Social Security in Developing Countries (WIDER Studies in Development Economics) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0198233000 ISBN 13: 9780198233008

Publisher: Clarendon Press, 1991

Synopsis

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations.

The term `social security' has a very different meaning in underdeveloped countries and is best understood as poverty alleviation. This book attempts to define social security in the Third World and to examine what sort of programmes are most suitable for developing countries.

The authors review current literature on the subject. Some chapters explore broad themes, others describe social security provisions in various regions in India, China, Latin America, and Southern Africa. Western systems are compared and broad assessments made of the traditional social security systems in Third World village societies.

The editors aim to put the subject of social security firmly on the agenda of development economic research with a view to stimulate much further research in this area. The book is written in a way that will be accessible to a much wider audience.

About this title

Product Description

The term "social security" has a very different meaning in under-developed countries and is best understood as poverty alleviation. This study attempts to define social security in the Third World and to examine what sort of programmes are most suitable for developing countries. Some chapters explore broad themes, and others describe social security provisions in various regions of India, China, Latin America, and Southern Africa. Western systems are compared and broad assessments made of the traditional social security systems in the Third World village societies. The authors aim to put the subject of social security firmly on the agenda of development economic research with a view to stimulating further research in this area.

Review

Sen and his associates deserve a lot of credit for bucking the general trend. (Times Higher Education Supplement)

The editors of the volume under review should be commended for bringing together a series of essays which investigate the role of the modern state in developing countries. The volume is timely ... a useful and informative guide for anyone working in this field. (Food Policy)

timely set of essays ... This book provides an excellent and balanced review of differdent types of state intervention and their pros and cons in the context of poor societies. This is an impressive set of essays with only a minimum of duplication and covering a wide-ranging and difficult area with great clarity. (John Healey, Development Policy Review)

The book undoubtedly is a classic on the subject and covers a very wide area. (Sunday)

this book is both important and interesting; but there is more than that to it. The papers included here contain a wealth of material, both on the theoretical issues of policy aims and policy strategies, and on the detail of different social security strategies and achievements in a wide range of developing countries ... a stimulating as well as an informative text ... those concerned with a global understanding of what we mean by social security and what we can achieve through it will not be disappointed with what they find. (Pete Alcock, Sheffield City Polytechnic)

this book is both important and interesting; but there is more than that to it. The papers included here contain a wealth of material, both on the theoretical issues of policy aims and policy strategies, and on the detail of different social security strategies and achievements in a wide range of developing countries ... a stimulating as well as an informative text ... those concerned with a global understanding of what we mean by social security and what we can achieve through it will not be disappointed with what they find. (Community Development Journal)

Edition details

• Publisher: Clarendon Press
• Publication date: 1991
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0198233000
• ISBN 13: 9780198233008
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 496
• Editor: Ahmad Ehtisham, Drèze Jean, Hills John, Sen Amartya