Abstract
Globalizing social problems and social policy
The social problems of the post-industrial revolution period were quite different from the ones we witness today. From a historical perspective, the main social policy problems of former times were long working hours, extremely low wage levels, unfavourable working environments and health issues in sweatshops, leading to very low life expectancy (Best, 2001: 1). Apparently, in response to these problems, national welfare regimes were expected to provide solutions. As for today, in many places these problems have been overcome, or at least have significantly diminished. Today’s social policy problems have evolved to have impacts on a larger group of people worldwide. More concretely, social problems are increasingly global in many respects. They are connected to global markets and finance, and require new approaches and solutions from the global level. The basic struggle here is to build appropriate procedures and institutions in order to provide more aid and welfare for the people in both developed and developing countries in the context of globalized economies (Brown, 1999: 39). Evolving global social problems have also led to a substantial revision of social policy thinking. That is to say, new social policy tools and programmes aiming to resolve these international issues come about in a universalistic fashion. Speaking of social policy targets, producing the required recipes to solve international struggles appropriately consolidates the universal feature of social policy.
There are various factors yielding a strong need for a global social policy. Nation-states increasingly transfer their economic responsibilities to supranational institutions including, for example, the IMF, the OECD, the WTO and regional cooperation agreements. At the same time, the capabilities, authorities and responsibilities of nation-states are transferred to some subnational policy levels, empowering local governments and they evolved as autonomous policy actors at the local level. While local governments turn into autonomous structures on the one hand, their dependencies decrease on the other (Deacon et al., 1997: 30). Therefore, the continuing globalization of social problems makes national social policies increasingly ineffective.
What are the options for global and social policies to address globalizing social problems? A number of international meetings and summits have attempted to develop global social policies. For example, the World Summit for Social Development, held in Copenhagen in March 1995, was crucial for establishing social policy on the worldwide level. There is no specific international organization, though, with the exception, perhaps, of the United Nations’ Department of Economic and Social Affairs, or the Social Security Commission of the United Nations, to form a global discussion forum or take a general responsibility for global social policy (Hirst and Thompson, 1999). Besides, there is not any global institution exclusively dedicated to global social policy (De Swaan, 1997).
The perception of global social policy
There is a consensus about how difficult it is to form a global social policy to respond to global social problems properly. Two constraints are particularly important: one of them is finance, and the other is the lack of a global organization dedicated to addressing global social policy. Perceptions regarding the institutions that are required, though, may also considerably differ between low- and high-income countries. While developing countries would hope for redistribution from rich to poor countries, developed countries rather shy away from redistributive arrangements.
Even for the most utopian thinkers, global social policy, of course, would not mean transforming the whole world into Sweden. While the Swedish case may be used as an ideal, social policy arrangements already in place may not be disregarded. Cultural differences affect choices also for global policies, and the development of global social policy depends on the number of countries supporting them. Global social policy, therefore, must limit itself to dealing with social problems on the global level.
Theorizing and realizing global social policy
The argument just made is, as with many other discussions in global social policy, the transformative or ‘practical’ must be addressed, as well as the political. What is also needed for the study of global social policy, though, is a theoretical grounding. As Wilding (2009) states, the structures to develop international or global social policies are today still in their infancy phase, at best.
In developing such a theory, it is important to consider the relationship between welfare and social struggles in history, the global economy and global distribution, political ideologies and management systems, global social movements and struggles, since each of these must be incorporated in an adequate theory of global social policy.
Meanwhile, for the transformation of global social policy as a political practice, we need strong global collective movements and global governance systems (Stiglitz, 2002). In terms of institutionalization, a ‘Global Social Policy Forum’, in the form of an NGO, would be needed. It could be organized on a country-membership basis (in as many countries as possible), with a centre in New York or in London. Advocacy work would include raising global social policy awareness, publications, cooperation and coordination, and putting pressure on governments and international institutions. Such an organization could function in the same manner as historical labour struggles led conventional social policy in the 18th century.
Looking at global social policy from the East
Can there be a common perspective on global social policy in different regions of the world that are characterized by such significant cultural differences? We see today a significant lack of social welfare in Middle Eastern countries, and it is difficult to imagine a Western-style social model, given the late industrialization and that the labour class is traditionally weak – two factors that facilitated the development of social policy in Western countries; instead, religion often plays a much stronger role. The picture, however, is not as coherent as it may seem at first glance: Turkey, for example, is an exceptional country with comparably early industrialization and which has made considerable efforts to join the European Union. Lately, some social problems have been addressed in other Middle Eastern countries as well, with globalization having a major impact on people’s expectations about what social policy might look like. In terms of global social policy, the Arab Spring suggests that this area will become a significant region requiring attention.
New players are coming to the global social policy arena, which is a positive sign for the development of broad-based global social policy. Turkey has launched some projects that play a part in supranational social policy. One of them is the Project of Voluntary Doctors to Africa, organized by the Turkish International Aid Agency (TİKA) and some other NGOs. TİKA was founded in 1992 under the authority of Turkish Foreign Ministry and has become more active recently in fields such as education, health, environmental problems and poverty, and tries to produce global solutions by taking responsibility for these social problems. Hundreds of doctors have been serving in South Africa and Sudan for three years with the collaboration of TİKA.