Periodic Reporting for period 3 - COLSOC (The Legacy of Colonialism: Origins and Outcomes of Social Protection)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2021-04-01 al 2022-03-31
Social protection has been one of the most popular instruments for promoting human development across the globe. However, the great majority of the global population is not or only partly covered by social protection. Especially in developing countries it is often the very poorest who do not receive essential social benefits. This is highly problematic since inclusive social protection is assumed to be a key factor for national productivity, global economic growth and domestic stability. Social protection in many developing countries can be traced back to colonial times. Surprisingly, the influence of colonialism has been a blind spot for existing theories and empirical studies of comparative social policy. In this project it is argued that the colonial legacy in terms of the imperial strategy of the colonial power, the characteristics of the colonized society and the interplay between the two is crucial in explaining early and contemporary social protection. Hence, the main objective of this project is to systematically understand how colonialism has shaped the remarkable differences in social protection and its postcolonial outcomes. Given the paucity of our information and understanding of social protection in former colonies, an interactive dataset on the characteristics, origins and outcomes of social protection will be developed including comprehensive data on former British and French colonies from the beginning of the 20th century until today. The dataset will be backed by insights derived from four case studies elucidating the causal mechanisms between the colonial legacy and early and contemporary social protection. The proposed project breaks new ground by improving our understanding of why social protection in some developing countries has led to more inclusive societies while reinforcing existing inequalities in others. Such an understanding is a prerequisite in informing the contemporary struggle against poverty and social inequality.
Most of the work carried out in the first 30 months of the project has been concerned with the specification of the theoretical framework, the development of the ‘Comparative Social Protection Dataset’, first quantitative analyses and the case selection. More specifically, effort was placed on understanding how social protection was influenced by the colonial legacy. Therefore, an actor-centred approach was developed (see Becker et al., 2020) which serves as a theoretical and conceptual framework for COLSOC and captures the influence of colonialism on public policy making. In particular, we suggest that governance in colonial contexts was transnational in nature. This means that in addition to state and governmental actors, non-state actors are key (Boli & Thomas, 1997; Nye & Keohane, 1971). Furthermore, it implies that colonial governance takes place within and between nation states and territories and is shaped by global norms and standards. These governance arrangements survived the decline of colonial empires. In most cases, independence did not lead to an exclusively domestic mode of governance, and it is plausible that many elements of colonial governance models remained in place (see Schmitt, 2020).Focusing on actors, their constellations, and interactions allows us to detect differences and similarities across and within Empires and also to identify changes and continuities between the pre- and post-independence eras. This is essential; even though most scholars agree that colonialism matters, how exactly colonial legacies manifest, to what extent colonial influences matter, and whether or not their role is exaggerated, particularly with regard to developmental outcomes, remains highly controversial. Our approach is meant to serve as an analytical and heuristic tool to bring about a more comprehensive understanding of colonial legacies. Moreover, considerable progress has been made regarding the construction of the COLSOC database, which is to include novel historical data on social protection and policy-relevant actors in colonial Africa, in particular for British and French colonies during the interwar period (1919-1939). For the purpose of primary data collection, we rely on official and other statistical publications that we accessed through a variety of archives including the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, British Online Archives, Cambridge University Library, International Labour Organization Library, Hathi Trust, Leibniz Informationszentrum Wirtschaft (ZBW), and United Kingdom National Archives. The collection and standardization of government expenditures figures has been the focus of our efforts so far and constitutes the most novel aspect of the collected data. With regards to policy-relevant actors, data on economic actors has already been collected, and data on missions and trade unions is currently being finalized. The dataset is going to be made publicily available and makes a major contribution to the state of the art. Furthermore, we conducted first empirical analyses to analyze the role of economic actors for social policy making. Our empirical results strongly support the hypothesis that economic actors were push factors for implementing and expanding social policies in the interwar period. We also find evidence that missions and military were important actors for social policies during that time. Interestingly, the identified relationships do not differ between former French and British colonies. We find evidence that spending on social services for the local population was seen as a necessary condition to expand the trade-based colonial economy from the interwar period onwards. We show that trade volumes account for a large share in the variance of social expenditure (see Becker/Schmitt; unpublished manuscript). Our results suggest that similar mechanisms are at play within the two empires and differences between them are in degree rather than in kind. Finally, we selected two formerly British and two formerly French colonies (one of high and low population density in each Empire) as comparative case studies: British Cameroon (part of present-day Nigeria and Cameroon), Cote d’Ivoire, Dahomey (present-day Benin), and Sudan (present-Day Sudan and South Sudan). The case studies will help to specify the causal relationships between actors and social policies.
The main results so far, i.e. compilation of a new data set, elaboration of a new theoretical framework as well as the quantitative analyses all go beyond the state of the art. Until the end of the project, we will deliver the following enduring benefits: First, we expect to provide an explanation of the origins and outcomes of social protection in countries which were formerly colonized territories. This helps to overcome the bias of comparative social policy research towards rich democracies and fill a central theoretical and empirical void in the literature. Systematically integrating colonialism into the analysis of social protection will facilitate a deeper understanding of social policy in developing countries which is a prerequisite in informing the contemporary struggle against poverty and social inequality especially in the poorest nations of the world. Second, we will publish the ‘Comparative Social Protection Dataset’, which for the first time offers a broad database on the development of social protection in former colonies. As in the first phase of the project we put major effort into the compilation of the Comparative Social Protection Dataset, the project's webiste is not online yet. However, as the dataset is in the course of being finalized, we are right now preparing the launch of our website. The Comparaative Social Protection Dataset will make a major contribution to the state of the art and will allow broad historical analyses on the origins and outcomes of social protection. In sum, the theoretical and empirical enhancement this project aims at will help the policy community to understand the conditions under which social protection is expanding in the developing world today and how they would need to be adjusted to be effective instruments for promoting human development and a more egalitarian inclusive society in the future.