POLY1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Decommodification, Regressive Tax, Occupational Segregation
Lecture 11 - International Perspectives
Review:
Define structural employment and outline how it is different to frictional unemployment
Structural: mismatch of skills between what workers have and requirements of jobs on
offer
Frictional: comes from people moving jobs, careers and locations
What is Australias gender pay gap? What are some of the causes of the gender pay
gap?
**15.3%**
women working in different industries (industrial segregationon
Over-representation of women in particular, often low paying, occupations while
being under-represented in others (occupational segregation), the undervaluation
of womens skills (e.g. caring professions - nursing, teaching, etc.)
career breaks taken by women for children
Institutional influences, such as the sector you work in and the way your pay is set
some unexplained, leads to assumption that discrimination is present
more likely to work part time
social expectations about how men and women should act
men more likely to argue for promotions, raises etc.
What types of unemployment policies would those who support supply side arguments
endorse? What political traditions align with this view?
sees unemployment as an individual problem
if you are unemployed you are not suitable for the market
Policies:
Greater management of people on welfare, make it annoying => push people into
labour market e.g. Newstart
making sure people are job ready
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Libertarian + conservative
Learning Objectives
explain why int comparison is important
outline features of esping-andersons three worlds of welfare capitalism
define commodification + decommodification
understand the impact of globalisation on soc policy
Poverty in Aus
Poverty line = 50% of median income
13.3% live below poverty line
lone parent families have the highest poverty rate
Distributional Effects of Tax Policy - Video
Progressive tax
reduces inequality
Regressive tax
can reduce inequality if money collected is used to benefit the poor
Why study social policy internationally?
can have a jolting effect on many taken-for-granted assumptions regarding national
social policy performance
e.g. many Australians think we have high levels of soc expenditure and high taxation,
but international comparisons disprove this
We need to be careful because:
every welfare state is unique - a product of a nations history, institutions, and political
and social cultures
e.g. Scandinavian policies wouldnt fit in America because US has greater reliance on
market, rather than large state
most useful if it develops a balance sheet for each country
we need to consider:
how did differences occur?
what works and in what conditions/
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can the policy be transferred to another context and have the same results?
what are optimal social protection arrangements which should be recommended by
int organisations such as the UN?
what soc policy principles should inform them?
what (+ whose) ideologies?
who should we compare our policies with?
all countries?
rich, developed countries?
anglophone or commonwealth countries?
what do we compare?
income, wealth, poverty?
health + wellbeing?
Disadvantage + difference?
Policy structures + governance?
how do we compare?
absolute or relative?
national or global standards?
History of comparative social policy research
1st wave
focused on identifying broad aggregates of social spending
2nd wave - 90s
Understanding the different purposes of spending within the overall pattern on public
spending
classifying national experiences within a welfare state typology
Models of welfare states
Research seeks to categorise the different ways that countries seek to interweave state
and market in democracies
Looks at social protection structures
Underpinned by cultural and philosophical attitudes towards the state and the market
Key Concepts
Commodification
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Document Summary
Define structural employment and outline how it is different to frictional unemployment. Structural: mismatch of skills between what workers have and requirements of jobs on offer. Frictional: comes from people moving jobs, careers and locations. **15. 3%** women working in different industries ((cid:1684)industrial segregationon(cid:1685) Over-representation of women in particular, often low paying, occupations while being under-represented in others ((cid:1684)occupational segregation(cid:1685)), the undervaluation of women(cid:1685)s skills (e. g. caring professions - nursing, teaching, etc. ) career breaks taken by women for children. What political traditions align with this view? sees unemployment as an individual problem if you are unemployed you are not suitable for the market. Greater management of people on welfare, make it annoying => push people into labour market e. g. newstart making sure people are (cid:1684)job ready(cid:1685) Learning objectives explain why int comparison is important outline features of esping-anderson(cid:1685)s three worlds of welfare capitalism define commodification + decommodification understand the impact of globalisation on soc policy.
