The politics of social policy: welfare expansion in Brazil, China, India and South Africa in comparative perspective

This introductory essay reviews the scholarship on the politics of social policy, and shows the contribution of the special issue to explaining expanded welfare commitments in Brazil, China, India and South Africa in the twenty-first century. Much literature on welfare expansion in lower- and middle-income contexts views it primarily as a policy corrective to the economic dislocations produced by global economic integration. This special issue focuses on the political factors that are critical to understanding the shape social policies have taken and their effectiveness in ameliorating poverty and inequality

Explaining public satisfaction with health care systems: findings from a nationwide survey in China

Objective: To identify factors and covariates associated with health care system satisfaction in China. Context: Recent research suggests that socio-demographic characteristics, self-reported health, income and insurance, ideological beliefs, health care utilization, media use and perceptions of services may affect health care system satisfaction, but the relationships between these factors are poorly understood. New data from China offers the opportunity to test theories about the sources of health care system satisfaction. Design: Stratified nationwide survey sample analysed using multilevel logistic regression. Setting and participants: 3,680 Chinese adults residing in family dwellings between 1 November 2012 and 17 January 2013. Main outcome measure: Satisfaction with the way the health care system in China is run. Results: We find only weak associations between satisfaction and socio-demographic characteristics, income and self-reported health. We do, however, find that satisfaction is strongly associated with having insurance and belief in personal responsibility for meeting health care costs. We also find it is negatively associated with utilization, social media use, perceptions of access as unequal and perceptions of service providers as unethical. Conclusions: To improve satisfaction, Chinese policy makers – and their counterparts in countries with similar health care system characteristics – should improve insurance coverage and the quality of health services, and tackle unethical medical practices

International influences on policy making in China: network authoritarianism from Jiang Zemin to Hu Jintao

Previous research has credited China's top leaders, Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao, with the social policies of their decade in power, arguing that they promoted these policies either for factional reasons or to achieve rational, problem-solving goals. But such arguments ignore the dominant “fragmented authoritarian” model of policymaking in China that centres on bargaining among bureaucratic agencies. This article asks whether top leadership factions, rational problem solving, or “fragmented authoritarianism” can explain the adoption of one of the Hu and Wen administration's flagship policies, New Rural Cooperative Medical Schemes. Based on a careful tracing of this policy's evolution, it finds little evidence for these explanations, and instead uncovers the role played by international events and organizations, and ideas they introduced or sustained within policy networks. The article highlights some of the effects that China's international engagement has had on policymaking and the need to go beyond explanations of the policy process that focus solely on domestic actors. It proposes a new model of policymaking, “network authoritarianism,” that centres on policy networks spanning the domestic–international, state–non-state, and central–local divides, and which takes account of the influence of ideas circulating within these networks

Reassessing the Hu—Wen era: a golden age for social policy

The Hu—Wen era has been characterized as a “lost decade” for economic and political reform, but a “golden era” in terms of economic growth and political stability. Yet, relatively little attention has been paid to the social policies introduced during Hu and Wen’s decade in power. These important policies, however, abolished agricultural taxes, extended health insurance, pensions and income support to all rural as well as urban residents, and built a civic welfare infrastructure to address migrants’ grievances. These policies, some of which were developed under the preceding Jiang Zemin and Zhu Rongji leadership, were introduced for a complex mix of reasons. Their aim was not only to reduce inequalities but also to stimulate domestic consumption and sustain economic growth, offset the effects of China’s entry to the WTO and the global recession of 2008, and maintain social stability. They were the product of domestic bureaucratic politics and experimentation. They were also strongly influenced by China’s integration into the international economy, as well as by international governmental and non-governmental organizations and the ideas they introduced into China’s domestic policy networks. Although Hu—Wen era social policy reforms had only limited effects on reducing income inequality and involved complex politics, they did establish for the first time entitlements to social security and safety nets for all China’s population

Solvent responsive catalyst improves NMR sensitivity via efficient magnetisation transfer

A bidentate iridium carbene complex, Ir(κC,O-L1)(COD), has been synthesised which contains a strongly electron donating carbene ligand that is functionalised by a cis-spanning phenolate group. This complex acts as a precursor to effective magnetisation transfer catalysts which form after reaction with H2 and a suitable two electron donor. In solvents such as benzene, containing pyridine, they are exemplified by neutral, chiral Ir(H)2(κC,O-L1)(py)2 with inequivalent hydride ligands and Ir-O bond retention, whilst in methanol, Ir-O bond cleavage leads to zwitterionic [Ir(H)2(κC,O−-L1)(py)3]+, with chemically equivalent hydride ligands. The active catalyst’s form is therefore solvent dependent. Both these complexes break the magnetic symmetry of the hydride ligands and are active in the catalytic transfer of polarisation from parahydrogen to a loosely bound ligand. Test results on pyridine, nicotinaldehyde and nicotine reveal up to ≈ 1.2 % single spin proton polarisation levels in their 1H signals which compare to the normal 0.003% level at 9.4 Tesla. These results exemplify how rational catalyst design yields a solvent dependent catalyst with good SABRE activity

Market reform and the emergence of the entrepreneurial state in China: The case of state commercial and real estate departments in Tianjin.

China's post-Mao reforms have gradually introduced markets and transformed the planned economy. This dissertation investigates the impact of those market-oriented reforms on state bureaux that administered the planning system. It does this through a study of departments that allocated consumer goods and housing in the north-eastern city of Tianjin. It argues that markets have resulted in the emergence of state entrepreneurialism in these sectors. The introduction of commodity markets has compelled state commerce bureaux to become entrepreneurial by rendering them obsolete. In the property sector, limited real estate markets have provided bureaux with opportunities to do real estate development business. Contrary to the expectations in current thinking on market reform, the Chinese state entrepreneurialism shows that states do not have to resist change and can embrace markets. In the context of a world-wide trend toward marketisation, the Chinese state's adaptive activities are of wider relevance. The key features of the entrepreneurial state are outlined as a model to aid future comparative research

Does distrust in providers affect health-care utilization in China?

How trust affects health-care utilization is not well-understood, especially in low- and middle-income countries. This article focuses on China, a middle-income country where low trust in health-care settings has become a prominent issue, but actual levels of distrust and their implications for utilization are unknown. We conducted a nationally representative survey of the Chinese population (November 2012 to January 2013), which resulted in a sample of 3680 adult men and women. Respondents rated their trust in different types of health-care providers. Using multivariate logistic and negative binomial regression models, we estimated the association between distrust in clinics and respondents' hospital visits in the last year; whether they had sought hospital treatment first for two common symptoms (headache, cold) in the last 2 months; and whether they said they would go first to a hospital if they had a minor or major illness. We analysed these associations before and after adjusting for performance evaluations of clinics and hospitals, controlling for sex, age, education, income, insurance status, household registration and self-assessed health. We found that distrust in hospitals is low, but distrust in clinics is high and strongly associated with increased hospital utilization, especially for minor symptoms and illnesses. Further research is needed to understand the reasons for distrust in clinics because its effects are not fully accounted for by poor evaluations of their competence. © 2016 The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved

Tackling unemployment in China: state capacity and governance issues

This paper considers China's state capacity and changing governance as revealed through its policies to tackle unemployment. Despite high levels of growth, economic restructuring has resulted in rising unemployment over the last decade. The Chinese state has been able to manage job losses from state enterprises, demonstrating some state capacity in relation to this sector and some persistent command economy governance mechanisms. However both design and implementation of policies to compensate and assist particular groups among the unemployed have been shaped by weak state capacity in several other areas. First, capacity to gather accurate employment data is limited, meaning local and central governments do not have a good understanding of the extent and nature of unemployment. Second, the sustainability of supposedly mandatory unemployment insurance schemes is threatened by poor capacity to enforce participation. Third, poor central state capacity to ensure local governments implement policies effectively leads to poor unemployment insurance fund capacity, resulting in provision for only a narrow segment of the unemployed and low quality employment services. Although the adoption of unemployment insurance (and its extension to employers and employees in the private sector), the introduction of a Labour Contract Law in 2007, and the delivery of employment services by private businesses indicate a shift towards the use of new governance mechanisms based on entitlement, contract and private sector delivery of public-sector goods, that shift is undermined by poor state capacity in relation to some of these new mechanisms

Extending political participation in China: new opportunities for citizens in the policy process

Authoritarian political systems are portrayed as offering few opportunities for citizens to participate in politics – particularly in the policy process. This paper’s contribution is to set out new mechanisms that enable Authoritarian political systems are portrayed as offering few opportunities for citizens to participate in politics – particularly in the policy process. This paper’s contribution is to set out new mechanisms that enable Chinese citizens to evaluate government performance, contribute to decision-making, shape policy agendas and feed back on implementation. Based on fieldwork in the city of Hangzhou, we argue that the local party-state orchestrates citizen participation in the policy process, but members of the public nevertheless do have influence. Political participation is widening in China, but it is still controlled. It is not yet clearly part of a process of democratization, but it does establish the principle of citizen rights to oversee the government

‘Is Gold Dust to My Mind’: Exploring Lived Experience in Social Work Education

The involvement of people with lived experience (service participants) is mandatory within UK social work education, although the form this takes varies significantly between organisations. This article outlines the final phase of a two-year research project focused on understanding the mechanisms which support and develop the meaningful and sustainable involvement of people with lived experience in social work education within a Higher Education Institution and a Local Authority Teaching Partnership in the East of England. The research team worked collaboratively using co-production principles and possessed lived experience backgrounds. This article presents findings from a qualitative study using interviews and questionnaires that aimed to deepen understanding of the concept and practice of embedding lived experience in social work education. Thematic analysis identified a dedicated role with the motivation and drive to achieve sustained inclusion in creative ways was the underpinning of meaningful and sustainable lived experience involvement. This was alongside opportunities to shape diverse and relational learning experiences, values reflecting compassionate and respectful relationships, and power sharing, accompanied by practical resources, can create a culture change. Together, these principles, practices and values have been instrumental in creating meaningful and sustainable lived experience involvement within social work education