Suchergebnisse

Esping-Andersen's The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism has been very influential in comparative social policy because he develops a power analysis of welfare state formation. However, the analysis of political power that underpins his thesis has been widely misunder stood. In particular, the concept of welfare regime has lots its original conceptual meaning as a system of power stratification that upholds different types of welfare state. Instead it is widely misused merely to refer to particular types of welfare system.

A comparison of the cost of selling public rental housing is made between two state housing authorities which have similar sized rental stocks but which have sold different percentages of total constructions. Using data from annual reports, it is found that Victoria's policy of selling to sitting tenants has resulted in higher per unit costs on the unsold rental stock than in South Australia where very few houses have been sold to sitting tenants. It is argued that tenants who do not buy necessarily subsidize those who do buy, and that if governments wish to encourage sales then they, and not the bulk of public tenants, should pay for the cost of sales.

The cost structure of Australian public housing authorities and its implications for the social administrative side of public housing operations is examined through a study of the South Australian Housing Trust. The importance of the pooled debt burden for lowering costs to well below private market levels is indicated. The sales policy is examined and it is argued that the sale of public housing into owner occupation is a major exacerbating factor in the high cost of rental rebating and in unbalancing the social mix among public housing tenants. The implications of the 1978 Commonwealth State Housing Agreement for the South Australian Housing Trust are briefly examined.