Benevolent Policies
Bureaucratic Politics and the International Dimensions of Social Policy Expansion
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3391983 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Carmen Jacqueline Ho (0000-0003-3059-5925, University of Guelph, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 116 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 615-630 |
| Publication date | 2022-05-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Political Science Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0003-0554 • E-ISSN: 1537-5943 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0003055421000927 |
| OpenAlex | W3204887615 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 100 |
Research on the welfare state has devoted considerable attention to social policy expansion. However, little is known about why governments expand social policies serving groups with limited power on issues with low visibility. I call these "benevolent policies." This class of social policies improves population well-being but produces minimal political gains for the governments enacting them. Why do governments expand benevolent policies if political incentives for reform are weak? I investigate this question by focusing on government responses to malnutrition. Drawing on nine months of fieldwork, including 71 interviews, I argue that the origins of policy expansion can be found in the government bureaucracy. Bureaucrats with technical expertise-technocrats-can play a defining role, deploying international pressure to court executive support and orchestrate policy change. Their actions help explain the Indonesian government's unexpected expansion of nutrition policies, which serve low-income women and children and address micronutrient malnutrition
Bureaucracy · Economic growth · Economics · Government (linguistics · Incentive · Market economy · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Population · Public policy · Social policy · Sociology · Technocracy · Gender Politics and Representation · International Development and Aid · Public Administration · Social Policy and Reform Studies
Workers and Welfare
The Submerged State
Wealth, Health, and Democracy in East Asia and Latin America
Despite the Odds
Who Governs the Globe?
Social Security in Latin America
The comparative sequential method
The challenge of policy coordination
Targeting the Poor
Maternal and child undernutrition and overweight in low-income and middle-income countries
Bringing the State Back In
The welfare state and equality
Democratizing Health Care
Uneven Social Policies
Social Policy Expansion in Latin America
Activists beyond Borders
Development, Democracy, and Welfare States
States in the Developing World
Welfare Policy and Industrialization in Europe, America, and Russia
Public Choices and Policy Change
Healthy Democracies
The Divided Welfare State
Modern Social Politics in Britain and Sweden
The Engineers Versus the Economists
Empires of Vice
The Politics of Non-state Social Welfare
When Democracies Deliver
Democracy and the Left
The Political Logic of Poverty Relief
The Power of Human Rights
Tracing the Progress of Process Tracing
A Comparative Measure of Decentralization for Southeast Asia
International Organizations and Social Insurance in Mexico
How Can We Build an Enabling Political Environment to Fight Undernutriton
Case Studies
Public Service Provision under Conditions of Insufficient Citizen Demand
The Political Effects of Agricultural Subsidies in Africa
Advocacy Coalitions and Health Politics in Korea
The role of policy transfer in Indonesian governance
The Working Class in Welfare Capitalism
Worlds Apart
The Social Democratic State
Welfare Policy and Industrialization in Europe, America, and Russia
Norms, Institutions, and National Identity in Contemporary Europe
Navigating welfare regimes in divided societies
Subnationalism and Social Development
Performative Governance
Diminished Expectations
The Impact of Health Programs on Political Opinion
Easy and Hard Redistribution
Focusing Events, Mobilization, and Agenda Setting
Ideas as coalition magnets
Indonesia
Ideological “guerrillas” and the quest for technological autonomy
International organizations as teachers of norms
Ideas do not float freely
Introduction
The Internationalization of Early Childhood Education and Care Issues
Policy Analysts, Public Policy and Regime Structure in Latin America
Pension Privatization
Health care and democratization in Indonesia
The Core Voter’s Curse
Explaining Policy Outcomes
When Payouts Pay Off
Is Democracy Good for the Poor
The Personal Vote and the Efficacy of Education Spending
Politics by Number
Patronage politics, donor reforms, and regime consolidation in Uganda
Bureaucracy and Service Delivery
How Ideas Spread
Why Not Equal Protection? Explaining the Politics of Public Social Spending in Britain, 1900-1911, and the United States, 1880s-1920
Increasing Returns, Path Dependence, and the Study of Politics
Ideological representation in clientelistic democracies
The state and social security in Indonesia and Thailand
Technocrats and Politics in Chile
Social Network Structures and the Politics of Public Goods Provision
The Welfare State and Equality
Filling in the Missing Link between Universalism and Democracy
The Politics of Economic Development in Indonesia
Social Security in Latin America
Social Security Policymaking in Costa Rica
Social Policy and Collective Action
The Global Diffusion of Public Policies
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,67 |
| Citation span | 2023 - 2026 (4) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |