Social Policy by Other Means: Theorizing Unconventional Forms of Welfare Production

Abstract

The goal of this special issue is to highlight the importance of unconventional social policies, theorize their development in comparison with traditional welfare state accounts and outline a new research agenda. In this introduction to the special issue, the editors present the concept of social policy by other means as encompassing two kinds of unconventional social policy (from the point of view of mainstream comparative research): First, functional equivalents to formal systems of social protection and, second, non-state provision of benefits. The concept builds upon a sizeable, but fragmented literature in comparative welfare state research. While numerous examples demonstrate that social policy by other means is more pervasive in both OECD and non-OECD countries than often acknowledged, a brief survey of the top 20 articles in the field reveals that this fact is not sufficiently reflected in the academic literature. With reference to both existing studies and the contributions to this special issue, the editors go on to explore (1) the different forms of social policy by other means, (2) explanatory theories and (3) their effectiveness in terms of social outcomes. They close by outlining a research agenda.     

Risk of Structured Transfer of Non-Performing Assets of Commercial Banks and Its Prevention

China implements license management for AMC and strictly controls the license in limited quantities. Under the influence of the declining economy, non-performing assets increase sharply, which causes an oversupply of non-performing assets in the transaction market. If commercial banks directly transferred the assets to AMC, the price is relatively low,which may result in great losses to banks. To relieve the dilemma, commercial banks should work out methods for treating the non-performing assets. By fully utilizing the structured financing model and the bank’s own financing advantages to broaden the actual purchaser of non-performing assets, transfer incomes should be raised and direct capital losses should be reduced. Structured transfer of non-performing assets as a new mode of disposing non-performing assets to ordinary investors or the bank’s own investment funds via all kinds of AMCs, trusts, funds, brokerages, SPV (such as LP)and other institutions contains four business risks, including channel operation risk, pricing risk, recovery risk and tax risk and three legal risks, such as regulatory compliance risk, the ambiguous orientation of bank legal subject and the ambiguous orientation of return rights. These risks require in-depth study into their causes for proper prevention.     

The Effects of Local Government Consolidation on Turnout: Evidence from a Quasi‐Experiment in Switzerland

In the last decades, municipal mergers have been one major element of local government reforms in Switzerland and beyond. In this article, we describe and analyze the political effects of this development. We use a quasi‐experimental setting to test the impact of municipal mergers on electoral participation. We find that in merged municipalities, the decrease in turnout is significantly stronger than in non‐merged municipalities. Further, the effect is more pronounced in relatively small localities. There is a temporal dimension to this effect—that is, turnout drops mainly in the first election after the first merger, but not so much after the second or third merger. Hence, the study provides a skeptical yet differentiated perspective on the democratic consequences of municipal mergers and points to further research avenues to develop a more comprehensive understanding of local government consolidation.     

The Impact of Child‐Parent Psychotherapy on Child Dependency Court Outcomes

Although parental compliance with court orders in child welfare cases is key to achieving physical parent‐child reunification and successful case closure, little research has examined how parent‐child relationship‐focused rehabilitative services uniquely influence case outcomes. This project fills this gap by investigating links between court ordering of and parental participation in Child‐Parent Psychotherapy (CPP) with court outcomes. Data were obtained from court records of 448 court‐involved parents. Hierarchical regressions revealed that greater participation in CPP led to reunification and successful case closure but not faster case closure. Courtroom professionals should consider parent‐child relationship‐based therapies as tools for achieving child welfare goals.     

Legislative Transparency and Credit Risk

Open governance requirements are designed to improve accountability, which implies that transparent governments are more trustworthy stewards of their publicly invested power. However, transparency may also reduce institutional effectiveness and inhibit political compromise, diminishing the capacity to manage resources responsibly. We assess empirical support for these competing perspectives in the context of American state legislatures, many of which have become exempt from state sunshine laws in recent decades. We leverage variation in the timing of these legislative exemptions to identify the effect of removing transparency in a crucial governing institution on investors’ risk perceptions of states’ general obligation bonds. Our analysis of these data during the period 1995–2010 suggests that removing legislative transparency reduces state credit risk. We conclude that while openness in government may be normatively desirable, shielding legislative proceedings from public view may actually be better for states’ debt repayment capacity, improving their overall fiscal health.     

论契约自由原则的发展及其动因

“契约自由是合同法的灵魂和生命。”它发源于罗马法,确立于资本主义自由竞争时期。进入20世纪后,随着其产生之社会基础的变化．各国普遍对契约自由给予一定的规制,以实现实质意义上的契约公正。从契约自由原则的兴起、确立及现代社会对其的规制,宏观把握契约自由原则发展的历史进程,并洞见其发展动因。     

系统论语境下我国刑事程序的若干反思与重构

在我国当前刑事诉讼中,系统论已经得到一定程度的关注,然而现实中其运行结果与理想还存在很大差距,影响了刑事程序功能的有效发挥。因此,有必要从理念更新和规则优化层面重构我国刑事程序系统,以促使其实现动态、平衡的发展。     

经济学角度解析官员道德风险问题

预防和杜绝官员道德风险问题,保证政府的高效廉洁,是一个持久的话题。本文从经济学的角度,利用政府和官员之间的委托—代理关系建立了一个期望效用模型,推导出引发政府官员道德风险的要素。在明确了腐败与额外收益、工资、腐败被发现后的收入、官员的任期、预期贴现率、被发现查处的概率等因素的关系后,提出了对腐败综合治理的对策。     

Did Jamie Oliver Really Put School Dinners on the Agenda? An Examination of the Role of the Media in Policy Making

Healthy eating is high on the government's agenda in current times and to all intents and purposes the media appears to have played a crucial role in putting it there. While media focus is no doubt intense and playing a vital role in public education (take Jamie Oliver's 2005 Channel 4 documentary, ‘School dinners’, for example), the question that lies at the heart of this article, is whether the media has led the government agenda on healthy eating and school dinners as appears to be the case. A close examination of the evidence suggests otherwise: government policy was already well set before the media began to show a concerted interest and hence its influence on policy‐making is more limited than might be expected. Rather than setting agendas per se, the media's role has been to refine and energise existing policy areas and to facilitate implementation.     

Ordering Disorder – On the Perplexities of the Partnership Literature

The literature on public‐private partnerships (PPP) has proliferated in recent years. However, confusion about the actual meaning of PPP still abounds. As a consequence, contradicting findings and statements about PPP flourish in the literature. This article reviews the literature, and argues that there are different streams of PPP research which operate with qualitatively different notions of the PPP concept. Accordingly the literature is divided into four different PPP ‘approaches’. By doing so the article offers some clarification concerning an increasingly complex concept. The article concludes that an authoritative definition of PPP – one that can encompass all the different variations of the concept currently in use – is not logically possible.