Translating travelling ideas: The introduction of unemployment insurance in Turkey

This article uses the case study of disability policy in Turkey to investigate how the policy of International Organisations (IOs) influences domestic policy and the ways in which domestic actors ‘assemble’ or re-‘assemble’ policies or construct ‘hybrid’ policy. Sociologists have devoted their efforts to finding reasonable explanations for how influence results in translating the policy ideas of international organisations (IOs) to the domestic context. Historically, IOs have been able to advance global disability policy developments; yet, there has been a significant gap in our knowledge of the detailed mechanisms of how IOs’ influence has been exerted at the domestic context. Drawing on both documentary sources and semistructured interviews, we found a combination of inspirational, and both direct and indirect coercive influence of IOs contributed to policy translation in Turkish disability policy between 1980 and 1999. However, there was no evidence for direct influence of neither IOs headquarters nor IOs Turkish offices in the policy translation in disability.

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 81%

Section: Ios and Domestic Actors In Policy Translationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Policy translation in Turkish disability policy: The role and limitations of international organisations

Duygun

2020

“…In that context, the author finds a ‘degenerate form of social policy stemming from neoliberalism behind the prolonged rule of the AKP’. Looking more specifically on the mechanisms of diffusion, Ozkan (2013) had made similar arguments regarding the role of the World Bank in unemployment insurance policies in Turkey. Considering new moves on social protection within the IMF (see GSP digest in this issue), it will be interesting to see follow-up studies regarding the impact of such a policy on IMF practices.…”

mentioning

confidence: 93%

Pushing the boundaries of regional social policies, or towards a world of universalism in social protection?

Kaasch

2020

Dear GSP readers, Looking at the contributions to this issue of Global Social Policy and a number of recent book releases, we find ever more evidence for social policy scholarship broadening and globalising. Furthermore, the application of concepts, or the directions of potential policy learning, are no longer one-directional but consider mutual processes between parts of the world associated with more or less developed systems of social protection. This is accompanied by increasing global (academic as well as political) discussion on claims, forms and degrees of universal social protection. Let's start with taking a look at so-far understudied groups of countries or regions, and their social policy developments. Inviting a dialogue between Asian and European countries is Stein Kuhnle et al.'s (2019), edited collection 'Globalizing Welfare. An Evolving Asian-European Dialogue'. By compiling a great number of case study chapters from the European and Asian region, they intend to facilitate a better understanding of development in both Asian and European social policy arrangements, potentially leading to mutual policy learning. The changing research focus and evolving concepts are also reflected in Katharina Zimmerman's book on 'Local Policies and the European Social Fund (ESF). Employment Policies across Europe'. She provides us with an account of the consequences of conditional external finance, but this time not from the side of international financial institutions where such analyses are usually applied. Instead, the book introduces us into the world of European Union (EU) structural funding, and illustrates how EU cohesion funding is tied to specific reporting and benchmarking procedures. This forces receiving units to take on board particular programmatic objectives and procedural requirements. Studying the ESF, and its implications for local labour markets, Zimmermann identifies three types of conditional patterns: refuseniks, cream skimmers and transformers.

“…However, beyond mere financial support many SAPs are accompanied by advisers, training programmes and so on, which also play an important role in the design of national social policies. Thus, IOs have increasingly become the focal points of a global exchange of ideas on social policies (cf., for example, Liu, 2015; Ozkan, 2013; Seekings, 2010). In the post-socialist context, for example, IOs have played a prominent role in directing and shaping social policy (cf., for example, An, 2014; Cerami, 2006; Deacon, 2000; Lehrer and Korhonen, 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The advice they give: Knowledge transfer of international organisations in countries of the former Soviet Union

Heinrich

2020

This article tests the assumptions of the literature regarding the neoliberal agenda (‘Washington Consensus’) promoted by international organisations through knowledge transfer and about the power they supposedly have through loan conditionality to impose their will on countries in financial need. In addition, it examines ‘avant-garde measures’ of neoliberal reforms exceeding the requirements from international organisations. Looking at the social policy concepts and advice these organisations give countries in the former Soviet Union, it utilises the example of healthcare reform in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia. The article examines the general advice these organisations gave between 1991 and 2018 for the reorganisation and management of the countries’ healthcare systems, especially concerning the introduction of a mandatory health insurance system.