The Handbook of Social Policy

James O. Midgley, Michelle M. Livermore

• Publisher: SAGE Publications, Inc
• Year: 2008
• ISBN:
  9781452239101
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Ciencias sociales
• Subtopic: Trabajo social

The Handbook of Social Policy is an attempt to document the now substantial body of knowledge about government social policies that has been accumulated since the study of social policy first emerged as an organized field of academic endeavor about 50 years ago. The Second Edition offers a more streamlined format to make the book more consistent with the way most instructors teach their courses. This text is a comprehensive yet accessible introduction to a vast field of endeavor that has, over the years, made a significant difference to the lives and the well-being of the people of the United States.

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PART I

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The Nature of
Social Policy

Part I of the handbook provides a framework for the rest of the book. It deals broadly with issues of definition, the context of social policy, and matters of policy analysis, policy practice, and evaluation.

The first chapter shows that the term social policy is a complex one that has been defined differently by different scholars. It notes that the term is used to describe both the activities of government that affect peoples’ well-being and the academic study of these activities. It offers a broad interpretation of the field that seeks to accommodate diverse perspectives and interpretations.

Chapter 2 offers an account of the way social policy is formulated and implemented in the United States. It pays particular attention to the role of the federal, state, and local governments in formulating and implementing social policies. It examines the way the legislative process, the actions of the executive branch, and the decisions of the courts shape social policy today.

The economic context in which social policy operates is examined in Chapter 3. The chapter shows that social policy is formulated and implemented not only within a fiscal framework but also within a wider economic environment in which growth, employment, productivity, and other economic factors are important determinants of social welfare.

The next two chapters are concerned with issues of policy analysis and policy practice. As will be seen, these fields are closely related. Chapter 4 is concerned with the steps that characterize the policy-making process and facilitate effective decision making. Chapter 5 deals with the implementation of social policy and with the role of professional policy practitioners in ensuring that policy decisions are efficiently translated into tangible programs that have a positive impact on peoples’ well-being.

The last chapter in Part I discusses the impact of social policy. Although it is often assumed that social policies and programs are carefully evaluated to ensure that they meet their goals, this is not always the case. Emphasizing the need for rigorous evaluation, Chapter 6 shows how the impact of social policies can be assessed and how their wider effects can be measured.

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1	The Definition of Social Policy

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James Midgley

As was noted in the introduction to this book, policies are courses of action adopted by formal organizations. They prescribe, govern, and routinize the activities of these organizations. They govern their internal functioning, direct the activities of their members, and shape their relations with other organizations. They also specify how organizations should function in the wider social, economic, and political environment. They standardize decision making, enhance organizational efficiency, and facilitate goal attainment.

Policies are necessitated by the increasing complexity and pace of organizational life. They are critically important if organizations are to attain their goals. Without policies, managers and staff would spend a good deal of time trying to decide how to act in different situations, and there would also be considerable duplication, confusion, and wastage. Efficiency would also be impeded if different managers responded differently to the same problems and issues. By defining goals, prescribing courses of action, and routinizing decision making, policies enhance the effectiveness of formal organizations in an increasingly complex and changing world.

Usually, policies are written down in documentary form, and for this reason, they are actually prescriptive statements about goals, decision making, and organizational activities. Although many organizations codify their policies in manuals and other publications, most people working in organizations learn about policies through experience. Of course, many organizations offer training programs in which employees are informed about policies. Generally, all employees are required to be familiar with the organization’s policies, but policies are of primary concern to administrators and managers who are also responsible for monitoring and reviewing policies. The terms administration and management are often used interchangeably, but the former term, administration, is sometimes used to refer to the implementation of policies while management refers to the direction or supervision of policy implementation. Managers are closely involved in the policy-making process, but usually, organizations have governing bodies or boards that have the ultimate control over which policies should be adopted.

Policies play a particularly important role in large, formal organizations such as corporations, universities, religious and nonprofit organizations, hospitals, and government agencies. Government agencies are particularly dependent on policies. They are complex organizations that make extensive use of policies to define goals and standardize decision making. Taken as a whole, the government, with its different departments and branches, is often the largest and most complex of a nation’s organizations. In addition, governments formulate and implement policies that profoundly affect the lives and everyday activities of their citizens. Today, a country’s economic, social, cultural, environmental, and political affairs are shaped to an extraordinary extent by government policies. As noted in the introduction to this book, governments around the world have adopted policies that, for example, promote economic development, maintain law and order, govern relationships with other countries, defend the nation against external threats, protect the environment, foster communications, and control urban growth. Policies formulated and implemented by governments are known as public policies. These policies are unique in that they are enshrined in enforceable laws and regulations. Unlike other organizations and bodies, governments can ensure that people comply with their policies by using their powers of coercion.

The term the state is often used by social scientists to refer to the government and its different braches. The state thus consists of the legislature, the executive branch, the judiciary, the military, and law enforcement agencies, as well as many specialized agencies and quasi-governmental bodies. Conventionally, the legislative branch of government is considered to be responsible for making policies while the executive branch implements policies. The task of the judicial branch is to interpret policies. However, the roles of the three branches of government overlap considerably, and all branches may be involved in the policy making, interpretation, and implementation process. Although some scholars use the term government to refer only to the administrative branch, others use the term to refer to all the branches of government. As was noted earlier, the term the state is usually preferred when all the braches of government are being discussed.

Governments have also adopted policies designed to enhance the welfare of their citizens. As noted in the introduction, these policies are known as social policies. They deal with many aspects of social welfare, including health, housing, education, and income, and they are also used to meet the needs of groups of people such as children, elderly people, single mothers, and people with disabilities. Social policies also govern the operations of social service agencies responsible for particular social services such as social security, school meals, probation, and foster care. Social policies also operate through the tax system to direct resources toward particular groups of people. The courts also play a very important role in social policy by making judicial decisions on many issues that affect people’s lives. In addition, governments may promote social well-being through policies and programs that are not usually classed as social policies. For example, economic policy is regarded as separate from social policy, but by ensuring steady economic growth, creating jobs, managing inflationary tendencies, encouraging investments, and directing the economy in other ways, economic policy contributes to welfare goals.

The documentation, analysis, and interpretation of government policies are among the major preoccupations of legal scholars, organizational experts, and social scientists. They have acquired extensive knowledge about a wide range of public policies. The academic study of these policies is now well established at universities. Indeed, most universities today have academic departments or schools devoted to the study of public policies. In addition, public policies are also studied by specialized research institutes or “think tanks” and by government agencies concerned with policy analysis.

The social policies of governments are also being extensively documented, analyzed, debated, and evaluated by social scientists. Although social policies have been subjected to systematic academic inquiry only since the middle decades of the last century, a good deal of knowledge about these policies, their history, objectives, and effects has been acquired, and many important social policy issues are currently being analyzed. Social policy inquiry takes place within schools of public policy; inside academic departments of economics, political science, and sociology; and at schools of social work and social welfare. Although social policy is still a relatively new field of academic inquiry, it has grown rapidly in recent years.

The term social policy thus involves two aspects: first, it refers to the actual policies and programs of governments, policies that affect people’s welfare and, second, it connotes an academic field of inquiry concerned with the description, explanation, and evaluation of these policies. In seeking to define social policy, this chapter deals with these two aspects separately. But first, it examines the concept of social welfare, which is the primary goal of government social policy.

Social Policy and Social Welfare

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Scholars have shown that social policies have many different functions. Although these functions have been extensively discussed in the literature, the primary reason for introducing a social policy is to enhance conditions of social well-being in society. This can be done in many different ways. For example, governments can provide services to meet the needs of particularly vulnerable or disadvantaged groups such as foster children, low-income families living in inner-city areas, or people with mental illness. Social well-being can also be enhanced by directing resources to particular groups of people through income maintenance programs such as social security or otherwise through the tax system. Governments can also improve conditions of social well-being by controlling pollution or enhancing educational opportunities for children.

When social policies have a widespread, positive effect, social conditions in society as a whole improve, producing a condition of social welfare or social well-being. Because the notion of social welfare is a key element in social policy, its meaning must be defined at the outset. Accordingly, social welfare will be defined in this book as a condition or state of human well-being that exists when peoples’ needs are met, problems are managed, and opportunities are maximized. The opposite of the condition of social welfare is social illfare. Social illfare exists when human needs are not met, when social problems are not effectively managed, and when there are very limited opportunities for improving life chances.

This definition transcends the conventional definition of social welfare as a range of services provided by charities and government social services agencies to poor, needy, and vulnerable people. This conventional meaning of the term implies that only some particularly unfortunate or needy people have welfare needs that should be addressed by charitable organizations and public welfare departments. This narrow meaning fails to capture the original significance of the term, which defines social welfare in a positive way, stressing the importance of well-being for all people and, indeed, for society as a whole. The broader definition of social welfare offered in this book reflects the term’s original meaning, which is derived from the greeting farewell. This greeting connotes a sense of going and being well. It is a pity that the term has now been so narrowly defined and that it has even acquired a pejorative connotation. Hopefully, the broader, more positive meaning of the term will be revived, and its more encompassing connotation will, in future, be more widely accepted.

Over the years, social policy scholars have devoted a good deal of effort to defining the concept of social welfare. Initially, they stressed the importance of meeting social needs and suggested that a condition of social welfare exists when basic human needs for nutrition, health, shelter, security, and income have been met. Others emphasized the importance of managing problems, arguing that a condition of social well-being exists when social problems such as crime and delinquency, substance abuse, family violence, and child neglect are effectively controlled. Although the two elements of meeting needs and managing social problems have been widely employed in the social policy literature, the definition offered earlier extends on them by highlighting the role of opportunities in social welfare. Obviously, conditions of social welfare are more likely to exist in societies that create and sustain opportunities for people to maximize their life chances and accomplish their goals. The role of governments in providing educational and other opportunities for people to fulfill their life goals is a crucial one.

In addition, the wider sociopolitical and economic context is also important when discussing social welfare. Broader conditions, such as peace, democratic participation, and human rights, are obviously highly relevant when seeking to understand conditions of social well-being. People can best experience social well-being if they live in peaceful societies that respect human rights and encourage full participation in the political life of the community through democratic institutions. This is equally true when they live in societies that are experiencing economic development and have educational and employment opportunities that allow them to realize their potential. Although it is still possible for people to meet their needs and manage their problems in undemocratic and conflict-ridden societies, peace, human rights, and democratic political participation are vital for conditions of social welfare to be realized.

When social policy scholars discuss conditions of social welfare, they usually refer to society as a whole, but, obviously, a condition or state of social well-being can be associated with individuals, families, groups, organizations, neighborhoods, and communities as well. In addition, it can pertain to groups of countries in different regions of the world and even to the world as a whole. The ability to meet needs, manage problems, and achieve goals is as much a feature of the lives of individuals and families, organizations and communities as it is of societ...