted on an individal or a family mebership bsis, and the extent to which caring had become socialised (Lewis 1993; Sainsbry 1994). In these stdies, the l.jnited Kingdom, the Netherlands arid Germany were seen to be still heavily oriented to the male breadwinner model; some of the Scandinavian contries-denmark, Finland and Sweden-had become more effectively dal breadwinner. models; and others, sch as France and Belgim,. were in between, as was Astralia (Cass 1998). These findings highlighted thai: gender isses play ot differentlyfrom class so that there is no straight correspondence with Esping Andersen' s typology. They alert s in particlar to the dangers for women of liberal welfare regimes that prport to treat men and women as the same; Instead of the two adlt workers as the ideal,.where neither is assmed to have caring and family responsibilities'(del Boca & Wezels 27); some athors now point to the 'one and a half worker' hosehold as the basis of constrcting more satisfactory work and family combinations. :Mch less' attention has been paid to race in comparative social policy research. Ginsbrg (24) reports on some seminal works on welfare state policies in response to race that are sggestive for ftre analysis. He draws attention to three types of policy. response across contries in the postwar period: the' settler,. exclsionary and post-colonial. Astralia was an example of the settler model (along with the USA, Canada and Sweden) in which the permanent settlement of immigrants was assmed withot difficlty and typically managed throgh a range of policies from assimilation and integration to mlticltralism. Examples of the exclsionary model were Germany and Japan, where racially strong conceptions of the nation led to policies that allowed for 'gest workers' bt did not assme their long-term settlement. The United Kingdom and France illstrate the post-'colonial approach. Many people entered these contries especially from former colonies that had achieved independence in the postwar period-althogh they often achieved only a second-class stats, becoming the occasion of civil nrest in the 197s. In the 198s and 199s, both the. post-colonial and gest worker models were wond p as a

5 -12 Part 2: The Historical, International and Changing Context for Action reslt of rising nemployment and racial violence. These contries embraced policy approaches closer to the settler model: Today, however, this policy area' is once again fraght. A 'settler' coni:ry like Astralia, for example, has been torn apart by divisions over refgees and asylm seekers. Alongside the growing cosmopolitanism associated with an overall heightened international poplation mobility, an 'overtly racist politics shadows the presence of immigrant workers, refgees and asylm seekers in many contries (Parsons & Smeeding26).. National diversity in welfare state arrangements Clearly we need to significantly agment if not modify Esping-Andersen's typology if we are to nderstand, in a' comparative way, the different policy configrations arond gender and race. A frther area where the typology has been fond limited is in acconting for the diversity of nations: Over time an increasing nmber of exceptions to the schema have been identified and these began veryearly with the Astralian case.. Historically, Astralians had prided themselves on their. egalitarianism (the 'fair go') and, p ntil the 197s, at least had regarded themselves as.something like front-rnners in terms of social jstice for ordinary citizens:. Indeed;.'at the beginning of the twentieth centry, Astralia' was internationally regarded as something of a laboratory for progressive social policy experimentation. According to Esping-Andersen, however, Astralia was to be considered within the liberal world of welfare! This was something of a paradox, a paradox that the Astralian comparativist, Castles, soght to explain.,, Castles's (1989) notion of Astralia's 'wage earner welfare state' has been discssed in some detail in Chapter 5. Reckoning on Astralia's relatively modest levels of tax imd social transfers, he had originally been critical of Astralia as a 'welfare laggard'-on these terms, well behind the social democratic regimes of Scandinavia. Over time, however, certain featres of Astralian social policy persaded Castles that Astralia was not so mch a laggard as.different. Astrali's social policy regime had developed along qite different lines from those familiar in Erope. The wage system, not the tax-transfer system, had developed as the primary means of achieving social policy goals. This was what he dbbed 'welfare by other means'. The tax-transfer system was of corse the primary focs of Esping-Andersen's analysis, and here Astralia did indeed have a residal 'safety net' system of socia:l assistance. Even here, however, as Castles and Mitchell (1992) pointed ot; coverage of the poplation in some benefits was very broad. Indeed, the vast majority of Astralia's - Chapter 6:.Astralian Social Policy in an International Context 121 aged remain eligible for the Age Pension today; In these circmstances-at least in the case of the Age Pension in. the 197s and 198s-there was none of the stigma Esping-Andersen associated with the liberal model. Moreover, althogh lower than the social insrance systems for people on average earnings, the level of benefits was higher than that normally associated with social assistance or safety net schemes for low-income people in Erope. When this broadly based system of social protection was placed alongside Astralia's progressive taxation system and social reglation of the wage system, the reslt according to Castles and his colleage Mitchell (1992) was actal.ly a 'forth world of welfare'. They called this the 'radically r'edistribtive' model. Others have had different ways of riaming the Astralian system. Roe (1993) notably referred to it as. the 'Astralian way', drawing attention to the fact that after the onset of globalisation in the 198s, the Astralian approach had proven very resilient when social policy in comparable English-speaking contries-for example; New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the USA-had sffered significant de-legitimation. Arond the same time, it seemed indeed that the 'Astralian way' was being refrbished to meet the demands of the more flexible labor market and dal breadwinner hoseholds. The timing of this assertion of the vale of the national system is notable in itself. Up ntil the 196s and 197s, Astralian social policy was very mch embedded in the British tradition, althogh with an increasing US inflence. With the United Kingdom having joined the now Eropean Union by the 197s, Astralia fond itself alone on the world stage jst as the period of globalisation was beginning (Finer & Smyth 24). As we shall see in Chapter 7, the impact of the Howard government..,-bilding on trends set in place by its predecessor-has radically reoriented the Astralian regime. Certainly the very progressive cha'racter of the tax-transfer system remains a distinctive featre of the Astralian regime today; bt not so the social policy role of employment and wages. However, the targeted system has become more conditional and other comparative research shold cation s' against assming that the targeted approach exemplified in the Astralian model 'might be an example for other contries. Other scholars have arged that targeting does not in fact lead to more effective redistribtion and poverty redction; certainly. when compared with the contries 'in.esping-andersen's Social Democratic model'and we can see in Table:6.1 that Scandinavian. contries have the' lowest levels of ineqality and poverty, with Astralia tending towards. the higher end-with only approximately five.to six simila'r contries having higher levels of poverty or ineqality. Ths Korpi and Palme (24; p. 165) conclde 'the Astralian experience indicates that targeting by exclding the better off citizens is not highly effective in redcing poverty, and that it is relatively 'inefficient in redcing ineqality'.

6 -122 Part 2: The Historical, International and Changing Context,for Action A key factor here is the size of bdgets available for redistribtive prposes. This is a particlarly significant finding given that international agencies have been promoting the 'safety net' as the model most sited to contries now developing welfare states. If there is an aspiration to redce poverty and ineqality then the lesson of the Astralian experience appears to be that more encompassing models are to be preferred. However, as we shall see in Chapter 7, the very. notion of Astralian exceptionalism is now cloded with ncertainty. As Smyth (1998) has arged, the se of the wage system as 'another means' of achieving -social goals always depended on maintaining a system of fll employment.' With the disappearance of fll employment and the overall loss of fll-time jobs in die 199s, and significant dereglation of the wage system, the Astralian model has been eroded sbstantially (Mishra 24). What the ftre might hold for Astralian social policy is a sbject we retrn to in Chapter 7. The Astralian example of sodal protection by other means was not the only example of a diversity of national experience that proved difficlt to accommodate within Esping-Andersen's three types. Sothern Eropean contries like Spain, Portgal, Greece and Italy were fond to' have characteristics warranting a distinct category: one' that became knowri as the 'Sothern Model' (Ferrera 1996). These contries had systems of income maintenance that were fragmented in coverage althogh often qite generos to some_:_ the aged, for example: They placed'greater obligations on families in relation to caring, bt typically had national health systems ifonly partial in their coverage. Services were characterised by clientelism and patronage. So diverse is the national social policy experience, according to some, that the very concept of welfare regimes is flawed (Kasza 22). Nevertheless, most wold arge that the diversity is not sch that analytically sefl modelling based on national policy similarityand difference cannot be constrcted. However, the exceptions to Esping-Andersen's three types may now be sch that a new approach may be reqired. More recent research in fact qestions the principles on which Esping-Andersen based his typology. For some there oght to be a less exclsive focs on the role.of the state and more emphasis on the total' 'welfare mix'. created by the state the private sector and the family and commnity. Some -now arge that Esping-Andersen's approach actally obscres the fll welfare pictre. They arge for the inclsion of all three 'pillars' if we are to avoid a narrow welfare statist preoccpation (Goodin & Rein 21). A particlarly illminating critiqe came with the work of van. Kersbergen (1995) on the 'conservative' welfare regime. He highlighted what we might call the 'pro-scandinavian' assmptions of Esping-Andersen's framework. It implied that the conservative regime had failed to achieve the 'sccessfl' working-class social reform Chapter 6: Astralian Social Policy in an International Context embodied in social-democratic Sweden; for example. Van Kersbergen qestioned this assmption and pointed to the Christian Democratic political tradition that had informed the devdopment of the so-called' 'conservative' regime; He showed that this was simply a different social vision from the social democrats; one that soght to limit the state throgh principles sch as sbsidiarity. According to Van Kersbergen, the social democratic presmptions ofesping-andersen's analysis oght to be relaxed so that this different otcome was not ascribed to working-class political failre. The most sbstantial departre from the EspingAndersen assmptions came with.the inflence on social policy of the 'varieties of capitalism' (VoC) school of coparative political economy (Hall & Soskice 21). It focses on the way social interventiorr can be s mch abot improving economic prodction as welfare consmption; In sch areas of indstrial relations, vocational training and edcation, corporate govendnce, inter-fim relations and relations with their own employees, tw- policy pattens have been discerned: the liberal market economies and the coordinated market economies. While the former are very mch free market based, i:he latter depend more n nori.-market relationships, entailing extensive networking, collaboration and a setting of otcomes less by mket-given eqilibria and more by staegic interaction. From this VoCperspective,' the view of the role of social policy as being 'against. markets' has been definitively diallenged. Evidence shows that sdcial policies can eqally be 'for markets', allowing employers to protect their investments in' hman capital (Mares 23; Iversen 25). On this basis Iversen and Stephens (28) have added to the 'three worlds of welfare capitalism' what they call the 'thee worlds of hman capital form.ation'. Focsed ori systems fpolicy coordination in relation to edcation and training policies, their typology highlights the ways in which greater. eqality at the bottom end of the skills distribtion enhances econmic efficiency as mch as social solidarity. While; the Esping-Andersen typology remains a pervasive inflence in com parative social policy today, its limitations both in terms of nderlying assmptions and: relevane to the diversity of national experience have become increasingly apparent. The isses have become' particlarly acte in the case of the Asian welfare poiicy'experience and also in relation to new emphases on social policy in developing economies. The 'East Asian model' J The recent development of interest in comparative social policy research in the Asian region is of particlar importance for Astralia Until the latter 199s, comparative social policy was very mch an occpation of Western scholars talking -123

7 -124 Part 2: The Historical, International and Changing Context for Action Chapter 6: Astralian Social Policy in an International Context -125 abot the advanced indstrial nations of Erope and the Anglo-American sphere. Moreover, with the notable exception of Japan; Asian contries were thoght of as economically developing and. not advanced enogh to have 'welfare states'. In the 199s, however, after the Newly Indstrialising Contries (NICs as they were known) sch as Taiwan, Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore brst on the scene, this pictre qickly changed. Scholars soon began to ask if there was in fact a distinctive 'East Asian welfare state' (Goodman et al. 1998). Before the financial crisis, whichhit the East Asian region at the end of the 199s, many saw positive lessons for welfare states like Astralia in the parsimonios approach to welfare that seemed to. characterise the Asian social. policy style. Dring the 198s, national leaders like Lee Kan Yew of Singapore and Mohammed Mhathir of Malaysia strongly distanced themselves from the welfare state trajectory of the West, declaring that they preferred to 'look East' (that is, to Japan) for their inspiration. On a visit. to Singapore, the British _Prime Minister Tony:Blair congratlated his hosts on theirapproach. to social policy, finding in it.the principles of the 'stakeholder,society':that he hoped to promoteinh,is own contry (Finer & Smyth 24). Until now mch of the research oncomparative East Asian welfare research has been shaped by Western categories; in particlar how this experience might or might not fit within. the Esping-Anderson typology (K with Jones Finer 27). A key factor to emerg is the high priority give to social expenditres that also enhances economic growth, i? areas sch as edcation, health and, certainly in the case of Singapore, ;hosing. (Gogh 21). In, this regard the East Asian approach was described by Holliday (2) as a 'prodctivis' (what' others have called 'developmental') regime. Of corse, the. more Western researchers explore the insights of the. varieties of capitalism approach then the less will their own frameworks omit theprodtivist dimensins of welfarein that narrow concentration on the role of social. policy in. terms of social. protection, redistribtion and decommodification that characterised previos deca4es.. Even in the case of social protection, however, we oght not concldetoo qickly that East Asian states have been averse to de':eloping programs for income secrity. Hort and Knhle (2);reviewed the development of sch, systes in te East and Sotheast Asian contries. They remind s that when. the economic miracle took off in these contries, they had low taxes, low wages and often _an absence of labor rights and democratic strctres. Hort and Knhle conclde, in fact, that given their late indstrialisation, these contries have moved more qickly down the path of social protection development than did the Western contries at similar stages of economic development. In some places, the economic meltdown of the latter 199s qickened rather than retarded thismomentm. As Lee (24, p. 151) writes: 'The Asian financial crisis... exposed fndamental weaknesses in [the East Asian social policy model]. Simply emphasising ConfCis vales, work ethics, family obligations and spportive/directie state instittions cannot ameliorate social ills, particlarly dririg an acte economic downtrn.' Following the downtrn; some contries-'- in Sotheast Asia especially-have reaffirmed a residal safety net approach with emphases on familial responsibility, while others, sch as Taiwan and. Korea, have soght to expand their social secrity systems. This has highlighted the diversity of social policy iri the region and co'nsels 's against contining to think in terms of the East Asian model and whether or not it fits in with frameworks and typologies embedded in the Eropean social policy experience several decades gone. Ths far the literatre onasian' social policy has been mainly concerned with Japan and the NICs. The Asian social policy experience is bond to captre increasing ttention as the-dramatic economic developments in China and India bring rapid social' policy. change(see Chan, Ngok & Phillips 28). Research will also have to address the national variety of experience in ways not now addressed throgh too exclsive a focs n the 'East' Asian model'. Social policy and development,, Many cotintrie; simply do not have the elaborate systems f income spport and social services that have. been the focs of comparative social policy in the past. Attempts to relate social policy to their. experience take two pathways. The first seeks to expand the notio of welfare, while the secnd seeks an integration of welfare with development stdies. ' Wood 'and Gogh (26) have presented an ambitios reformlation of the conept of'welfare regime' in ah attempt to make comparative social policy a trly global stdy. Ths thy add two other types to the kind of 'welfare state' regimes we have exarriied above: the 'informal secrity' and the''insecrity' regimes. A key featre of the former is a heavy reliance on family and commnity relationships to. meet' many of the needs met by welfare states. The latter contries exhibit extreme inserity with instittional arrangments,. which block any conter. movements to' redce the insecrity. These new regime types are an impressive framework for thinking. abot how 'welfare objectives are. or' are. not. met otside welfare. states, and they clearly point to a new dialoge with development stdies for whom sch qestions have been central 'for a nmber of decades. As Hall and Midgley (24) recont, the separate development of social policy and development stdies matredand was consolidated after the Second World War, with social policy being'the stdy of the welfare state in the indstrialised economies and development being the stdy of economic growth in the non-indstrialised

8 !, 126 Part 2: The Historical, International and Changing Context for Action Chapter 6: Astralian Social Policy in an International Context -127 economies of what was called the 'Third World'. The latter focsed not,only on the broad isses of.the determinants of economic growth, bt also on smallscal commnity development processes that might 'trickle p' into growth. This separate development began to nravel in the late 199s and early 2s. The World Bank and International Monetary Fnd began talking of the need for strong 'social capital' and sond social policy. as a basis for economic development, jst as welfare state contries were looking for new ways to 'strengthen commnities'; and find a more prodctivist rationale forsocial spending. Unlike social policy, which became more and more ex'=lsively concerned with redistribtion and decommodification, the development. research tradition. has always been closely linked to economic policy. The Bretton Woods instittions, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fnd were set p nder the inflence of. Keynesian economic ideas (Higgins 1968; Myrdal 172)... What was soght was a kind of international welfare state, whereby the economic power imbalances between rich and poor contries cold be modified in ways to allow developing contries to bild p their prodction capacities before fll exposre to. market competition. As Hall and Midgley (24) note, nexpectedly good growth rates of 3.4 per cent were recorded in developing contries in:tlie' 195s and 196s: However, in the following decade radical critiqes emerged on the political left, arging that the development was not evenly spread among poplations and. that the system of international capitalism wold in fact maintain these contries in a relatively nderdeveloped condition (Frank 171; Manel1975), By the end of the 197s, development policies along with welfare state policies in indstrialised contries were plnged into a crisis by a global economic recession.. \. The separate bt parallel history of social policy and development contined into the 198s, with theimpact of economic neoliberalism represented in the work of Hayek and Friedman. What became known.as 'welfare reform' in the indstrialised, contries was. called. 'strctral adjstment' in the. emerging economies. Development was said to be impeded by pblic spending 'crowding ot' the private sector, distorting market signals generally, andweakening incentives for nemployed people to engage with the labor market. In relation to developmnt, this neoliberal economic package enforced by the Bretton Woods agencies became known as the 'Washington consenss'. Critiqes of this consenss focsed on the fact that far from sparking high growth rates, the policy regime proved deflationary: with low growth rates. Particlar interest centred on the need to develop the 'social capability necessary for market activities. Initially, the emphasis was not on what governments might do bt on how commnities might be strengthened throgh non-government organisation (NGO) activities. Here, bilding social capital was identified as a key objective (Fine 21). Added to this emphasis on commnity strengthening was a reassessment of the role of the state as a reslt of 'new growth theory', or endogenos growth theory, that emphasises the economic vale of sond investments in social infrastrctre sch as edcation and health facilities. Moreover, evidence had monted that neoliberal assmptions abot a necessary trade-off betwen growth and eqity were nfonded. In 1997 the World Bank, for xample, drew attention to the way economic development in the NICs had been helped rather than hindered by egalitarian redistribtion. A key commentator on these post-washingtn consenss developments, Mkandawire (24, pp. 4-5), emphasises its breach with the neoliberal assmption that social policy oght to act only as a residal 'safety net'-or, as is often said, an 'amblance at the bottom of the cliff'. 'Social policy', he contines, 'shold be conceived as involving overall and prior concerns with social development, and as a key instrment that works in tandem with economic policy to ensre eqitable and socially sstainable development'. That is, once the state is involved in reviewing and deciding abot the overall pattern of economic investment, it becomes possible to allocate resorces on social criteria and not jst leave these decisions to private individals in the. marketplace. This trend to re-emphasise the roles of effective states and active citizenshipis taken p in the next chapter in relation to the global financial crisis. At the emerging interface between social policy and development, we see new interest among the latter in different schemes for achieving social secrity in edcation and health systems, as well as isses particlar to rral and rban development. For social policy the, isses are very different. Contained. for so long within a discipline that looked only at isses of redistribtion and decommodification, the interest.now is in qestions abot the economically prodctive vale of social investments. Clearly each discipline has mch to learn from each other as a new consenss emerges arond a post-neoliberal, int.egrated. approach. to social and economic policy. l. i

9 Minerva Access is the Instittional Repository of The University of Melborne Athor/s: SMYTH, P Title: Astralian Social Policy in an International Context Date: 29 Citation: SMYTH, P, Astralian Social Policy in an International Context, Social Policy in Astralia, 29, 2, pp Persistent Link: File Description: Astralian Social Policy in an International Context