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Basic income has moved tentatively on to the UK agenda since 2015, but it has struggled to find a foothold in Westminster, where the dominant view of poverty is as the result of failure in the labour market, and the response remains coercive welfare conditionality. In Scotland, government-funded research into the feasibility of basic income pilots has drawn on health and well-being priorities and civic and local authority involvement, while making an explicit connection between poverty, agency, health and wealth. This article draws on literature and semi-expert interviews to argue that the nature of Scottish political institutions and culture, allied to a Nationalist party government keen to differentiate itself from Westminster, with independence as short-term or long-term goal, has created an unusual policy space that provides the conditions for basic income as a pivoting reform. While implementation of a Basic Income may be impossible without full independence, Scotland is creating an ideational climate where – unlike south of the border – it at least looks feasible.

Financial services, particularly securities markets, insurance and commercial banking, have played a crucial role in China's post-1978 economic reforms. China has so far established a market structure and a legal framework, and has a growing understanding of how financial services operate in the modern world economy. The authors review China's progress in financial services reforms over the last 22 years, describe the commitments China has made to gain WTO entrance, and then evaluate the potential benefits and costs to China's financial sector of WTO accession. (The authors) conclude that even with the substantial challenges presented by greatly increased post-WTO foreign competition, China will benefit from the WTO because of a number of factors including a growing pool of well-trained personnel, lessons learned from domestic and foreign development experiences, increasing Chinese economic strength, and continual advancement of China's financial infrastructure. (J Contemp China/DÜI)

There is growing interest, internationally, in empowering people with disabilities, and the United Nations have identified individualised funding as one way in which empowerment might be achieved. 'Individualised funding' is an umbrella term for various publicly funded support structures that provide personalised and individualised support services for people with a disability. These aim to facilitate self-direction, empowerment, independence, and self-determination. The findings of a recent mixed-methods systematic review of studies undertaken during an approximate 25-year period suggest positive effects with respect to quality of life, client satisfaction, and safety, as well as very few adverse effects, although the evidence on cost-effectiveness was inconclusive. This paper involved a re-examination of the qualitative findings of that review by employing a realist framework to explore the interplay between key contexts and mechanisms, and how these facilitate or inhibit positive outcomes associated with individualised funding and its underlying programme theory.