Social Policy: a new frontier

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Social Policy a new frontier

• Paul Smyth
• Brotherhood of St Laurence
• Dept of Politics, Uni of Melbourne

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• Traditional social policy areas
• income support
• education
• health
• housing
• employment
• social care

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• Contrasted with
• Economic policy
• Defence Policy
• Blurred Boundaries
• Is investment in education social or economic?
• Is wage policy economic or social?

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• What is SP? depends on the meta Q
• What is best organised by
• The state?
• The market?
• The family/civil society?
• Answer depends on the ruling mix of ideas and
  values at the time.

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• Australia Historical
• 1900s-1930s the development state
• railways\ public health\ education (politics for
  markets)
• 1940s to 1970s the economic state
• Keynesian full employment as basis of social
  security (politics managing markets)

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• 1970s 1980s the welfare state
• Markets egoistic\ welfare altruistic (politics
  against markets)
• about distribution not production
• depended on full employment
• Create a Social minimum\ Equal opportunity\
  Social cohesion

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• 1990s the market (markets against the state)
• minimise the state
• maximise market
• National Competition Policy and the Contract
  State

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• 2000s Markets plus communities
• Social capital trust\bonding\bridging\ networks
• social inclusion spatial dimension\ distressed
  areas\ joined up solutions
• social Investment capabilities\ productive
  value of social spending (early years)

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• the future markets and networks and government
• new more realistic economic theory (new
  institutional and evolutionary economics)
• importance of community\ association\ network as
  social-economic actors

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• emphasis on how successful behaviours are
  institutionalised
• new problematic effective coordination \
  planning
• less worried about public or private
• more emphasis on need for social investment

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BCA and transport

• Creating the future Australia (1993)
• core business of government is 4 per cent of
  GDP. Wind back from 25 per cent
• Infrastructure. Action Plan for Future Prosperity
  (2005)
• We need to manage congestion rather than let it
  manage itself . Public transport can be made
  much more efficient and reliable which will
  encourage not only greatre use but also more
  investment

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• New Policy Texts
• Vic Govts third wave markets
• 1980s financial dereg\ tariff removal
• 1990s NCP
• 2000s the human capital stream

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• it is more important than ever that
  governments create the space for new investments
  if only to avoid the costs of non-social policy.
  Not just about avoiding costs but reaping the
  economic benefits of investing in a strong social
  foundation. (National reform Initiative Working
  Group)

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• The new frontier (J Howard)
• The major economic reforms of the last two
  decades and the immense economic strength that
  has resulted have in some ways opened up these
  deeper social policy questions to become the new
  frontier of policy development and innovation.