Welfare and Public Services
What does the Big Society value?
Will charities and social enterprises be on a level playing field with big private sector providers when competing for public service delivery contracts?
"... The UK Department for International Development wants more accountability (read “value demonstrated”) in international aid, but a paper by former USAID employee Andrew Natsios demonstrates that this approach tends to skew investment into programmes that can offer easily calculated benefits (in the international development context: health ones over justice and democracy-strengthening ones for example) ..."
The Spirit Level debate continues...
As promised last week, ResPublica Research Assistant Florinda Pjetri reports on the RSA's Spirit Level debate
"... According to Saunders, there is something culturally and historically specific about the Anglo-American countries and the Scandinavian countries which has generated both their different wealth distributions and their differing social outcomes, as opposed to their differing income distribution generating these outcomes ... "
Raising the retirement age in line with life expectancy would be a first in the world
How the Government's plans to raise the retirement age in line with life expectancy stack up against international comparators
"... Although these pension formulae differ in the way they incorporate rising life expectancy they have one thing in common: it is always unisex and applies to all in the same way. Women live longer than men, higher educated people live longer than those with less education, and richer people live longer than poorer ones. These factors are not accounted for, would be difficult to implement and are likely to be contentious issues ..."
The Debunking of 'The Spirit Level'
Should science have the last word?
"... Evidence-for-the-obvious is a key weapon in the political arsenal, not least because it can open an Overton Window in the range of policies that the public, or a particular constituency, are willing to accept ..."
Exit Wounds
From the World Cup to public sector reform, is it always the manager’s fault?
"...the UK’s pervasive culture – reflected and magnified by the press – of personalising blame and apportioning it to the highest possible target. In the public sector, this culture has resulted in a highly centralised and risk-averse public sector, where decision-making and responsibility is hoarded by those higher up the organisation because those at the top are rightfully concerned that they will be the ones who will be held accountable when things go wrong..."
Out for Justice: Can the Big Society fix Broken Britain?
Judging from the experience of places that have reduced crime significantly, engaging communities and increasing public investment are two sides of the same coin
"... Offering have-a-go heroes greater legal protections to apprehend criminals and defend themselves is only a token gesture in the grand scheme of things - unless the Conservatives are genuinely paving the way for state retrenchment to be replaced by voluntary groups along the lines of the Arizona Minutemen who ‘operat[e] within the law to support enforcement of the law’. If the Broken Britain thesis is accurate then it requires a serious solution, and this in turn requires significant funding..."
