'If we do not cut social spending, we will end up like Greece': Challenging consent to austerity through social work action

'If we do not cut social spending, we will end up like Greece'. Establishment politicians and media figures use this new ideological mantra throughout the Western world to frighten people into consenting to further neo-liberal restructuring along with cuts in social spending. This phrase and other ideologically laden assertions hide the real causes of the Greek public debt crisis. This commentary challenges the dominant discourse by contextualizing the Greek case within the larger global neo-liberal restructuring processes and then, drawing upon Gramsci's concept of the organic intellectual, proposes ways that the members of the Professional Association of Social Workers (PASW) can engage in a war of ideas and action, as organic intellectuals, to delegitimize the dominant discourse, which seeks consent for social spending cuts and further neo-liberal restructuring of society. © The Author(s) 2013.

Fiscal adjustment and social spending

Includes bibliography

Should Countries Engage in a Race to the Bottom? The Effect of Social Spending on FDI

This paper examines the effect of social spending in developing countries on foreign direct investment (FDI). Existing studies on the race to the bottom in social services attempt to discern the extent to which FDI affects social expenditure. However, it remains an open question whether FDI is actually attracted to lower spending levels. We find no indication that FDI is repelled by social spending; indeed there is strong evidence that investment is associated with greater programmatic emphases on health and education. These findings have important implications for leaders seeking to attract investment and for those attempting to expand social programs.

Public Attitudes Toward Social Spending in the United States: The Differences Between Direct Spending and Tax Expenditures

This paper uses a survey experiment to examine differences in public attitudes toward 'direct' and 'indirect' government spending. Federal social welfare spending in the USA has two components: the federal government spends money to directly provide social benefits to citizens, and also indirectly subsidizes the private provision of social benefits through tax expenditures. Though benefits provided through tax expenditures are considered spending for budgetary purposes, they differ from direct spending in several ways: in the mechanisms through which benefits are delivered to citizens, in how they distribute wealth across the income spectrum, and in the visibility of their policy consequences to the mass public. We develop and test a model explaining how these differences will affect public attitudes toward spending conducted through direct and indirect means. We find that support for otherwise identical social programs is generally higher when such programs are portrayed as being delivered through tax expenditures than when they are portrayed as being delivered by direct spending. In addition, support for tax expenditure programs which redistribute wealth upward drops when citizens are provided information about the redistributive effects. Both of these results are conditioned by partisanship, with the opinions of Republicans more sensitive to the mechanism through which benefits are delivered, and the opinions of Democrats more sensitive to information about their redistributive effects.

Capital financeiro, fundo público e políticas sociais : uma análise do lugar do gasto social no governo Lula

O orçamento constitui um instrumento imprescindível para avaliarmos as prioridades de um governo e as disputas existentes entre as diferentes classes sociais no que diz respeito à apropriação dos recursos do fundo público. Neste sentido, uma aproximação cuidadosa acerca das particularidades que vêm assumindo a dinâmica de acumulação capitalista, bem como das contradições que envolvem o processo de luta e implementação das políticas sociais, parecem elementos que contribuem para nos ajudar a entender de que forma esta disputa vem acontecendo. O objetivo deste trabalho é analisar o lugar do gasto social no governo Lula. Para tanto, consideramos importante analisar os principais elementos da dinâmica de acumulação capitalista tendo como referência a constituição do capital financeiro e o processo de financeirização da economia; discutir a relação entre divida pública, financeirização e crise do capital; apreender as tendências da política social, buscando identificar sua configuração na atualidade; resgatar o processo de formação do Brasil para pensar o governo Lula e a dinâmica da luta de classes na atualidade; e analisar os gastos sociais do governo federal, tendo como base a metodologia desenvolvida pelo IPEA, considerando o período de 2004 a 2011. Por entendermos os gastos sociais como reflexo de um processo de correlação de forças que tem, na relação entre capital e trabalho sua dimensão fundante, esta análise não pode ter um fim em si mesma. Ao contrário, entender as particularidades da dinâmica de acumulação no tempo presente é imprescindível para apreender os movimentos do capital e sua força para fazer valer os seus interesses no enfrentamento às resistências impostas pela classe trabalhadora e desta para lutar contra seus grilhões. A atuação do Estado só pode ser entendida em meio a este terreno de luta de classes e suas decisões expressam o poder destas classes de impor suas demandas, além de trazerem consigo o traço das heranças do passado, em especial os vínculos de dependência e subalternidade aos interesses imperialistas. A ausência de ruptura com o capital que marca a ascensão do Partido dos Trabalhadores ao governo federal é permeado por contradições e a análise de seus resultados situa-se em uma série de polêmicas, muitas das quais somente um maior distanciamento histórico permitirá avaliar. Isto não significa que não seja possível empreender um esforço no sentido de identificar as mudanças em curso e levantar as contradições, os limites e as possibilidades abertas pelos mandatos do presidente Lula. De maneira geral, podemos dizer que não houve avanços estruturais significativos neste governo e que a lógica da gestão dos recursos que prioriza o pagamento da dívida pública permanece tendo sofrido alterações pontuais. Entretanto, existem algumas diferenças na composição do gasto social. Estas estão mais atreladas ao provimento de programas voltados para a população de baixa renda do que à melhoria substantiva na garantia das políticas sociais universais. De qualquer forma, seu efeito sobre a melhoria nas condições de vida e de acesso ao consumo de uma parcela da população pode ser sentido.

Gramsci, austerity common sense and the attacks on the welfare state: The need to understand and resist the imposition of the global neoliberal agenda and the role of the social work profession.

During the last 30 years governments almost everywhere in the world are furthering a global neoliberal agenda by withdrawing the state from the delivery of services, decreasing social spending and lowering corporate taxation etc. This restructuring has led to a massive transfer of wealth from the welfare state and working class people into capital. In order to legitimize this restructuring conservative governments engage in collective blaming towards their denizens. This presentation will examine some of the well circulated phrases that have been used by the dominant elite in some countries during the last year to legitimize the imposition of austerity measures. Phrases such as, ‘We all partied’ used by the Irish finance minister, Brian Lenihan, to explain the Irish crisis and collectively blame all Irish people, ‘We must all share the pain’, deployed by another Irish Minister Gilmore and the UK coalition administration’s sound bite ‘We are all in this together’, legitimize the imposition of austerity measures. Utilizing the Gramscian concept of common sense (Gramsci, 1971), I call these phrases ‘austerity common sense’. They are austerity common sense because they both reflect and legitimate the austerity agenda. By deploying these phrases, the ruling economic and political elite seek to influence the perception of the people and pre-empt any intention of resistance. The dominant theme of these phrases is that there is no alternative and that austerity measures are somehow self-inflicted and, as such, should not be challenged because we are all to blame. The purpose of this presentation is to explore the “austerity common sense” theme from a Gramscian approach, focus on its implications for the social work profession and discuss the ways to resist the imposition of the global neoliberal agenda.

Análisis de la priorización del gasto público social y su incidencia en las condiciones de vida de la población colombiana en el gobierno del presidente Álvaro Uribe Vélez (2002 - 2010)

en esta investigación diagnóstica se desarrolla un análisis en torno a las asignaciones presupuestales referentes al gasto público social durante el gobierno del presidente Uribe Vélez y como dichas asignaciones incidieron en las condiciones y la calidad de vida de la población colombiana. Finalmente, el autor de esta investigación propone una alternativa de solución al problema planteado presentando algunos nuevos parámetros para que la asignación del GPS cumpla con los objetivos propuestos de eficacia y eficiencia.

Internacionalização, democracia e gasto social na América Latina, 1980-1999

Neste trabalho examinamos o impacto da globalização sobre os gastos sociais nos países da América Latina. Para medir o nível de internacionalização das economias latino-americanas, construímos um novo indicador de abertura financeira baseada na codificação proposta por Dennis Quinn (1997). Nossos resultados apontam para duas lógicas sobre a qual os efeitos da globalização se fazem sentir. A abertura comercial tem um impacto negativo sobre o gasto social, enquanto a abertura financeira se relaciona positivamente com o mesmo tipo de gasto. Além disso, governos democráticos tendem a gastar mais em programas sociais. De modo geral, nossa pesquisa conclui que a globalização é um fenômeno complexo, apresentando simultaneamente conseqüências positivas e negativas para o financiamento dos programas sociais na América Latina.

Serviço Social Audit Saúde no SUS/RN: projeto ético político profissional e de reforma sanitária

Health policies in Brazil, the decentralization of SUS management responsibilities for the three spheres of government has driven the creation and regulation of the audits of health services in the National Audit Office, this is a trend of neoliberal policies imposed by international bodies like the World Bank and IMF to peripheral countries characterized by productive restructuring and reforming the state focuses on the presence of two competing projects in the area of health: Health Sector Reform Project which is based on the democratic rule of law with the assumption of health as social right and duty of the State in defending the extension of the conquest of rights and democratization of access to health care guaranteed through the public financing strategies and the effective decentralization of decisions pervaded by social control and privatized Health Project which is based on the state minimum, with a reduction in social spending or in partnerships and privatization, stronger nonprofit sector, subject to capitalist interests, is made effective through strategies targeting health policy and refilantropização actions. In this context, the present study is an analysis on the work of social audits of public health in infants from a qualitative and quantitative approach, embodied by the critical method of dialectical Marxist social theory that enabled us to unveil the characterization, the demands, challenges and outline the profile of Social Work in teams inserted audits of SUS in RN, but also provided evidence to demonstrate the prospects and possibilities of this area of activity of social workers. It was also found that through the audit work that the state fulfill its role as bureaucratic and regulator of health services with efficiency, effectiveness and economy. Yet, paradoxically, the audits of SUS may provide a vehicle for enforcing rights and ensuring the fundamental principles contained in the project of health reform, because it can be configured in a space of political struggle as representing a new field of knowledge production that needs to be appropriate for a theoretical critic able to redirect the social interests in favor of the user. From this perspective, it is concluded that the work of social audits of public health in infants despite the social relevance that prints, as they constitute an activity study of reality and its transformation proposition requires a transformative political action guided the discussion Marxist theory holds that the ethical project professional politician of Social Work

O financiamento da política de assistência social no contexto do SUAS: tendências e particularidades do município do Natal-RN

This dissertation analyzes the configuration of the financing of Social assistance in the municipality of Natal-RN in the context of their particular expressions of the problematizando municipal budget against neoliberal adjustment macroeconomic policy. The current trends of "disclaimer" and "desfinanciamento" of social protection by the State, in the context of contemporary capitalism, bring strong implications for Social Security, especially through the redirection of public resources to the international capital, which highlights the overlapping economic interests on social needs. Whereas the changes and innovations occurring in connection with the financing of Social assistance policy, the goal of this documentary research is to identify the characteristics and trends of funding this policy in Natal-RN, from the secondary data analysis from the City of Natal, the Ministry of Social development and hunger and Portal of transparency. In the light of the theoretical, research now presented, shows trends of investment in Social assistance in the municipality of Natal-RN, in the period 2005 to 2009, which are: the tiny role membership (08) Social assistance in the municipal budget; the dispersion and fragmentation of the resources of Social assistance in other organs and/or secretariats of municipal administration; the participation of just 47.5% in expenditure from own organ Manager; the low percentage of implementation of resources foreseen in the Annual Budget Laws; the low allocation of resources in Municipal Social Assistance Fund (FUMAS), which contradicts the national policy for Social Assistance-PNAS/2004; and the predominance of government transfers in the composition of the resources of Social assistance in the municipality. The results of this research suggest that the process of financing of Social assistance in Natal is distant from the principles and guidelines pointed by PNAS/2004. In addition to the effort to understand the complexity of the financing of Social assistance in Natal, this work seeks to contribute to a political analysis in the direction of strengthening social control and the struggle for the expansion of investment in social spending

Social Panorama of Latin America 1998

Includes bibliography

Social Panorama of Latin America 2000-2001

Includes bibliography

Social Panorama of Latin America 2002-2003

Includes bibliography