Into a footnote: Unpaid care work and the Equality Budget in Scotland

an article by Jecynta Amboh Azong and Monika Wilińska (University of Stirling, UK) published in European Journal of Women's Studies Volume 24 Issue 3 (2017)

Abstract

This article analyses the visibility of unpaid care work in Scotland by examining the (non-)development of discourse on unpaid care work in economic policy documents.

Drawing on the problem approach to policy analysis, the article engages with the Equality Budget Statements (EBS) as policy documents that not only inform the government’s spending plans but are foremost statements of values and norms pursued by the government. This critical reading reveals that certain discourses give different meanings to women’s lives through the political significance of what remains unproblematized as part of the ensuing care discourse in Scotland.

The developing discourse on economic policy and equality suggests that equality in Scotland is presupposed on labour market participation. This shrinks discourse on unpaid care work; the problem of unpaid care work is silenced, while the problem of women’s access to employment is redefined to mean a problem of difference and costly childcare only.

The way certain issues have or have not appeared in governmental documents is explanatory of the importance and relevance of unpaid care work to the political discourse.

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The impact of the austerity measures to confront the economic crisis on the EU objectives and EU values

an article by Despina Anagnostopoulou (University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki, Greece) published in International Journal of Diplomacy and Economy Volume 3, Number 2 (2016)

Abstract

According to the EU Treaties, the EU economic policy coordination should serve the objectives of the EU, among which is the promotion of the EU values.

The paper demonstrates that:

• the EU values and objectives as well as the Charter of Fundamental Rights are binding on the EU institutions, even when they are acting outside the EU legal order (e.g., when drafting the MoUs);
• democratic principles are lacking in the EMU patchwork, especially in the case of member states under adjustment programmes;
• the national constitutional courts have recently ruled that equality and dignity were infringed by the laws implementing the MoUs, and so did the European Committee of Social Rights as far as social rights are concerned.

However, the European Court of Human Rights rules that the right to property is not infringed, while the EU Court of Justice denies competence to rule on the MoUs. Such approaches undermine the European citizenship project, and thus European integration.

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Macroeconomic policy, labour market institutions and employment outcomes

an article by Eileen Appelbaum (Center for Economic and Policy Research, USA) publisihed in Work Employment & Society Volume 25 Number 4 (December 2011)

Abstract

The increase in income inequality and household debt of middle- and lower-income households in the USA over several decades led to increasingly fragile financial institutions and set the stage for the most serious recession in the last 60 years. The proximate cause of the economic crisis was the collapse of the housing bubble that caused both the recession that began at the end of 2007 and the financial crisis that erupted in 2008.

The drop in GDP in the USA, while steep, was not more severe than in most of the other OECD countries and the macroeconomic policy response was better. Yet the increase in the US unemployment rate was among the steepest. This article examines this failure of US labour market institutions to respond to these policy initiatives and the implications of the analysis for economic policy.

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Economics does not lie

The dismal science is at last a real science, with tangible benefits, says Guy Sorman.

M Sorman provides the answer in ten points – preceded by one of the best expositions on the history of economic science that I have ever seen. And all with, of course, reasons why he believes that these ten points are the right ten points to explain why economics has, as it were, come of age.

1. The market economy is the most efficient of all economic systems.
2. Free trade helps economic development.
3. Good institutions help development.
4. The best measure of a good economy is its growth.
5. Creative destruction is the engine of economic growth.
6. Monetary stability, too, is necessary for growth; inflation is always harmful.
7. Unemployment among unskilled workers is largely determined by how much labor costs.
8. While the welfare state is necessary in some form, it isn’t always effective.
9. The creation of complex financial markets has brought about economic progress.
10. Competition is usually desirable.

These ten propositions should guide all economic policy-making, and to an increasing degree they do, worldwide.

...

The best of all possible economic systems is indeed imperfect. Whatever the truths uncovered by economic science, the free market is finally only the reflection of human nature, itself hardly perfectible.

Guy Sorman, a City Journal contributing editor, is the author of numerous books, most recently The Empire of Lies: The Truth About China in the Twenty-First Century. His article was translated from the French by Ralph C. Hancock.

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Hazel's comment:
If you have any interest in the why of economic policy then this is a "must read".