Societies all over the world are striving to work out their own models of behavior and activities. The new social strategies help to meet the people’s needs and to protect them from social instability. In that regard, the study of social policy is of great value for society that faces different problems connected with the childhood risks and people of old age category. Social Policy can be singled out in two ways: it can be considered as an academic subjective based on the theoretical ground and as practical application that is correlated with the real world. In the first case, social policy depicts how social organizations reproduce themselves in a successful way (Blakemore, p. 1). Furthermore, it is closely connected with other social disciplines and used by professionals for training to operat social institutions. Since practice is always based on the theory, it is obligatory to research the social policy discipline and define its real objectives and functions both in descriptive and analytical ways.
The social policy relates to many social disciplines and therefore is studied by economists and by statisticians. To single out the study from the others, it should be stressed that the core subject of this course revealed through the examination and research of the policy delivery and its successfulness. It is centers on the working out of effective economic models of data process methods (Alcock, 4).
Before getting down to discussion, it is reasonable to single out what social policy is. In general, the term can be considered from different angles. On the one hand, it relates both to the policy-making activities that encourage the well-being of the population and to the theoretical research of those actions (Alcock, 1). There might appear the ambiguity since this discipline is often confused with sociology. In fact, sociology studies society itself and its structure whereas social policy examines the processes taking place in it and the way these processes affect the welfare of the population. The social study theory is studied by two approaches: descriptive and analytical. The descriptive social policy depicts the social events and processes from the historic point of view. It also explains the main activities and operations of welfare structure and its evolution (Badlock, 606). The descriptive approaches are usually used in comparing and evaluating the welfare systems both with the country and between them. The comparative social policy determines cross-national strategies assessment and studies the interaction of diverse social policies.
The history of development of social policy takes its roots in the nineteenth century when the Fabian Society was founded. Influenced by the work of Sydney Webb (Alcock p. 4), it created the theoretical ground for economic and social problems to decide. The members of the Fabian society managed to develop the ideology of the Labor Party in Britain by establishing the innovations within welfare system. The Minority and Majority Report issued by the Labor politicians and Charity Organization Society accentuated on the necessity to improve the state and non-state welfare provision. In general, the social policy strategies evaluated from welfare administration to the identification of the poverty level within working population of that time.
The comparative analysis traces back to the second half of the twentieth century when there appeared the necessity to interfere with others countries’ welfare situations in order to advance the existed social policies (Badlock p. 607). Such assessment gave the opportunity to foster the introduction of the reforms and facilitate further cross-national analysis. Additionally, the welfare system intervention was also concentrated on the consideration of specific aspects of society processes such as poverty and childhood problems. Thus, the importance of the international interaction between family institutions, market segments was rather logical since it only contributed to the increase of income rate(Badlock p. 609).
The analytic method of social policy studies considers the matter as an academic discipline and analyzes its ideology issues.In that regard, Badlock (p. XXXI) gives two definitions of these notions. Hence, he divides Social Policy as an academic discipline and social policy itself. In this respect, the former constitutes the intervention of the state into the distribution of resource for society to achieve the welfare. The latter is defines as a “welfare system” and is identified with a wide range of institutions that monitor and determine the social status of the citizens and their revenues. Such institutions include family and community ones that supervise the market and social services sectors. Additionally, these establishments participate in concluding different social agreements on the amelioration of the standards of living.
Government is also an important institution affecting the prosperity of society. Firstly, it shapes the specific programs that are focused on the advancement of people’s welfare. This is revealed through improvement of social conditions and introduction of social service programs (Midgley, p. 4). Next, the government can apply some economy of environmental policies that indirectly influence the well-being of the citizens. For instance, it is connected with introduction of the new trade international policy that would enhance the employment in the country. Finally, the government uses the individual approach in social decision-making. To put it another way, it affects society through the concrete groups that have a broad connections with others (Midgley 4). The goals and objectives settled by the government are carried out by the political parties that shape their long-termed strategies (Blackmore p. 1) However, there are frequent cases when the state of political party failed to fit the people’s expectations since sometimes such social policy may lead to discriminative policy.
The analytical approach used in social policy science centers on a detailed analysis of the society stratification and groups’ composition. This study could help the understanding of the social vulnerabilities and their prevention in future (Moralez-Gomez 137). With the help of this method, social policy also studies the relationships within the social groups and their impact on the economic, political and cultural segments of life.
Further, the necessity of visualization of labor markets and educational problems is another trigger point in welfare policy emergence. Arising from this, this discipline also involves the examination of the inequality issues and division of labor as the major factors that predetermine a successful existence of society. The level of education in the country is also an urgent point that is included in the ideology of social policy. It is obvious that education rate and the training program is basis for further development of new curriculum programs.
In conclusion, it must be stated that the introduction of social policy is crucial for the modern population of all over the world since it identifies the major problems connected with society development and welfare system. In addition, it also promotes the creation of the social programs and models that contribute to the amelioration of the living standards.
Reference
Alcock, P, Erskine, A, May, Margaret 2008 The student’s companion to social policy, Blackwell Publishers, USA.
Badlock, J, & Manning, N, 2007 Social Policy Oxford University press, UK.
Griggs, E. & Blakemore, K, 2007 Social Policy: an Introduction, McGraw-Hill International, US.
Midgley, J, Tracy, M, Livermore, M, 2000 The Handbook of Social Policy. SAGE, US.
Morales-Gomez, A, & Torres, M, 1995 Social Policy in a Global Society: Parallels and Lesons from the Canada, IDRC, USA.
Spicker, P. 2008 Social Policy: Themes and Approaches Policy Press, US.