The Early Rise of Social Security in China: Ideas and Reforms, 1911–1949

Applying the editor’s “onion skin model” of social policy ideas, this chapter analyses the early rise of social security ideas and policies in Republican China (1911–1949). Facing imperialism, Chinese elites turned to Western social ideas to “save the nation”. They accepted organic concepts of society, leading to a concern for societal stability and harmony. The Guomindang (GMD) state reinforced this trend in the 1930s when the party-state incorporated Confucianism into its ideology. The GMD state, thus, adopted collectivist notions of social policy, emphasising class harmonisation and productivism. During the Sino-Japanese war, Chinese elites were attracted to the idea of universal social security, which led to an intense development of social security policies. In the entire process, however, Chinese elites emphasised China’s special situation.

A Racialised Social Question: Pension Reform in Apartheid South Africa

The post-WWII period was the “golden age” of welfare-state development. Not so in South Africa, where pension policies did not undergo any significant reforms during the entire apartheid era (1948–1990). This chapter takes a constructivist approach to unpacking the marginal reform efforts in social security in an otherwise reform-fervent apartheid regime. Through in-depth analyses of historical accounts and parliamentary debates, I investigate the ideational underpinnings of and justifications for pension policy developments. The reasons for the state’s limited pension reforms are the ideas of “separate development” and different levels of “civilisation” whereby the white regime could justify taking primary responsibility for only their “own people”.

Minoritarian Labour Welfare in India: The Case of the Employees’ State Insurance Act of 1948

Through a case study of the Employees’ State Insurance Act of 1948, this chapter examines the historical evolution of a type of welfare schemes in India that made entitlements conditional on specific forms of employment. Global trends in social policy had influenced debates on a social insurance for Indian workers since the 1920s. Transformations of Indian industry, World War II, the post-war crisis and postcolonial economic planning then created conditions for legislation. Just when the international welfare discourse, Indian contributions included, converged on social welfare as a universal citizen right, the regulatory content of the health insurance scheme devised for India diverged from this normative consensus: “Employees’ State Insurance” remained strictly employment-based but also generated horizons of expectation that continue to inform labour struggles.

The Anatomy of the Social Question and the Evolution of the Brazilian Social Security System, 1919–2020

This chapter traces the evolution of the Brazilian social security system since the beginning of the twentieth century, by examining to what extent it mirrors the changing facets of the social question throughout this long period of time. We seek to demonstrate that, in the span of just over a century, the social question took on a variety of forms, but was repeatedly marked by the struggle for recognition and the fight for inclusion—a strong indication that the process of constructing social citizenship in Brazil has been a permanent effort to break down boundaries. Only in 1988 did Brazilians ultimately achieve the implementation of a comprehensive social security system, but its scope and effectiveness are constantly at stake.

Social Protection in the Global South: An Ideational and Historical Approach

This chapter is the introduction to the volume on social protection in Brazil, India, China, and South Africa. The Introduction outlines an ideational and historical approach to social protection in the Global South to contribute to a theory of “social policy in development contexts”, which is a desideratum. The Introduction also provides basic data on the four countries (Brazil, India, China, and South Africa) and summaries of all the chapters in the book. Three research gaps are identified: scarcity of historical research; scant attention to ideas and instead a dominant focus on interests; and insufficient use of historical sources. This volume contributes to filling these gaps through a historical, idea-centred, and source-based approach. A multi-layered model of social ideas—the “onion skin model”—is developed that has the “social question” as its pivot.

The Social Question in Pre-apartheid South Africa: Race, Religion and the State

In the first half of the twentieth century, “social” issues in South Africa were framed by both rapid social and economic change (especially industrialisation and urbanisation) and racial division. The social question in South Africa was as much a racialised version of a “national question” as a social one, revolving around the social and economic inclusion (through state intervention) of “poor white” people and white workers and the reinforcement of a clear racial hierarchy. From the 1930s, political elites slowly moved towards the very partial inclusion of the African majority. Political and religious ideas, primarily from Europe, informed understandings of the social question among both supporters and opponents of public provision.

Social Security: The Career of a Contested Social Idea in China During the Reform Era, 1978–2020

The idea of “social security” in the reform-era China characterises the changing collective perception of social questions and the shifting state’s responsibility for social provision. In the 1980s, when welfare retrenchment started in the name of “socialising welfare”, “social security” experienced substantive contestation. The first semantic turn took place during the 1990s when the state resumed its commitment to social policy. Thereafter, “social security” underwent yet another semantic shift to “social governance” under the Xi-Li leadership. “Social security” has become part of the grandiose, statist project to promote the rise of the Chinese nation on the global stage. Given the unchecked predominance of the state in all societal domains, the very nature of “social security” remains contested—and its meaning transitory—in the Chinese context.

One Hundred Years of Social Protection: The Rise of the Social Question in Brazil, India, China, and South Africa, 1920–2020

This chapter concludes the volume on social protection in Brazil, India, China, and South Africa, 1920–2020. The main findings are: (1) Historical evolution—the hundred years from 1920 to 2020 mark the century of the rise of social protection in the four countries. (2) The social construction of the social—all four countries, with the exception of India, have articulated social issues in a generalised way as a social question. (3) Political language—semantics of the social have spread in all four countries. (4) “Multireferentiality”—social protection policies were largely driven and shaped by “non-social” ideas and interests. (5) Transnational diffusion—external ideas have pervaded domestic social protection policies. The chapter closes by thoughts about the future of social protection in middle-income countries.

Social Policy in India: One Hundred Years of the (Stifled) Social Question

What social policy is possible in a context where equality among citizens is culturally denied but at the same time constitutionally guaranteed? This chapter attempts to answer this question by periodising how the social question was articulated in India during the last 100 years. While philosophical and religious traditions of India created “duty-oriented” social relations, the rise of the modern state prompted to change this into “right-oriented” social obligations. This tension resurfaced in the history of Indian social question through prioritising political freedom over social unfreedom, nation-building over poverty alleviation, homogenised national identity over the particularistic demands of marginalised sections, and authoritarian polity over decentralised systems. It suffices to say that Indian polity is in a denial mode regarding the social question.

(Re)formulating the Social Question in Post-apartheid South Africa: Zola Skweyiya, Dignity, Development and the Welfare State

Democratisation in 1994 meant that, for the first time, the South African state recognised that all South Africans had claims on and responsibilities to society. To address the racialised legacy of apartheid, the new government sought to expand opportunities for black South Africans—and hence solve the social question—through racially inclusive economic growth and development. The government initially viewed the system of social grants that it inherited as insufficiently developmental and worried about the poor becoming “dependent” on public support. When unemployment and poverty persisted, compounded by HIV/AIDS, reformers—including especially the Minister of Social Development from 1999 to 2009, Zola Skweyiya—reframed the social question in terms of dignity and responsibility and expanded the social grant system.