Welfare Reform on the Web (June 2000): Care of the Elderly - Overseas

POST-FORDISM, THE WELFARE STATE AND THE PERSONAL SOCIAL SERVICES: A COMPARISON OF AUSTRALIA AND BRITAIN

J. Harris and C. McDonald

British Journal of Social Work, vol. 30, 2000, p. 51-70

Post-Fordist thinking has attempted to articulate linkages between economic forces, state forms and social welfare. Article compares the welfare regimes of Britain and Australia, and the responses in those countries to globalisation. Changes in services to older people are compared from a Post-Fordist point of view in three respects:

• the shift from a unitary service economy to a mixed economy of service provision;
• changes in the model of service delivery and consumption;
• strengthening the governance function of the central state.

The comparative analysis suggests the need for refinement of the Post-Fordist thesis concerning the restructuring of the welfare state.

'USER PAYS' AND OTHER APPROACHES TO THE FUNDING OF LONG-TERM CARE FOR OLDER PEOPLE IN AUSTRALIA

M. Fine and J. Chalmers

Ageing and Society, vol. 20, 2000, p. 5- 32

Paper reviews the concept of user charges and its recent history in Australia. On the basis of a brief review of alternative funding systems, it also considers the potential of public and private insurance schemes to increase funding by potential service users and underwrite the long-term viability of funding for aged care services.