Welfare Reform on the Web (June 2002): Welfare State - Overseas

APPEARANCES CAN BE DECEPTIVE: GENDER IN THE ISRAELI WELFARE STATE

M. Ajzenstadt and J. Gal

Social Politics, vol.8, 2001, p.292-324

Article examines the impact of various Israeli social policy initiatives from the 1950s to the 1990s designed to benefit women. In spite of these policies, women are still disadvantaged in current Israeli society. This is because the initiatives were designed to meet other state objectives as much as to improve the status of women. Thus the introduction of maternity benefits in the 1950s was designed to encourage large Jewish families in the face of high Arab fertility rates. Similarly state childcare in the 1970s was intended to bring women into the workforce in order to combat a severe labour shortage. The policy initiatives studied also discriminated systematically against Arab and African and Asian Jewish women who were regarded as being "undeserving".

THE FAMILY ECONOMY IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF WELFARE REGIMES: A CASE STUDY

T. Fahey

European Sociological Review, vol.18, 2002, p.51-64

This paper explores the role of state support for family-based economic production, especially family farming, in the evolution of welfare regimes. Using the example of Ireland's 'social policy' from around 1870 to the second world war, the paper illustrates that both the financial and agrarian dimensions have greater significance in welfare regimes than has yet been recognized.

PUBLIC VALUES LOST? COMPARING CASES ON CONTRACTING OUT FROM DEMMARK AND THE UNITED STATES

T. B. Jorgensen and B. Bozeman

Public Management Review, vol.4, 2002, p.63-81

Authors consider if the rush to market competition in the public sector has altered the sense of public values? Three different cases are examined and the authors consider how the role of values in each case varies.

SOCIAL ASSISTANCE DYNAMICS IN EUROPE: NATIONAL AND LOCAL POVERTY REGIMES

C. Saraceno (ed.)

Bristol: The Policy Press, 2002

This book explores welfare state regimes and welfare recipients in contemporary Europe. It compares poverty policies in a range of northern and southern European Countries. Focusing on the actual working of their policies, the cultural background and implementation of policies it looks at why some people are more likely to be on social assistance than others.

SOCIAL INDICATORS: THE EU AND SOCIAL INCLUSION

T. Atkinson et al

Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002

This book aims to make a scientific contribution to the development of social indicators for the purposes of European policymaking. It examines the principles of policy-relevant indicators, the definition of indicators, and the issues that arise in their implementation. It looks at theoretical and methodological issues relating to measuring poverty and social exclusion, covering key areas such as:

• income inequality;
• non-monetary deprivation;
• low educational attainment;
• unemployment;
• joblessness;
• functional illiteracy and innumeracy;
• restricted social participation.