Rethinking Social Policy for 'New Times

7/29/2019 Rethinking Social Policy for 'New Times'

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RETHINKING SOCIALPOLICY FOR NEW

TIMESPaul Stubbs [email protected] February 2013.Grupa 22, Zagreb

TOWARDS THE COMPLEMENTARITY OF AN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL MODEL FOR THE FUTURE
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]


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(Eco-) Social PolicySocial policy refers to any policy developed atsupranational, state, local or community level which isunderpinned by a social vision of society and which, whenoperationalised, affects the rights or abilities of citizens to

meet their livelihood needs

Social policy needs to combine with environmentalism toforge a unified eco-social policy that can achieveecologically beneficial and socially just impacts promoting

new patterns of production, consumption and investment,changing producer and consumer behaviour whileimproving wellbeing, and ensuring a fairer distribution ofpower and resources


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Global Eco-Social Policy

The Four Rs:

Regulation

Redistribution

Rights

Resource Mobilisation


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New RisksClimate change and resource depletion

Large-scale migration including forced migration

Global gendered care chains

Precarious work (unsustainability of insurance-based systems)

Demographic changes

Deepening global economic crisisNew wars and complex political emergencies

Structural oppression and discrimination


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New Times New Neo-liberalisms?:

from Washington to BerlinIndividual responsibility and informalization

Privatise and/or commercialise welfare arrangements

Lean states and new austerity reduce social spending

Residualising welfare poverty reduction

New conditionalities (deserving v underserving)From workfare to prisonfare

New humanitarian/security/development architecture


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Turning the Global Tide?: GlobalSocial Protection Floors

Principles: Universalism, Legal rights, Non-discrimination,Adequacy, Dignity, and Accessible Complaints Procedure

SPFs should comprise at least the following basic social securityguarantees:

(a) access to a nationally defined set of goods and services,constituting essential health care, including maternity carethat meets the criteria of availability, accessibility,acceptability and quality;

(b) basic income security for children, at least at a nationallydefined minimum level, providing access to nutrition,

education, care and any other necessary goods and services;(c) basic income security, at least at a nationally defined minimum

level, for persons in active age who are unable to earnsufficient income, including in particular in cases of sickness,unemployment, maternity and disability; and

(d) basic income security, at least at a nationally definedminimum level,for older persons.


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Between Global and

Local: New RegionalismsMore than regional trading blocs: new politicalinstitutions to foster and govern more sustainable andsocially-just forms of production and consumption

Voice to smaller nations and to social movements in globalarenas

Greater possibility for agreement on social, labour andenvironmental standards and targets

Avoiding global race to the bottom can generateresources for regional redistribution

Greater opportunities for risk pooling and regionalinsurance schemes


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Regional Social Policies:

The European UnionGradual move to extend economic -> political -> eco-socialdimension

Europe 2020: smart, green, inclusive growth in a social marketeconomy

20 million fewer in poverty and social exclusion by 2020

20 20 20 Energy targets (greenhouse gas; renewable energy;

energy efficiency)

OMC not strengthening European Social Model(s)

New IMF-EU meta-critical partnerships creating new periphery


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European Anti-Poverty

Network ProposalsFramework Directive: Obliging every Member State tointroduce by 2020 a Minimum Income Guarantee Schemeguaranteeing an adequate minimum income for all 60% of

median

A budget for Cohesion policy of at least 336 billion Euro, astrengthened European Social Fund (ESF) with at least 25% ofthe Structural Funds dedicated to the ESF and 20% of ESF

earmarked for poverty reduction and social inclusion and abudget of at least 2.5 billion Euro for the Fund for EuropeanAid for the Most Deprived.

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Regional Social Policies:ALBA (Bolivarian Alliance for the

Peoples of the Americas)Managed trade and integration of production

Commitment to free health and education across memberstates

State-provided services and social redistribution

Energy integration and environmental protection

A radical alternative to prevailing paradigms (Yeates,forthcoming)


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Croatian/SEE Social Policy

Captured and clientelisticParallelisms: State Municipal NGO

World Bank dominated unfinished reform agenda

Myth of high social spending

Invisibility of poverty and social exclusion

Low, residualised and punitive social assistance

Limited network of non-stigmatising community-basedservices

Limited user involvement/empowerment (professionaldominance)


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A VisionTransform and subvert growth paradigm

Green jobs as crucial

New localisation connecting with new regionalism

Flexible citizenship rights and insurance-schemes

Guaranteed minimum incomes (universal child benefits, socialpensions, MIG for active age)

Cash plus care services (minimum basket)

Health, education, housing, transport, space as public goods

Challenging social immobility


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Beyond dominant logicsThe ethics of care are about interdependence,mutuality, and human frailty rather thanindividualism and self-sufficiency. And it is this, theunderstanding of care as a collective social good,which needs to be central to concepts of global

justice. This requires that interdependence be seen asthe basis of human interaction. In its turn thispresupposes that human flourishing is the key to oursustainability and that therefore the conditions forthis care and co-operation are also central. In

these terms, autonomy and independence are aboutthe capacity for self-determination rather than theexpectation of individual self-sufficiency. (Williams,forthcoming)


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Beyond dominant logics

IIThere is also a case for a radical rights-basedapproach to thinking about the future whereinfuture generations have a fundamental and

inalienable right to the non-substitutable services ofnature and the current generation has a duty ofintergenerational stewardship. (Gough,forthcoming)

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Rethinking Social Policy for 'New Times