Poverty and the Welfare State

Poverty and the Welfare State Poverty and the Welfare State. Question 1 Describe critically Murrays analysis of the underclass. How does the population in the USA characterized by his use of this term differ from that in Britain. Question 2 In an essay of no more than 1000 words, outline and critically evaluate the view that the Welfare State tends to create more poverty than it has the ability to solve. your essay must include examples of state policies as well as consider the different ideologies of welfare in Britain Question 1. Murrays articles in the Times magazine in 1989 which outlined his thesis concerning the emergence of an underclass in the UK similar to the one he had already identified in the US has been one of the more controversial texts in social policy recently (Murray, 1989, 1990). Murrays central thesis is that the welfare state through the provision of benefits to unmarried mothers and the cessation of those benefits should these women marry has the effect of removing fatherhood and the influence thereof a father figure from the lives of these children (Murray, 1989). They in turn become dependent upon welfare and so a class of people is formed outside of the norms of wage earning society dependent wholly on the state for support (Murray, 1989). Before we discuss some of the criticisms of this view it is worth noting the peculiarities and differences between Murrays thesis as it relates to the US and the UK. In the first instance Murrays work in the UK is much less racialised than his identification of the population in the US (Murray, 1984). In the case of the US Murrays thesis and identification of the population comprising the majority of the underclass has been that it is a Black population. Murray then identified single black mothers as forming the core of the underclass. While this was a feature certainly still of his analysis of the British underclass it was not as strikingly so as his British version however the later versions of his thesis on the UK underclass also took on these racial overtones, (Murray, 1994). Murray can be criticized on any number of grounds but perhaps some of the most devastating criticisms can be found when we consider research which is actually undertaken on those who constitute the underclass rather than abstract theorizing about the underclass which denotes much of the vague definitions of what the underclass is meant to be (Alcock 1997). In this regard recent work by Edwards and Duncan (1997) for example has demonstrated the degree to which the stereotypes of the composition of the underclass do not match the realities of the lives involved. In their study of single women with children and their uptake of paid work they found that black single mothers living in positively regarded underclass areas (inner city areas of London for example) were more likely to seek work and to regard working themselves as being beneficial for their children (Edwards and Duncan, 1997:33). This was in contrast to single mothers from less predominantly underclass areas that held traditio nal views about rearing their children. These views emphasised the importance of caring for their children through being at home with them rather than outside the home in employment. Consequently the members of this group were much less likely to have work or to seek work or see work as a good. Thus the image of black single mothers creating an underclass through their rejection of a work ethic would seem to be unfounded. Thus even in this small instance fatal flaws in Murrays thesis can be identified, ultimately it can be said that the very vagueness of the definitions of what constitutes the underclass in the literature can it be argued be seen to be reflective of the fact that an identifiable object such as the underclass is impossible to define and serves merely as a critique of welfare arrangements and a moral attack on the nature of those who are marginalized by society. Question 2. With the collapse of communist states across the world in the 1980s a major perceived competitor to the market economy was removed with some like Fukuyama proclaiming it to be the end of history and the triumphant victory of liberalism (Fukuyama, 1992). In the UK as in other European countries of course the welfare state has mediated against the evils of capitalism as set out by Beveridge for some time, serving as Marxists had argued as a bribe of the working class and ensuring the legitimization and continuation of the welfare state (Mishra, 1990). It is not surprising then with all the past attacks on the nature of the welfare state to note that with the end of history there has come a renewed assault on the welfare state in the UK. Criticisms of the welfare state have come from both the left and the right but also crucially from the middle way of social democratic viewpoints. Almost consistent research has demonstrated the failure of the welfare state in reducing relative levels of poverty; in fact the UK today has a divide between rich and poor which is increasing quicker than at any other time in the history of the welfare state (Hills and Stewart, 2005). Thus it has become an almost consistent feature of debate that the welfare state has failed but the reasons given for this failure are completely oppositional. The two most prominent sources of these reasons have been neo-liberalists and social democratic parties. For neo-liberalists the evils of the welfare state far outweigh the evils of the free market so in discussing the view that the welfare state creates poverty it is worth recounting their views on the failings of the welfare state. At the core of many of the arguments thus against the welfare state are notions of desert. Desert is seen as a principle of morals and thus the failings of the welfare state in this respect is a moral failure which in turn leads to the moral turpitude of those the welfare state attempts to help (Lavalette and Pratt, 1997). This moral attack on the poor and the perceived institutions which has lead to their poverty is of course nothing new (Thane, 1992). Since the Poor Law state welfare arrangements have been criticized for the creation of a mentality which is seen to encourage indolence and decrease motivation towards self-sufficiency. The reliance on welfare thus leads to unwillingness to seek work. This in turn has the effect of leading to increased taxation to support those unwilling to work. This then in turn leads to increased difficulties for employers in terms of paying higher salaries to counter higher taxation and so on into a vicious cycle of dependency (Hayek, 1990). Such a trend it is argues lay at the heart of the Oil Crises and the subsequent retrenchment of the welfare state in the UK and elsewhere. Thus for the neo-liberal critique it is the totality of the welfare state which not only fails in reducing poverty but also serves to in fact create more. It does this both in a structural sense by hindering the effective operation of the market but also by creating in those who are recipients of welfare a mentality which causes them to retreat from the fundamental basics of economic life in seeking employment. Thus for neo-liberals measures such as Income Maintenance support schemes serve to create a duality of factors leading to the increase of poverty. Reform of the welfare state for neo-liberalists must be done so that only the bare minimum of services are required for those who are truly in need, such as the young, aged or infirm, (Fitzpatrick, 2001). Amidst these criticisms the welfare state in the UK has undergone revisions also from its social collectivist roots. This may be surprising but we can view this a response to critiques of the welfare state from both left and right and hence theyre emerged consequently an articulation of a Third Way, (Giddens, 1994). This Third Way was to be a radical re-conceptualisation of the basis and functions of the welfare state. As such then it can be seen that New Labour in particular has followed in the footsteps of Thatcher towards reforming the welfare state. But how effective have these reforms been and what is their basis? Perhaps the most potent of these transformations has been in a shift away from the universalism of the early welfare state to a new selectivitist philosophy. Selectivism entails the targeting of benefits through such measures as means-testing and other income threshold schemes so as that ideally those that need it the most benefit from the specified arrangement (Lowe, 2005). If anything their effect on the poorest has been marginal as these people are already in receipt of benefits and the introduction of means tests has had little impacts. Instead a stealth reform of the welfare state has occurred and those who were on the margins, previously covered by the benefit are now excluded on the basis of their income being over thresholds, even if this is just marginal, (Esping-Anderson, 2002). Thus we can argue that this selectivist based reform of the welfare state has worsened life for many by removing the safety net for all that existed previously under a universalist system. What this means in other words is that the Third Way of Labour has in actuality enhanced and widened the gaps between rich and poor and made the effects of poverty worse their reforms in favour of making the welfare state more effective. The pace and scale of the gap and its widening between rich and poor can be considered in this light. Indeed this notion of effectiveness found in much of social policy discourse can often be seen as simply cost-cutting exercises. The effects of which are leading to a situation where it is arguable that we have now seen neo-liberalism by the back door with major consequences for UK policy treatment of both poverty itself and those living in poverty. References Alcock, P. (1997); Understanding Poverty, Palgrave, Basingstoke UK Edwards, R. and Duncan S. (1997); Supporting the Family: Lone Mothers, Paid Work and the Underclass Debate; Critical Social Policy, Vol.7 No. 4 Esping-Anderson, G. (2002); Why We Need a New Welfare State, Oxford University Press, Oxford UK Fitzpatrick, T. (2001); Welfare Theory: An Introduction, Palgrave, Basingstoke UK Fukuyama, F. (1992); The End of History and the Last Man, Penguin, New York US Giddens, A. (1994); Beyond Left and Right: The Future of Radical Politics, Stanford University Press, California US Hayek, F.A.V. (1990); Economic Freedom, Blackwell, Oxford UK Hills, J. and Stewart, K. (2005); A More Equal Society, Policy Press, Bristol UK Lavalette, M. and Pratt, A. (1997); Social Policy: A Theoretical and Conceptual Introduction, Sage, London UK Lowe, R. (2005); The Welfare State in Britain since 1945, Palgrave, Basingstoke UK Mishra, R. (1990); The Welfare State in Capitalist Society, Harvester Wheatsheaf, New York US Murray, C. (1984); Losing Ground: American Social Policy 1950-1980, Basic Books, New York Murray, C. (1989); Underclass; Sunday Times Magazine, 26th November Murray, C. (1990), The Emerging British Underclass, IEA, London UK Murray, C. (1994); Underclass: The Crisis Deepens; The Sunday Times, 29th May Thane, P. (1982); The Foundations of the Welfare State, Longman, London UK

Motivation Problem

On our assembly lines, we were trying to implement a new design that required radically new methods to assemble to the product. At the same time the operators were locked in negotiations with the management for a pay scale review. We had to come up with ways to get the operators to be motivated to start assembling the new designs. In a vehicle assembly line, feedback you get from the operator Is extremely Important when it comes to usability of a product assembly process.Manufacturing engineers design the processes In their head (especially for products that are not yet physically available for use) and hence need the operators to start using the prototype machines and facilities and start coming out with constructive feedback that lists the Improvements that workers feel will make their life easier and the production quality and volume targets can be met. But when the worker Is disengaged due to other considerations on his mind, coming up with constructive criticisms Is very difficu lt.Actually, criticisms were shared of the new facilities and processes but they are shared in a very destructive manner. Here we have a management that is demanding that the workers change their currently comfortable work environment (at least the one which they are now used to) and take up completely new processes which may or may not be beneficial to them while being engaged in a pay dispute. Based on the findings about what drives people, usually when the money is off the table autonomy, master and purpose are the key factors.The traditional carrot and stick approach may have worked before where the work involved was highly mechanical as there was no thinking necessary due to years of practicing one type of process. But here the workers had to get used to a completely new process and they had to suggest improvements. Management has a target to limit the pay increase while still maintaining morale and motivation for the worker. They had to add incentives within the pay agreement that allowed them some flexibility in the rates while keeping the workers happy.Motivation Problem By makeover designs. In a vehicle assembly line, feedback you get from the operator is extremely important when it comes to usability of a product assembly process. Manufacturing engineers design the processes in their head (especially for products that are not yet that lists the improvements that workers feel will make their life easier and the production quality and volume targets can be met. But when the worker is criticisms is very difficult. Actually, criticisms were shared of the new facilities and

Establish the genre and themes of the film Essay

How does the opening sequence of â€Å"Romeo and Juliet† try to capture audience interest and establish the genre and themes of the film? â€Å"Romeo and Juliet† has a very effective opening sequence, the first four minutes set the story of the movie, giving you an idea of what’s to come. â€Å"Romeo & Juliet† is believed to have been written around 1595 by William Shakespeare. The story is about a pair of star-crossed lovers. Two teenagers pursue their love for each other despite the fact that their families have been at odds with each other for decades. It is directed by Baz Lurhman who immediately captures the audience’s attention whilst establishing the film’s genre and themes using different methods. Baz Lurhman uses lighting and colour to capture the audience’s interest. â€Å"Romeo and Juliet† starts with a black background and a Television coming closer to the camera with a newsreader. The black focuses the audience’s attention onto the newsreader and what she’s saying. Colour symbolism plays a key part in this film and is already demonstrated by the newsreader. The reporter wears red perhaps signaling love, danger and passion. Behind the newsreader is a sky blue screen, giving a feeling of coldness. Also Capulet and Montague are associated with red and blue. Colour symbolism is also demonstrated a lot in the opening sequence with grey, white, black, blue and red being the most common colours used. The colours grey, white and black are used in the clips of the newspapers with the black and white perhaps used as a contrast showing good versus evil or opposing sides. The grey can be interpreted as the families merging as white mixing with black makes grey or showing that the battles between the families isn’t as straight forward as it may seem. Another frequently used colour is red, the cross between Romeo and Juliet’s name is red maybe indicating that there is blood shed, tragedy and passion between them. Romeo and Juliet’s names are white on a dark background, which in a way could be emphasizing their innocence in a dark corrupting world. The different family names (Capulet and Montague) are coloured as red and blue. Different lighting techniques are used alternate between day and nighttime adding dramatic effects to the beginning, in the daylight the consequences of the feud can be seen e. g. people fighting, with guns etc. Strobe lighting is used to create the effects of police lights on the family’s faces of Romeo and Juliet, which is extremely effective and realistic reflecting modern day life. The next tactic used by Baz Lurhman to attract the audience’s attention is sound. The sounds helps set the atmosphere especially the music which keeps up with the images displayed on screen, the more dramatic the shots the more dramatic the music. For example when violent pictures are being shown the music becomes louder and faster. The music is exceptionally effective as the change of pace/dynamics in the music engages the audience’s attention. The sounds used are both diagetic and non-diagetic, the voiceover and music is diagetic and the helicopter, newsreader are non-diagetic which adds to the realism of the opening sequence. The voiceover featured in â€Å"Romeo and Juliet† is very realistic, serious and atmospheric. The man reads out a phrase from â€Å"Romeo and Juliet† summing up the story of the film, the extract is portrayed in three ways in the form of dialogue and writing. The repetition of the prologue may be for emphasis, the director would have seen this as an important extract for the audience so portrayed it in different ways as, different things appeal to different people. Another important part of sound is when the imagery of the guns are shown a choir boy sings a high note which could be interpreted as a scream, perhaps subtlety implying the hurt that has been caused by the feud. In the opening scene Baz Lurhman sets a lot of narrative clues and themes by showing different clips. A theme of violence is apparent with a lot of imagery of guns and police. In a way Baz Lurhman may have been trying to reflect modern day American society with guns being a common object on the streets as the film is also set in modern day New York. Another clear theme is religion; the film is Christian based (catholic), this is apparent by the statues of Mary and Jesus placed between the two families, the cross between the name’s of Romeo and Juliet as well as the person shown in the clips wearing a veil. It is noticeable that there is rivalry between the two families, both businesses on the opposite sides of the street and that there is a war/conflict going on not just involving the family indicating that both families have power and authority as they have influenced people to take their sides. Editing is an essential part of the opening sequence to attract the audience’s attention. The director Baz Lurhman edits the opening shots of the movie so the audience are introduced to the plot and characters (apart from Romeo and Juliet) before the film even begins. Jump shots are used at a very fast pace to reflect the speed of events in the play. There are variable scene lengths used to focus the audiences attention e. g. some scenes are long like when introducing characters compared to the shorter scenes when fast clips are shown of violence. Shots are interchanged very quickly e. g. shots of the statues which are then relegated to the background in a way the director is setting themes in context for the audience. Scenes of pure text and visuals are also used to reinforce messages through different perspectives e. g. dialogue, newspaper or action etc. as different people take in information in different ways. In a way it is the directors way of getting people to keep up with what is happening in the film. Baz Lurhman also uses mis-en-scene to help capture the audience’s attention and establish genres and themes of the film. Shots are often straight and centered to emphasise things clearly e. g. the statue of Jesus in closed into but is shown dwarfed by skyscrapers maybe showing a theme of religion versus business. This is a trend throughout the opening scene helping to classify major themes in the film such as police versus crime and Capulets versus Montagues. The use of news and media in the starting scene highlights how big a scale the feud has. The news and media are used to set the scene and to tell the audience what has happened so far in the film. Newspaper headlines are thrown into view of the camera with text from the original play, this may interest people in different ways gaining attention from them. Another tactic used with the media to gain the audience’s attention is right at the start of the film. The newsreader’s voice begins minimalist and muted but getting louder to focus the audience on language. Whenever text is used in the beginning it is always put in it’s own frame to emphasise importance. Frames of later scenes in the film, which are violent and disturbing, are juxtaposed with shots of e. g. a choirboy in a church singing maybe signifying that innocence is evil, corruption and danger. The majority of shots are filmed at night perhaps Baz Lurhman was being symbolic emphasizing darkness. Fireworks are also caught in one frame symbolizing passion, fury and anger in the plot. When the director is introducing the characters, there is one freeze frame for each character all in time with the music to focus the audience’s attention. Introducing each of the characters and unwinding their lives in the opening scene is helpful to gain the audience’s attention and to keep them interested. The audience is given clues to the current family situation e. g. the skyscrapers at opposite ends of the street with the family names written on them- â€Å"Capulet and Montague† hinting at opposing sides. Also when the voice over is talking about â€Å"two foes† the images of the parents come across the screen. It is shown in the newspapers that the two families are the centre of media attention, leading the audience to understand what extraordinary and special lives they must live. It is also interesting the way Romeo and Juliet are portrayed in the newspaper picture, it is the only real time that you see them properly in the opening scene and they are shown as children. This may be a tactic used by Baz Lurhman to emphasise to the audience how innocent and victimized Romeo and Juliet both are. The only other real time you see Romeo in the opening scene is him hiding and shying away from the outside world, again emphasizing him as a victim of his families feud. The parents of Romeo and Juliet when introduced, all seem to be in the middle of the action yet not included perhaps indicating that the feud has got so out of hand not even the Capulets or Montagues can control the situation. When all the characters are introduced they all seem very solemn and not portraying any emotion. But this isn’t the case for Dave Paris. When he is introduced he is happy, well dressed and purposely made different by Baz Lurhman to make him stand out to look like the hero of the film. Mercutio is also made different when introduced, he is a different race from everyone else indicating his uniqueness as he is showing true emotion at the same time. He is shown on a dry, isolated landscape demonstrating his distant from the involvement of the feud taking place in the city. Another key character in the introduction is the police officer; he is shown involved in the middle of the action, but is wearing a uniform signifying authority and discipline. There is also colour symbolism involved in the characters, Romeo’s mother has red hair, which may be an indication of her personality as people with red hair are said to be more passionate and quick tempered. This is also the case with clothing, the father’s of Romeo and Juliet show no emotion and are dressed normally, but with the mother’s of Romeo and Juliet although they show no emotion on their face but it is portrayed through their clothing. The mother’s clothing tends to be more flamboyant and colourful indicating to the audience distress. Baz Lurhman effectively captures the audience’s attention throughout the opening scene using all these different methods. At one point in the opening scene you are shown an aerial view of the city and I feel that this is an essential scene. After the aerial view of the city is shown a violent, busy, intimidating clip of modern street life within the city is shown demonstrating that the city is complex and dangerous. Even though â€Å"Romeo and Juliet† is four hundred years old, it still relates to modern society.

Democracy Promotion By The Eu And Democratization Via...

Exporting democracy? Democracy Promotion by the EU and Democratization via Eastern European Partnership With the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States and many other developed countries have begun to pay more attention to their policy of democracy promotion in the countries of the former communist bloc. As ex-President Clinton declared in his second State of the Union address in 1995, â€Å"Ultimately, the best strategy to ensure our security and to build a durable peace is to support the advance of democracy elsewhere† followed by his rhetoric, utopian statement, â€Å"The world’s greatest democracy will lead a whole world of democracies.† Here will be provided a definition of democracy promotion, name of some of the promoters, and list the goals of democracy promotion. Do Western democracy promoters seek to protect basic civil and political liberties or do they aim to promote state interests under the disguise of â€Å"democracy†? As a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union, new independent states were emerged and it was the time for the European Union (EU) to stretch towards its eastern neighbor countries in order to build relationships and bring them closer to the EU by promoting democracy. Alongside with the democratization of non-western countries, the primary goals of the EU was to establish a political community, to deepen and strengthen free trade zones, and as well as to abolish the visa regime within those eastern countries. InShow MoreRelatedDefine the Manager Terrain28443 Words   |  114 Pagesdifference between America and Hong Kong is that pressure groups are not a significant factor in the specific environment of Hong Kong. Hong Kong has fewer pressure groups and these are less powerful than in America. Basically, Hong Kong is not a democracy where pressure groups have a strong voice. Most of the pressure groups active in Hong Kong are political in nature. Their major concerns are public ho using, social welfare, education, and the development of Hong Kong’s political system, and theseRead MoreOrganisational Theory230255 Words   |  922 Pagesculture: when there is insufficient conflict Understanding the purpose of the organization and embedding it in the culture Critical theory and psychoanalysis present challenging perspectives for organizational design Social democracy and the democratic organization Democracy, rationality and power A psychodynamic perspective on design – create the boundaries Critical theory and psychoanalysis challenge understandings of leadership and management Conclusions 330 330 332 332 332 339 340 341 342Read MoreI Love Reading Essay69689 Words   |  279 PagesEnterprises Fund : Angel Investment - Illustrations 37 38 39 40 72 77 84 85 Box 4.4 : Venture Capital Deals - Illustrations Box 6.1 : Doing Business in India Indicators Box 6.2 : Best Practices in India Box 6.3 : PPP in India Box 6.4 : Package for Promotion of Small and Medium Entrepreneurs, 2007 vi Entrepreneurship in India Acknowledgements The Commission is grateful to all those who were generous with their time and provided valuable inputs during the study. At the heart of the report are