SOC 601: Social Policy and Governance Comprehensive Study Notes

Growth of Social Welfare Spending and Budgetary Implications

• Long-term Growth Trends: Social welfare spending has seen a massive increase from less than $5\%$ of $GDP$ at the end of the $19th$ century to approximately $25\%$ of $GDP$ currently. Public spending as a whole accounts for around $43\%$ of $GDP$.
• Relativity to Traditional Spending: Social welfare has eclipsed traditional spending areas such as defense and interest on the National Debt as a proportion of public expenditure.
• Discontinuous Spending Patterns: Growth has not been continuous but occurred in spurts associated with major conflicts:
  • The Boer War: $1899\text{--}1902$.
  • The First World War ($WWI$): $1914\text{--}1918$.
  • The Second World War ($WWII$): $1939\text{--}1945$.
  • The late $1960s$ and early $1970s$ also saw faster growth, while the period from the mid-$1970s$ forward has been characterized by greater stability.

Planning and Controlling Welfare Spending: MoF vs. Social Departments

• The Ministry of Finance ($MoF$): This is the only ministry focused on restricting spending. Other ministries (Interior, Climate Change, Health, Education) are primarily directed to spend to achieve their specific targets (e.g., reducing $CO_2$ emissions or building more schools).
• Pakistan’s Governance Structure: The country utilizes three levels of government:
  • National.
  • Provincial.
  • Local ($140\text{-}A$).
• Historical Centralization: Power was historically centralized through:
  • $1955$: One Unit system.
  • $1962$: Centralized power under the constitution where the President was all-powerful and the Federal legislature was subservient.
  • $1973\text{--}2008$: Mostly single-party rule across different tiers of government.
• The Change - $18th$ Amendment: This shift empowered provincial governments and the $7th$ National Finance Commission ($NFC$) award, which increased the share of provinces in the divisible pool while lowering collection charges.

The Planning and Monitoring Role of the Treasury and Parliament

• The UK System: Unlike the $US$ Congress, the $UK$ Parliament has little independent power to initiate taxes; its role is confined to approving Finance Bills introduced by the government. Local government in the $UK$ is generally weak and subject to central control ($Scotland$, $Wales$, and NorthernIreland are partial exceptions since $1998$).
• The Treasury: Headed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, it is the key agency for social spending planning. The system evolved from the $1960s$ process known as $PESC$ (PlanningandExpenditureServicesCommittee).
• Two-Yearly Spending Reviews: Since $1998$, departments are given budgets for a three-year period. Significant reviews include the "comprehensive" spending review of $1998$ and $October\,2007$.
• The Two Fiscal Rules:
  1. Sustainable Investment Rule: Public sector debt is limited to a maximum of $40\%$ of $GDP$.
  2. Golden Rule: Government borrowing takes place only to invest in infrastructure (hospitals, roads) rather than current spending (wages, benefits).
• Parliamentary Scrutiny: Conducted via the National Audit Office ($NAO$), the Public Accounts Committee ($PAC$), and Select Committees (e.g., the Health Select Committee).
• Cash Planning vs. Volume Terms: Prior to the mid-$1970s$, spending was planned in "volume terms" (e.g., numbers of doctors/nurses) regardless of cash cost. Since the inflation crisis of the mid-$1970s$, the system shifted to "cash limits."
• The Southgate Report: Argued that the Treasury should take an active supply-side role, redefining issues like unemployment as micro-economic rather than macro-economic.

Arrival and Evolution of Education Policy

• Foundational Quote: ". . . if you think education is expensive, try ignorance" — Tony Benn.
• Ancient Views vs. Formal Education: Historically, education was on-the-job vocational training. Modern concepts of spending $20\text{--}22$ years in a room to learn agriculture were viewed as "foolish" by ancestors who prioritized practical experience.
• Modern Complexity: Basic and theoretical education are now essential because the modern world is too complex (e.g., engineers must calculate before building; cardiologists must study before treating patients).
• Public vs. Private Debate: Historically, the state's responsibility for education was resisted. In Britain, pre-$1870$, education was the responsibility of the voluntary sector (churches/charities) and private "public" schools.
• The Contract State: Government pays for services provided by non-governmental organizations ($NGOs$), defining quality standards like the "three Rs" (reading, writing, arithmetic).
• Reasons for Slow State Involvement in the UK:
  1. Laissez-faire ideology and individualism.
  2. Early industrial dominance ($50\,years$ of market lead) reduced the perceived need for formal state education.
  3. Elite disdain for scientific/technical education in favor of Classics and Arts.
• The Newcastle Commission ($1861$): Advised continuing the voluntary system but introduced "payment by results." Grants and salaries depended on child attendance and test results in the three Rs, leading to rote-learning and class sizes exceeding $100$ pupils per teacher.
• Education Reform Act ($1988$): Reintroduced a competitive market, assessment standards, and "league tables."

Madrassa Education: The Third Tier

• Definition: "Madrassa" (Arabic) literally means a place for education (secular or religious). Over time, it became identified with Islamic religious education.
• Historical Growth:
  • $1947$: Pakistan inherited $200$ madrassas.
  • Post-$1979$ (Soviet invasion): Madrassas became feeders to the $US$-Saudi sponsored Afghan Jihad. Approximately $1000$ madrassas were established for this purpose with Middle Eastern aid.
  • Present: Approximately $40,000$ madrassas operate, many functioning as $NGOs$ for poor/orphan children.
• Major Sectarian Organizations ($Wafaqs$):
  • $Wafaq\text{-}ul\text{-}Madaris\,Al\text{-}Salafia$ ($Hanbali/Salafi/Wahhabi$, est. $1955$).
  • $Wafaq\text{-}ul\text{-}Madaris\,Al\text{-}Arabia$ ($Hanafi/Deobandi$, est. $1959$).
  • $Wafaq\text{-}ul\text{-}Madaris\,Shia$ ($Shiite$, est. $1959$).
  • $Tanzeem\text{-}ul\text{-}Madaris$ ($Hanafi/Brelavi$, est. $1960$).
  • $Rabita\text{-}ul\text{-}Madaris\,Al\,Islamia$ ($Jamaat\text{-}e\text{-}Islami$, est. $1980$).
• Reform Attempts:
  • $ZA\,Bhutto$ nationalized schools but not madrassas. Formed the $CII$ report on reforming Islamic education.
  • $Zia\text{-}ul\text{-}Haq$ attempted mainstreaming and standardization via the Halepota Report and Zakat funding, though it was largely rejected by the madrassas.
  • Post-$9/11$: Focus on inclusion, non-violence, and employability in the wake of the $US$ government's $9/11$ Report.

Educational Policy in Pakistan: $1947\text{--}2010$

• Initial Status ($1947$): Literacy rate was around $15\%$. Female literacy in places like $Balochistan$ was near zero.
• Early Milestones:
  • First National Educational Conference ($1947$): Quaid-i-Azam emphasizes education type for state future. Promised free/compulsory primary education.
  • National Plan of Educational Development ($1951\text{--}57$): Planned $24,000$ new primary schools and training $86,000$ teachers.
  • First $5\,Year\,Plan$ ($1955\text{--}60$): Started $2.5\,years$ late. Literacy stagnant at $16\%$.
  • $1959\,Commission\,on\,National\,Education$: Goal of universal enrollment by $1975$.
• Bhutto's Policy ($1972\text{--}80$): Free and universal education up to Class $X$. Nationalization of all educational institutions (except madrassas). National Literacy Corps created from university students.
• Zia-era Policy ($1979$): Reversal of nationalization, revival of private education, and "Islamization" of humanities and social sciences.
• $1990\,s$ Policies:
  • $1992\,Policy$: Literacy rate at $34\%$, $50\%$ drop-out rate.
  • $1998\text{--}2010\,Policy$: Characterized by massive donor involvement but largely unimplemented. Pakistan ranked $142^{nd}$ of $160$ countries.
• Musharraf Era ($1999\text{--}2010$): Focused on "Enlightened Moderation," poverty reduction, and $ESR$ ($Educational\,Sector\,Reforms\,2002\text{--}2006$). Received over $255\,million\,dollars$ for a $5\,year$ plan from the $US$.

Technical, Vocational, and Special Education

• TVET Policy ($2018$): Aims to address the "youth bulge" ($15\text{--}30\,years$ males). Currently, less than $10\%$ of $15\text{--}24\,year\,olds$ are served. $70\%$ currently learn via the informal "Ustad-shagird" system.
• National Vocational Qualifications Framework: Modeled after systems in over $100$ countries.
• Special Education:
  • Signed the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities ($2008$).
  • $JICA\,Report\,2002$: People with disabilities are "unseen, unheard, and uncounted."
  • Enrollment: Only $4\%$ of children with disabilities are enrolled ($2006/2013$ data). Girls face double discrimination.

National Education Policy ($NEP$) $2017$ and Reforms

• Framework: Grounded in Article $25(a)$ (Fundamental right to free/compulsory education for children aged $5\text{--}16$).
• Goals: Character building, Harmonization of systems, and enhancing budget to $4\%$ of $GDP$.
• Targets for $2020$:
  • Universal Primary Education ($UPE$).
  • Literate Pakistan.
  • Increase higher education enrollment from $1.4\,million$ to $5\,million$ by $2022$.
• Literacy Definition ($2008$): Ability to read and write a paragraph in any language with understanding and perform simple calculations.
• Current Gaps: $57\,million$ illiterates; Primary National Enrollment Ratio ($NER$) of $77\%$ ($2015\text{--}16$).

Social Welfare Policy Frameworks

• Definitions of Social Welfare:
  • Dolgoff and Feldstein ($1980$): Nonprofit functions aimed at alleviating distress or casualties of society.
  • NASW ($1971$): Organized activities to improve the well-being of communities.
  • UN ($1967$): Body of activities designed to help individuals cope with changing conditions and participate in nation-building.
• Pakistan’s Evolving Policies:
  • $1950s$ Policy: Focus on "help people help themselves," community development, and labor protection.
  • $1988$ Policy: Focused on social awareness, disadvantaged groups, and human dimensions of development.
  • $1992$ Policy: Guided by the "Islamic concept of social welfare"; prioritized local government responsibility and collaboration with $NGOs$.
  • $1994$ Policy: Aimed to raise consciousness and pressure the wealthy to decrease consumption.
• Zakat System: First committee formed in $1950$; report in $1952$ called for Ijtihad. Zakat and Ushr Ordinance ($1980$) established the system of deduction from savings accounts.
• Philanthropy: Originally derived from French "Charit"; distinguished from charity by its secular "love of mankind" roots in the $18th\,century$ (e.g., Thomas Coram, Andrew Carnegie).
• Pakistani Philanthropists: Abdus Sattar Edhi, Imran Khan, Syed Babar Ali ($LUMS$), Mushtaq Chhapra ($Citizens\,Foundation$), Agha Hassan Abedi ($Infaq\,Foundation$), and Ganga Ram ("Father of modern Lahore").

Employment, Social Protection, and Senior Citizens

• Employment-Welfare Link: Post-war Beveridgean consensus viewed work as the source of welfare. Labour market "activation" policies focus on getting people off benefits and into work.
• Labor Definitions:
  • Economically Active: Combination of employed and unemployed seeking work.
  • Economically Inactive: People in full-time education, retired, or in unremunerated care work.
  • ILO Unemployment Definition: Aged $16+$, without a job, available to start in $2\,weeks$, and seeking work in the last $4\,weeks$.
• Social Protection Authority ($2015$): Consolidation of programs like $BISP$, $EOBI$, and $Bait\text{-}ul\text{-}Mal$.
• Senior Citizen Initiatives: Older population in Pakistan is estimated at $14\,million$ ($7\%$), expected to reach $44\,million$ by $2050$.
  • KP Senior Citizens Act ($2014$): Promised senior citizen cards for free park access and concession in medicines (unimplemented).
  • Sindh Senior Citizens Act ($2016$): Promised "Azadi cards," $50\%$ transport fare concessions, and $25\%$ drug discounts (unimplemented).

Child Rights and Social Safety Nets

• Child Statistics in Pakistan: Children are over $45\%$ of the population. $7\,million$ are out of primary school. Polio remains endemic.
• Malnutrition ($2011\,Survey$): $15.1\%$ wasted, $43.6\%$ stunted, $31.5\%$ underweight.
• Social Safety Net Programs ($SSNP$): Includes budgeted (BISP, PBM, EOBI, WWF) and non-budgetary elements (PPAF).
• Global Social Protection Stats ($ILO\,2017\text{--}19$): Only $35\%$ of children worldwide are covered. $68\%$ of elderly receive old-age pensions. Only $3.2\%$ of global $GDP$ is spent on public social protection.

Health Policy Models and Governance

• Biomedical Model: Health defined as the absence of disease; focuses on diagnosis and treating individuals scientifically.
• Social Model: Health is complete physical, mental, and social well-being; factors include income, housing, and environment ($WHO\,1970$ definition).
• The Rudolf Klein Paradox: Politicians prioritize "health care policy" (shorter waiting lists, technology) because it has a visible constituency, whereas "prevention" has no identifiable beneficiaries.
• Pakistan’s Healthcare Tiers: BHU ($Basic\,Health\,Unit$ for $10,000\,people$) $→$ RHC ($Rural\,Health\,Centre$) $→$ THQ ($Tehsil\,Headquarter$) $→$ DHQ ($District\,Headquarter$) $→$ Tertiary Hospitals.
• Professional Bodies: The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council ($PMDC$) was dissolved in $October\,2019$ and replaced by the Pakistan Medical Commission ($PMC$).

Gender Policy and Empowerment Approaches

• Welfare Approach ($1970s$): Focus on reproduction, mother-child health, and population control.
• Equity Approach: Addressing women’s specific needs; households work is monetized as work.
• Anti-Poverty Approach: Productivity and income generation for women.
• Efficiency Approach ($1980s$): Associated with $IMF/World\,Bank\,SAPs$; targeted women as workers to ensure full human resource use.
• Empowerment Approach: Focus on self-reliance and legal change. Triple roles of women: Reproductive, Productive, and Community Management.
• Constitutional Rights:
  • Article $25$: No discrimination on sex.
  • Article $34$: Full participation in national life.
  • Article $51$: $60$ reserved seats in the National Assembly.
• Legal Historiography:
  • Modernist ($1947\text{--}72$): Muslim Family Laws Ordinance ($1961$) - marriage registration, restriction on second marriages, inheritance for orphans’ children.
  • Conservative ($1973\text{--}99$): Zina Ordinance ($1979$), Law of Evidence ($1984$), Qisas and Diyat.
  • Liberal ($2000\text{--}present$): Women Protection Act ($2006$), Sexual Harassment Act ($2010$), Anti-Honor Killing Law.

Social Control and Criminal Justice

• Isaiah Berlin’s Freedoms: Negative freedom (freedom from interference) vs. Positive freedom (having the support/ability to act).
• Bismarck’s Social Insurance ($1880s$): A form of social control used to gain state legitimacy from the labor movement.
• Hirschi’s Control Mechanisms: 1. Attachments, 2. Commitment, 3. Belief, 4. Involvement.
• Criminal Justice Process: Elements include substantive laws, investigative processes, dominant thinking (Justice notions), and penal philosophy.
• Justice Models:
  • Due Process Model: "Justitia" (the blind goddess) - impartiality, presumption of innocence, PACE Act $1984$.
  • Crime Control Model: Focus on efficient repression of crime; "conveyor belt" system with high reliance on police discretion and guilty pleas.
• Punishment Justifications:
  • Reductivism: Deterrence (specific and general), Incapacitation, and Rehabilitation.
  • Retributivism: "Just Deserts" (revenge/fairness) and lex talionis (the eye for an eye principle).

Family and Housing Policy Concerns

• Family Policy Definitions:
  • Explicit Policy: Direct government intervention (e.g., France).
  • Implicit Policy: Indirect concern (e.g., UK).
• Inheritance: Systems vary between Patrilineal (male) and Matrilineal (female). Primogeniture (first-born gets all) was the law in England until $1925$.
• Housing Policy:
  • Bhutto's Roti, Kapra, aur Makan: Property rights for Katchi abadis; $3\,Marla$ (urban) and $5\,Marla$ (rural) plots for the poor.
  • National Housing Policy ($2001$): Identified a backlog of $4.3\,million$ units.
  • Naya Pakistan Housing Program ($NPHP$): Reverse auction construction, mortgage loans up to $20\,years$, focus on high-rise buildings to save arable land.

Globalization and Multi-Level Governance

• Waves of Globalization:
  1. $15th\text{--}18th\,C$: Discovery and local trade.
  2. $19th\,C\text{--}1914$: British dominance/Steam engine.
  3. $1945\text{--}1989$: US-led post-war growth.
  4. $1990\text{--}2008$: Digital integration/Internet.
  5. Current (Post-$2010$): AI and E-commerce.
• Multi-Level Governance ($MLG$): The re-articulation of state power where decisions involve networked negotiations at local, national, and international levels (e.g., European Union).
• Welfare Regimes ($Esping\text{-}Andersen$):
  1. Liberal: Limited state role/Market-led.
  2. Conservative-Corporatist: Status/Family focused.
  3. Social-Democratic: Universalism.

Green Social Policy and Sustainable Development

• Limits to Growth: Realization in the $1970s$ that Earth’s resources are finite.
• Light Greens: Focus on green entrepreneurship and reducing luxury consumption.
• Dark Greens: Prioritize nature over humankind; radical population control.
• Key Areas of Concern:
  • Transport: Greenhouse gas emissions and the health effects of a sedentary lifestyle.
  • Food: Undernourishment ($800\,million\,children$) vs. overconsumption. Intensive farming and refrigeration contribution to climate change.
  • Work: Redefining work beyond paid labor to include family/community care.
• The Mexican Fisherman Parable: Illustrates that the ultimate goal of "full and busy lives" (siestas, playing guitar, strolling with family) may already be achieved by those whom the Western model labels as underdeveloped.