The Bolsonaro Government’s 2019 pension reform in Brazil:A policy discourse analysis

In 2019, the Brazilian Government secured support to pass radical reforms to the state pension system. Drawing on concepts from historical materialist policy analysis and critical discourse analysis, this paper contributes to understanding how the Bolsonaro Government utilized narratives of inter- and intra-class and generational (in)equity to problematize constitutional guarantees of social and economic rights and warrant fiscal austerity and curtailment of social protections. We contend that the 2019 pension reform can be understood as a complementary political project to the preceding Temer Government’s labor market reforms and successful passing of legislation to place a ceiling on Federal expenditure to constrain pro-welfare politics. Our analysis adds to understanding of how policy discourse legitimated a transformation in Brazilian social policy commensurate with advancing a conservative austere-liberal market hegemony project

Policy boostering the Social Impact Investment Market in the UK

AbstractUnder the Conservative-Liberal Coalition Government and the Conservative Government that took office in 2015, policy measures were introduced to develop a Social Impact Investment Market that harnesses private finance to invest in services to achieve social and financial outcomes. This nascent market is of growing interest amongst social scientists (Bryan and Rafferty, 2014; Whitfield, 2015; McHugh et al., 2013; Dowling, 2017; Edmiston and Nicholls, 2017), but little attention has been given to interrogating related UK Government discourse. The originality of this paper is its contribution to addressing this ‘discourse gap’; enhancing our understanding of the development and representation of impact investment in the UK. Using Hyatt's (2013a) Critical Policy Discourse Analysis Framework, a rigorous critical examination of UK Coalition and Conservative Government impact investment discourse between 2011 and 2016 is undertaken. The significance of this work lies in its contextualisation and deconstruction of UK Government texts to identify and unpack how distinct rationales, justifications and legitimations draw on and (re)produce a Broken Britain-Big Society narrative (Wiggan, 2011; Dowling and Harvie, 2014; Smith and Jones, 2015) to ‘policy booster’ financialised reconfiguration of the welfare state as the route to a better society.</jats:p

Employment and budgeting decisions of low-income working families over a period of welfare reform

This study examines the implicit assumptions underpinning reforms to the tax and benefit system by the Labour Governments since 1997. It questions whether individuals are income-maximising individuals responsive to changes in the costs and benefits associated with employment. The Working Families' Tax Credit and its replacements the Working Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit, elements of the Government's strategy for encouraging employment and reducing child poverty (HM Treasury, 2001), contain an unspoken acceptance of a particular 'rational economic man' model of behaviour. Recent sociological research around employment and parenting indicates that decision-making is more nuanced than the rational economic model allows. Duncan and Edwards (1999) suggest instead a 'gendered moral rationalities' model, placing specific socially negotiated moral understandings of children's needs at the centre of employment decisions, with financial incentives, a secondary concern. A central question of this thesis is therefore, do prior policy assumptions about employment and budgeting decisions accord with reality? How has the reform of the tax and benefit system affected decision-making around employment and family budgeting, and what has it meant for individuals and their families? Little longitudinal qualitative research has been conducted into the employment and family budgeting decisions made by families in receipt of tax credits and how these alter over time. Based on two waves of interviews with lone parent and couple families receiving income from the tax credit system this study, as such, contributes to the above debates about employment and budgeting behaviour. The study suggests there is a need to focus greater attention on the temporality of decision-making, as economic and social processes are themselves temporally situated. Participants sought a 'welfare balance' that reconciled their current commitments to care and material needs. Decisions shifted in response to changes in policy structures, notions of moral behaviour, caring responsibilities and financial needs over time

Employment and budgeting decisions of low-income working families over a period of welfare reform

This study examines the implicit assumptions underpinning reforms to the tax and benefit system by the Labour Governments since 1997. It questions whether individuals are income-maximising individuals responsive to changes in the costs and benefits associated with employment. The Working Families' Tax Credit and its replacements the Working Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit, elements of the Government's strategy for encouraging employment and reducing child poverty (HM Treasury, 2001), contain an unspoken acceptance of a particular 'rational economic man' model of behaviour. Recent sociological research around employment and parenting indicates that decision-making is more nuanced than the rational economic model allows. Duncan and Edwards (1999) suggest instead a 'gendered moral rationalities' model, placing specific socially negotiated moral understandings of children's needs at the centre of employment decisions, with financial incentives, a secondary concern. A central question of this thesis is therefore, do prior policy assumptions about employment and budgeting decisions accord with reality? How has the reform of the tax and benefit system affected decision-making around employment and family budgeting, and what has it meant for individuals and their families? Little longitudinal qualitative research has been conducted into the employment and family budgeting decisions made by families in receipt of tax credits and how these alter over time. Based on two waves of interviews with lone parent and couple families receiving income from the tax credit system this study, as such, contributes to the above debates about employment and budgeting behaviour. The study suggests there is a need to focus greater attention on the temporality of decision-making, as economic and social processes are themselves temporally situated. Participants sought a 'welfare balance' that reconciled their current commitments to care and material needs. Decisions shifted in response to changes in policy structures, notions of moral behaviour, caring responsibilities and financial needs over time