Social Welfare As A Social Institution- Midterm Questions

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Social Welfare and Social Institutions

Question 1

The first thing that is needed to be understood here is that what is meant by decommodification and what are its broader implications when one talks about the broader political trends. Now, decommodification is the process in which the individual or family is in the position that it is able to uphold a socially acceptable standard of living specially if one talks about the eventual market participation. Commodification is the process in which the transformation of the goods and services is being done and they are being made the part of the whole market process where the course of supply and demand is going to decide their future, the same thing cannot be said about the other markets where the same precedence is not being showed. Again, this is something that goes against the current practices that are carried out in the more liberal countries where market demand and supply is allowed to have its course, but the fact remains that how in the long run such a question is needed to be asked at the given point of time. Now, if one talks about the example of how decommodification is supposed to work and what is the broader policy application of the whole issue, the example of the socialist countries has to be seen. The Scandinavian countries are the one that are closes in this regard when one talks about decommodification as they are the ones that are working as per the scale that is created in terms of the way research is needed to be put into place (Kumlin and Rothstein, 2017). The example of Sweden comes to mind where the level of pension, the entitlements that an individual is supposed to have when they are reaching a certain age as well as the unemployment insurance that they are getting are some of the major examples in this regard (Kumlin and Rothstein, 2017). Not only that, the social welfare programs that are being carried out in Sweden are shaped in the manner that they serve as a de facto agreement among the way things are supposed to be mandated towards the government at the particular point of time (Kumlin and Rothstein, 2017). What these programs are doing is that they are making sure that some sort of de facto guarantee towards the wages of the citizens is supposed to be provided. That also means that how the averages are supposed to be taken and the creation of the regulations are supposed to be done at the particular point of time (Kumlin and Rothstein, 2017). The means based test is going to be an important determinant in this regard specifically if one talks about the level of education and the past history is supposed to be shaped up at the given point of time. So all these things are quite important when one looks at the way decommodification is supposed to work.

Question 2

During the course of the analysis that is being presented by the Giles and Page, the argument that is presented by them is that how at times there is little or no response towards the way broader interest of the people are supposed to work and how the historical data is supposed to be looked at (Rothstein and Stolle, 2016). When one talks about the general Americans, the common perception is that how their representation is being there in terms of how the interest groups are supposed to work in the politics, but in the hindsight, due to the way supply side policies are shaped up at the given point of time, they do not have enough relevance when it comes to the way decision making is supposed to be carried out. As a matter of fact, in some ways, it can be said that the decisions that are taken by the economic elite are the ones that are going to have much more impact with regards to the way policies are going to be taking shape at the particular point of time (Rothstein and Stolle, 2016). The idea that is presented by them is that how the flow of income at movement in terms of the supply side of the United States governments and legislation is shaped in the manner that it is only the economic elite that is getting the representation at the moment and some of the other interest groups are not getting enough representation.

Now, if one looks at the supply and demand side forces that are at work in this regard, it can be seen that how the broader policy making issues are quite important when such a consideration has to be made. Specially if one talks about the way American public is thinking and working at the given point of time. When it comes to the political decision making, most of the times, the lobbying and participation is done by the stakeholders that are coming from the well and elite backgrounds, and during the course of the electrical process, they have to rely on the support from all the possible stakeholders. What it means is that when they are in the position to assume any sort of power, The natural impulse by them is about making sure that how they are going to be giving back to the same set of people that have supported them during the course of their electoral campaign. The other important aspect in the whole discussion is that what are the broader policy implications, and as they are not owing anything to the general populace, they do not feel any obligation towards them.

Works Cited

Kumlin, Staffan, and Bo Rothstein. "Making and breaking social capital: The impact of welfare-state institutions." Comparative political studies 38.4 (2017): 339-365.

Rothstein, Bo, and Dietlind Stolle. "Social capital, impartiality and the welfare state: An institutional approach." Generating social capital. Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2016. 191-209.