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"This book investigates global social policy in the field of health. While legal or regulatory obligations to run health systems have primarily remained at the level of national governments, the ideational and discursive exchanges about suitable models, appropriate reforms, and socially protective arrangements extends to various transnational forums across multiple scales. Using an approach that combines transnational and comparative social policy analysis with international relations, Shaping Global Health Policy assesses various global social policy actors and compares their ideas and prescriptions about national health care systems. These comprise governmental and non-governmental organisations, including the World Health Organisation, World Bank, International Labour Organisation, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, World Trade Organisation, the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, G8, G20, BRICS, and CSOs ('Global Health Watch'). The book particularly focuses upon the ensemble of health provision, financing and regulation to a comprehensive system of health and social protection. How global social policy actors guide specific national health policies is illustrated with the case of Polish health care reform in transition. Crucially, the book highlights the multiplicity of actors and the importance of considering health policies across multiple scales"--

This article discusses the conceptualization of global social policy in its dimension of prescriptions on national social policy. By studying the global health systems discourse and comparing it to the discourse on pensions, the applicability and validity of common notions of contestation and struggle between global social policy actors and their ideas are discussed. On the basis of conceptual considerations on global social policy ideas and discourses, the reasons for the differences between the two discourses are elaborated on. The article offers conclusions as to the conceptualization of global social policy prescriptions with regard to notions of the 'war of positions' and the promises of the ASID (agency, structure, institution, discourse) framework.

The study of supranational, regional and global social policy has grown apace in the last fifteen years. Bringing together some of the leading scholars in the field, the book explores key issues in diverse aspects of global and regional social policy and offers challenging interpretations of the future prospects for global social justice. Bob Deacon's framing of the subject in terms of regulation, redistribution and rights is explored in relation to health care, labor market policies, global care chains, and climate change. Other contributions discuss the prospects for progressive regional social policies, social policy and international organizations in East Asia, and the emerging role of the middle class in global social policy. Concluding reflections by Bob Deacon discuss the need to add resource mobilization and relationality to the traditional concerns of global and regional social policy. The book provides an overview of global and regional social policy studies and addresses key themes for the future.

The complexity of crisis management in the context of COVID-19, which ranges from the global to the national, reveals a wide variety of means and ends, particularly at the national level. This triggered scholarly interest and raised questions regarding how central (authoritarian) governments handle the COVID-19 pandemic within state borders. The paper evaluates the Thai government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic from the beginning of 2020 to the middle of 2022, when the pandemic was declared over. We employ critical discourse analysis to explain Thailand's crisis management by engaging discursively with different population groups in the country. The findings indicate that the discursive policies and measures implemented by the government to deviate from and halt public pressure resulting from his mismanagement of vaccine policy are based on narratives related to national traditions as a means of resolving dilemmas rather than on the social needs of vulnerable individual citizens. We witnessed how discursive policies and measures can lead to other problems and ineffective responses, specifically regarding vaccine distribution. The article contributes to a better understanding of how, why, and to what extent discursive policies and measures were instrumentalized by an authoritarian government for COVID-19 crisis management, which can likely be inferred in similar cases in developing nations.

This paper discusses the development of Indonesia's health insurance programme as a lens through which to understand Indonesian social policy development. The Indonesian health insurance programme has experienced considerable development despite fluctuating economic growth and political upheaval. Indonesia initiated its health insurance programme during the Soekarno period (1945-1966) by providing health insurance to formal workers. However, this period of economic austerity saw the programme poorly implemented. As the economy improved under Soeharto (1966-1998), the health insurance programme steadily improved until 1997, when the Asian financial crisis hit Indonesia. The crisis forced the Indonesian government to take a loan from the World Bank, which required the establishment a social safety net for the poor. The safety net programme led to massive development of social protection programmes, which encouraged the government to implement a universal health coverage programme. This paper describes the characteristics of Indonesia's social policy development, analyses its relationship with economic policy, highlights its key drivers and identifies the interests and alliances that shaped Indonesia's social policy.

Intro -- Acknowledgments -- Praise for International Organizations in Global Social Governance -- Contents -- Notes on Contributors -- Abbreviations -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- Part I: Introduction -- Chapter 1: The Architecture of Arguments in Global Social Governance: Examining Populations and Discourses of International Organizations in Social Policies -- Introduction -- Studying IOs and Social Policy -- Global Governance of Social Policy Fields -- Global Governance as IO Involvement in Social Policy Fields -- Populations of IOs: Organizational Field and Institutional Design -- Organizational Field: Topography of IOs -- Institutional Design: Intrinsic Features of IOs -- Discourses of IOs: Cognitive Authority and Soft Governance -- Cognitive Authority: Legitimacy and Reputation of IOs -- Soft Governance: IOs as Broadcasters of Ideas and Policies -- Structure of the Book -- References -- Part II: Labor and Migration -- Chapter 2: International Organizations' Involvement in Youth Unemployment as a Global Policy Field, and the Global Financial Crisis -- Introduction -- Mapping the IO 'Population' and Discourses -- Dominant Actors: The Policy Discourses of the ILO and World Bank -- Other Significant Actors: UNESCO's and OECD's Policy Discourses -- Recent Entrants: UNICEF's and IMF's Policy Discourses -- Partnerships and IOs: Disseminating Knowledge, Ideas and Discourses -- Collaboration, Cooperation, Separation: Endogenous Partnership -- Coexistence, Contestation, Division: Exogenous Partnership -- Concluding Comments -- References -- Chapter 3: International Organizations and Global Labor Standards -- Introduction -- Mapping the Population and Discourses of IOs Active in the Field of Global Labor Standards -- The International Labour Organization: The Promoter of Labor Standards as a Social Project.

International Organizations (IOs) are important actors within global social governance. They provide forums for exchange, contention and cooperation about social policies. Our knowledge about the involvement of IOs varies significantly by policy fields, and we know comparatively little about the specific roles of IOs in social policies. This volume enhances and systematizes our understanding of IOs in global social governance. It provides studies on a variety of social policy fields in which different, but also the same, IOs operate. The chapters shed light on IO involvement in a particular social policy field by describing the population of participating IOs; exploring how a particular global social policy field is constituted as a whole, and which dominant IOs set the trends. The contributors also examine the discourse within, and between, these IOs on the respective social policies. As such, this first-of-its kind book contributes to research on social policy and international relations, both in terms of theoretical substantiation and empirical scope.