Social Policy

The Government

The Government

The set of people which rule a society and do so through the apparatus of the state.

The State

A self-consciously organised institution by means of which a society is regulated and preserved.

Problems with defining the State

Weber: the state has a monopoly on the legitimate use of violence. → questions about the basis of ‘legitimacy’

Individualism/Social Atomism

Individual human beings are regarded as prior to society. Society is a sort of association. → a mere association of different views & interests.

Liberal individualism views society as being a plurality.

Communitarianism/Collectivism

Regards society as a community, meaning that society is a unity in which individuals are bound together.

Right wing traditions speak of society as a BODY POLITIC.

Left wing traditions speak of society as a FAMILY.

Society as a Body Politic

RIGHT-WING

Each member has their own distinct features, but only as one in a society, they’re important and useful.

Emphasis on the virtues of order and continuity + aversion to radical change.

Society as a Family

LEFT-WING

Society is much like a family: natural formation, means for socialisation + community of feelings.

Social ties are valuable + the political virtue of fraternity & comradeship.

Welfare

Refers to well-being + the provision of social services.

Social Services

Reinforce economic policy, achieve equality/social justice + be an instrument of social change.

Curative: provision of treatment. → health

Developmental: help individuals realise their potential. → education + employment

Protective: acting as a safety net. → housing + social welfare

Individual Welfare

Feinberg uses the term ‘welfare interests’ to refer to interests that are considered to be needs.

Maslow writes about the ‘Hierarchy of Needs’.

Bradshaw distinguishes between 2 types of needs:

• Normative/Absolute - at a fixed level

• Comparative/Relative - based on comparison with others

Social Welfare

The sum of individual welfares.

Sugden points to 3 principal value judgements:

• Each person is the best judge of their own welfare

• Social welfare depends on the welfare of individuals

• If one’s welfare increases, and no one else’s decreases, there’s been an increase in welfare

Jordan proposes a model of Social Welfare:

• Each individual’s welfare depends on needs which they’re not capable of meeting on their own

• Social welfare depends on cooperation and social solidarity

• Therefore, social welfare is different from the welfare of individuals

Egalitarian Policies

1. Equal treatment: the prevention of disadvantage in access to services; treatment without favour/prejudice.

2. Equality of opportunity: the removal of disadvantage in competition with others.

   Prospect Regarding - people are able to participate on the same terms, in a contest that anyone can win.

   Means Regarding - people have equal means to achieve the end.

3. Equality of result: the complete removal of disadvantage in practice. 4 stages how such can be obtained:

   1. Maximin - raising of minimum standards through selective/universal policies.

   2. Addressing the ratio of inequality - increasing the resources of those who are worse off.

   3. Equality may aim for the least difference - reducing the range of inequality.

   4. Minimax - reducing the advantage of those who’re most privileged.

Positive Discrimination

• Introduced in the Plowden Report - this was significant as it shifted policy from person-regarding to bloc-regarding + argued that in order to gain equality of opportunity, some schools needed to be given ‘unusually generous treatment’.

• Implies that people are first treated equally, and then treated better; inequality in one respect may lead to greater inequality in others.

Affirmative Action

• Used to allow black people access to medical school.

• Justifications: black people have been disadvantaged in the educational process previously + they aren’t being adequately provided with medical care and more qualified black doctors will provide this.

• Critiques: Rae argues that this opposes equality of opportunity, tends to be means regarding + is bloc regarding.

Social Services

• Have a residual function → acting as a safety net when other methods fail.

• Means of transferring resources to people who’re dependent.

• Eyden: social institution that has developed to meet the personal needs of individual members of society not adequately/effectively met by the individual from his own/his family’s resources.

Public services

Collective resources which members of the public share

The Welfare State

Briggs outlines 3 ways in which the welfare state affects social relationships:

1. Guaranteeing individuals and families minimum income irrespective of the market value of their work/property.

2. Narrowing the extent of insecurity by enabling individuals and families to meet certain social contingencies.

3. Ensuring that all citizens are offered the best standards available in relation to a certain agreed range of social services.

The Model of Institutional Welfare

• Based on views that most people are likely to have a need for welfare services at some time in their lives

• More associated with the developmental aims of welfare

The Model of Residual Welfare

• Associated with activities which cure/protect the individual

• More associated with ideas of social control

The Social Contract

• A formal agreement made by the people who come together from ‘a state of nature’ to form a society, in order to achieve certain ends desired by all of them.

• The society contracts with a government, which is set up to rule it. Finally a contract is made between each new individual and a state to become a citizen.

• The point is to provide a basis for what is legitimate

The Social Division of Welfare

Titmuss described 3 main forms of welfare services:

1. Social - covers the area considered to be within the social scope of ‘social services’ → mainly the direct provision of services by the state.

2. Fiscal - the process through which people benefit from tax relief.

3. Occupational - concerns benefits given by reason of a person’s occupation/employment.

Important deficiencies of this model includes the exclusion of the voluntary + informal sector.

The Mixed Economy of Welfare Model

Proposed by Judge. Cawson outlines 3 ideal models of state activities with the context of Welfare Pluralism:

1. The state facilitates private provision, through the creation of a legal framework which regulates activity in the market.

2. Bureaucratic: the state directs activity and provides services itself.

3. The state may bargain and negotiate with various organisations in order to bring about changes.

Rein points out that the state can (i) regulate, (ii) mandate, (iii) stimulate, and (iv) support the private sector in the provision of welfare.

Ultra-Obligation

Type of behaviour which depends not on obligations to particular people, but on a general sense of moral principles. This concept provided the basis for a model of welfare which would unite society as a whole (Titmuss).