Social Policy

Social Policy is that part of public policy that focuses on improving human conditions i. e. well-being of the public. Social Policy, therefore, is about welfare. It concentrates on social problems such especially issues of education, health, housing, social security and income support. According to Beveridge’s report that was published in 1942 and included in the Labour Party’s 1945 manifesto, Five Giant Social Evils had undermined the British society before the war: ignorance, disease, squalor, idleness and want.

These are the five main evils that Social Policy centers on. In my view, Social Policy is interdisciplinary as it draws on many social science subjects but it is a distinct academic discipline in its own right, both in terms of its points of concentration and its methods of analysis. The development of Social Policy as a ‘policy’ and its development as a discipline are closely linked.

Formed in 1884, the Fabian Society, which was influenced by the work of labour MP Sidney Webb and that of Booth and Rowntree, challenged the conservative political assumption that economic markets could meet the welfare needs of all was challenged and argued that policy intervention by the state was needed to provide those forms of support and protection which the markets failed to provide.

Social Policy was then recognized as an academic discipline of importance when The Webbs – Sidney Webb and his wife Beatrice Webb, both prominent Fabians – established the London School of Economics (LSE). Within it, they incorporated the Charity Organization Society’s School of Sociology to form a new Department of Social Sciences and Administration in 1912. Its first lecturer was Clement Attlee, who became Prime Minister of the UK after the Second World War, and in 1950, Richard Titmuss was appointed as the first Professor of Social Administration in the UK.

Until 1987, Social Administration and Social Policy were used interchangeably, but later the name was changed to Social Policy as it was felt that social administration focused largely on analyzing the operation of existing welfare services where as what was now known as Social Policy also analyzed the political and ideological bases of welfare provision. Social Policy is a broad but distinct academic discipline as it is closely elated to many social science disciplines, four of the more important ones being Sociology, Economics, Political Economy and Political Science, but it only draws on them to achieve what are believed to be the objectives of a successful social policy: equality, social justice, liberty and the rights of a citizen. Sociology helps one understand the causes and effects of social divisions such as those on the basis of race, gender or class.

Its subject matter ranges from the micro level of face-to-face interaction to the macro level of societies at large, and traditionally, sociologists have focused on topics such as social relations, social stratification, social interaction, culture and deviance. Social Policy, on the other hand, is about provision of welfare to these various people and draws on Sociology to become aware of the various social divisions in order to better understand the needs of each particular group and how welfare can be provided to them.

Economics explores the concepts of scarcity and resource allocation. In his 1932 essay, British economist Lionel Robbins described economics as the “science which studies human behaviour as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses”. It also provides insight into the concepts of equity and efficiency. These concepts are central to the study of Social Policy as it is the scarce resources that policy-makers work to allocate in a way that ensures the greatest well-being of the people.

They must also be able to prove that their policies are both efficient – i. e. they are the least costly and of most benefit to those intended – and equitable or fair – i. e. those in similar categories are considered in similar ways. Political Economy originally was the term for studying production, buying and selling, and their relations with law, custom, and government. However, in the eighteenth century, it developed as the study of the economies of states — polities, hence political economy. It is the study of political ideologies and economic management.

For a policy-maker, an awareness of these various political ideologies is indispensable as many of these arguments govern the process of making social and economic policies. Political Science focuses on the interaction between institutions and human behavior and studies the way in which institutions shape choices and how humans change institutional frameworks. It provides an understanding of constitutional arrangements in different countries and their impact on policy formulation. Political Science introduces the student of Social Policy to concepts of equality, social justice, liberty and citizenship.

The Minister of Finance, Paul Martin, announced that Canada had a record a surplus of $2. 9 billion, their promises of tax relief have been executed and the unemployment rates has fallen to 7. 5 per cent, its lowest level in more than nine years (Finance Canada). The costs of this good news are the budget cut of the federal government on social welfare programs in recently years. Hospital rejected to accept new patients. Toronto High Schools was shut down. Homeless people sleep outdoors. Is the monetary policy that Mike Harris exercising harms the people?

The aim of this article is to look at historical reason of Canada being a welfare state and being changed to a more capitalistic society. The era of Keynesian Welfare State (KWS) and contemporary Neo Liberalism and the effects of Mike Harris” government policy will be discussed In 1878, McDonald national policy was introduced. McDonald introduced a set of import tariffs to protect the domestic market. This policy became the diving force of Canadian economy until 1930″s with the problems of the great depression, world economic crisis and government deficit.

In 1936, John Maynard Keynes published his book “The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money”. He argued that a depression was a short run phenomenon because of a lack of demand. If the government could inject money to the private sector, the private sector would be better off and spending money and the government could collect tax. It has been called as demand-management policy. The crises were solved by the breakout of the Second World War (WWII) in 1937. After WWII, many governments (including Canada, UK and US) pursued Keynesian demand-management policy.

On the level of production, in 1940″s, Henry Ford decided to bring a new method of production, assembly line production, with a 5 dollars day policy. His idea was to create a new type of workers who could afford to own cars and to avoid alienation of workers. Ford also brought along many workers” benefits such as consultants to make the workers concentrating on their jobs. This concept, Fordism, became a system that there was a matching of mass production with mass consumption. Fordism also led to the recognition of collective bargaining power.

Unions were established to bargain for their rate of wages and everyone automatically became a union member. The power of unions was continually growing up while word output grew at an unprecedented rate of 3. 9 per cent annually during the golden age (1950-1973) (Held 164). On the level of finance, the Bretton Woods agreement was also signed during KWS period in 1944. The core of Bretton Wood System (BWS) was the agreement of International Monetary Fund (IMF). “

The purpose of IMF is to promote international monetary cooperation, exchange stability… o provide temporary financial assistance to countries under adequate safeguards to help ease balance of payments adjustment” (IMF). With the BWS, capital outflows were strictly controlled. For nearly three decades, governments were relatively free from the constant treat of capital withdrawal as today. Away from the treat enabled them to “be far more responsive to demands from the electorate – demands that usually involved policies aimed at achieving full employment and developing social programs. ” (Howlett 540).

In Canada, government introduced new social and welfare programs, for example, unemployment insurance, family allowance, Canada assistant plan and health care program. Post-secondary education was funded. By the demand management policy, the fund to welfare programs would be automatically adjusted with the number of unemployment. These were the origin of our existed social welfare program. Capital controls also created stable currency values that helped to promote World Trade. After1945, the size of government sharply increased as new government institution and new programs were added.

The government grows and the government expenditure made up to around 40% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Any major decision made by the government would have a great influence to the market. On the other hand, business corporations lost their influence to government as they had during the era of National policy. On the level of trade, the primary international trade agency, General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was formed for tariff negotiations in 1947.

The aims of GATT were “Raising standards of living, ensuring full employment and a large and steadily growing olume of real income and effective demand, developing the full use of the resources of the world and expanding the production and exchange of goods, Being desirous of contributing to these objectives by… the substantial reduction of tariffs and other barriers to trade and to the elimination of discriminatory treatment in international commerce” GATT formed the framework for seven rounds of global tariff reduction negotiations. During the golden age, the Canadian experienced a low unemployment rate, low inflation rate and small deficit on government.

However, with the increasing activities between nations, KWS started to face new problems. Firstly, the rise of the Eurocurrency market in the 1960s placed increasing strain on the BWS. US dollars became under the pressure the inflation and a growing trade deficit and finally on 15 August 1971 President Nixon shocked the world financial market by announcing that the dollar was no longer to freely convertible into gold, effectively signally the end of fixed change rates. This action increased the pressure on BWS.

By 1973, the BWS had collapsed. Secondly, the collapse of Bretton Woods was compound in 1973 by the decision of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to quadruple the price of oil, effecting a huge transfer of funds from oil-importing countries to oil-exporting countries. Oil-exporting countries were left with a large surplus to invest on international money market. The banks lent increasingly to developing countries. In the process both the intensity and the extensity of global flows were transformed. (202).

Thirdly, the rate of growth is declined as Fordism reached its maximum marginal value of production. The rise of the price of oil also played a role in the declining marginal value. In 1970″s, the economy experienced a stagflation that there were both high inflation and high unemployment rate existed. There was an increasing deficit because of decreasing tax revenues and increasing expenses on welfare programs as the function of automatic stabilizer. Since Keynesian provided no explanation and solution to stagflation, monetarism helped to explained it.

Milton Friedman was a monetarist and he argued that “any attempt to manage the level of demand in a Keynesian way would simply be destabilizing and make things worse. The role of government is simply to use its monetary policy to control inflation and supply-side policies to make market work better and reduce unemployment” In 1975, the bank of Canada officially adopted monetary policy. On the level of production, Multinational Corporations (MNCs) have grown there has been a significant transnationalization of production expressed in the emergence of global production and distribution networks.

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) encourage the development of three major market: Canada, Mexico, US such that “MNCs have been induced to locate production insides each of these blocs” (David 243). Since Mexico have little regulations toward employment”s welfare, environmental protection and US has been the major investor of Canadian manufacture sector, Canada has to deregulate many laws in order to attract US and other foreign investments to continue investing on Canada. In 1989, the trade relationship between Canada and US have moved forward, culminating in the establishment of…

Canadian – American Free Trade Agreement (FTA) (Howlett 540). In worldwide, many production sites were shift to the Third World Countries where had no unions or little power on unions and no regulations on working condition and environment protection. On the level of finance, during the 1970″s and 1980″s the national capital controls became less and less effective because of grow of Euromarket and the collapse of BWS. One of the aims of World Bank, which is founded in1944, is to “Promoting reforms to create a stable macroeconomic environment, conducive to investment and long-term planning” (World Bank).

World Bank provide nearly $30 billion in loans annually to its client countries, therefore we can see the political and economic influences it has on these countries. IMF also plays an important role on providing financial help to its client countries. However, the rules accompany the agreement on the loan may not a good news to the people. One of the rules is to decrease deficits of the government and the most efficient way to decrease deficits is to cut social welfare programs. Reducing the subsidy to certain industries will lead to lose of jobs.

An argument which come up lately is that US government argues that the health programs in Canada is a form of subsidy to industries because in US, workers need to buy health insurance and hence increasing the cost of production. This is violating the agreement of FTA. This kind of rule is seriously hurting the benefits of the workers in Canada. Knight noted that “ceilings on interest rates reduce the efficiency of financial intermediation and the signals for profitable investment” (Knight 17), but not for the benefit of working class.

If the interest rate is high, the working class have to pay more interest on their mortgage payment. On the level of trade, the formation of Business Council on National Issues in 1976 has a long-term effect on Canadian policy making. Since most of the members of BCNI are large corporation, they have the power to influence government policies though business action. It had helped to solve the Albert oil crisis and the establishment of NAFTA. When the politics are making decision that will effect business realm, they will concern the reaction of those investment companies, but they do not spend so much concern on unions. 0 per cent of Canada-U. S. trade is concentrated in the hands of just 200 companies.

A survey of the employment practices of companies belonging to BCNI shows that 37 members of this powerful group that lobbied so hard for the FTA and NAFTA have reduced their payroll by a total of 215,414 employee between 1988 and 1994 (Dillion, 95). Social programs cut over the last seven years, big business has successfully campaigned for less government regulation and for the weakening of social programs in “the name of leveling the playing field number” (Dillion, 96). we are to stop the headlong race to the bottom for our economic, social and environmental affairs as well as the erosion of our culture”said Dillion (98).

Now, we are not racing for our public goods. If we continue to allow corporation lobbies to influence our government decision making, our existing public goods will be disappeared too. Though 1980″s to 1990″s, many government programs were cut, industries like communications were deregulated, and many government services and corporations were privatized at both the federal and provincial levels.

According to McQuaig, even though governments were powerless to bring down unemployment by using the key levers of monetary and fiscal policy, they were able to reduce it by taking away crucial social support systems, thereby making the worker feel more desperate to work. ” (McQuaig 37) This is the policy that Mike Harris” government doing right now. During 1995 to 1996, these two year, Federal Government cut her health expenditure from 9024 millions to 1077 millions, education expenditure from 6254 millions to 3355 millions (drop nearly 45 per cent), transportation and communication expenditure from 5192 millions to 3306 millions.

Only General-purpose transfers expenditure was increased from 10429 millions to 23834 millions dramatically (Statistics Canada). By 1998/99 the liberals will have cut $7 billion in social transfers to the province (Red book, p. 74). When the government cut the budgets on welfare and on the other hand cut the tax together, the victims will be the lower class family. Cutting the education funds presents students have to pay more tuition fees and increase the burden of their family. Cutting the health expenses lead to hospital refuse to accept new patients and hurt the people who need medical attention.

Since the government does not provide low rent housing, many families, not a single person, cannot afford to live in a decent home and need to live outdoor with the danger and harsh weather nearby. Only 34. 9 per cent of unemployment workers received UI benefit (Godin). Federal government also sets new rules that people who are receiving UI need to do volute works but they ignore the fact that some people need to take care the children and cannot go to work. People also need to pass drug test to be eligible for receiving UI.

Privatizing public corporations such as hydro will eventually lead to increase the fees and thus in add burden to the poor. Ontario sells Highway 407 to private company and about half years later the fees are increased. “Canadians values have moved away from the socially responsible and pragmatically interventionist liberalism that had for decades been their dominant characteristics” (Pratt). It is true that Canadian economy is benefit from these changes and brings our economy away from the crisis of the deep depression.

However, we will lose the public good that have been existed in our society for nearly 50 years if our society approach the format of capitalism. Although adopting monetary policy hurts the benefit of the workers, it is clear that we cannot go back to the period of KWS. Howlett noted, “Keynesianism also includes the concept of market failures and economic efficiency” (Howlett 540). If we can find a balance between Keynesianism and Neo-Liberalism, we can still have the benefits of our welfare and economic efficiency.

After World War Two British citizens where faced with great social problems as there was ill heath due to malnourishment, physical and mental disabilities any health care had to be paid for privately or received through charities and organisations. Houses had been destroyed and where not rebuilt, there were very few jobs available as manufacturing had slowed down due to difficulties in exporting and jobs the war created where lost. The upper classes had better opportunities in obtaining services making the social class divide more prominent.Winston Churchill recognised the how inadequate social protection was and the need for improvement so he commissioned a William Henry Beveridge 1879-1963 to create a report focused on the reconstruction of post war Briton.

Beveridge produced Social Insurance and Allied Services in 1942’ this report contained keynesian policy’s stating that the government should intervene and provide a standard of living for all in a form of Social Insurance and universal benefits that would not be means tested.Although this report was not implemented straightaway by conservative, when labour was elected in 1945 the report formed the basis of the new prime ministers, Clement Attlee government’s legislative programme, for social reform. Within the report Bevedridges aim was to tackle the 5 evils of society, Want, Disease, Squalor, ignorance and idleness which he felt were Britain’s major social problems.

Want (poverty) was the main reason for Beveridge’s investigation the ‘National Insurance Act 1946’ entitled people to sickness benefits, unemployment benefit and retirement benefit meaning people would be able to meet their basic needs.The ‘Family allowances Act 1945’ was also introduced and this entitled an allowance to children under the age of sixteen. Disease (ill health) was a dominant issue as many citizens greatly suffered due to the lack and affordability of professional health services ‘The National Health Service Act’ was implemented in 1946 and insured that health care was free to all social classes and available in all areas. Squalor (poor housing) many houses had been destroyed and poorly maintained due to the bombings and cost of up keep, within the ‘New Towns Act 1946’ the Government was given power to designate any area of land that they onsidered development should take place, in order to improve living and working conditions.

During this period of time ‘The Education Act 1944’ Targeted Beveridge evil Ignorance (Lack of education) education was limited and expensive this act allowed all children to obtain free education from the age of five, the importance of education was beginning to be understood as a benefit for the economy as a whole.Idleness (unemployment) Beveridge saw full employment as the pivot of the social welfare programme, (class handout) this was a contrast to previous classic economic idea that the government should ‘let well alone. The reports publication caused a stir with people wondering what the outcome would be, it also gave those at home and those in the armed forces a sense of what kind of ideal new society and way of life they had fought for. In 1944 the Education Act was brought forward by a Rab butler the Minister of Education this act was an attempt to create the structure for the post-war British education system, the basic aim was to give every child an equal chance to develop his/ her talents and abilities to the fullest in a free education system.

By giving children a free education between the ages off five to fifteen meant that every child could engage and achieve a higher academic level and contribute by being more employable, selective entry to secondary schools was now determined by a pupil’s academic ability and not by parental financial means. By providing free education it opened up secondary schooling to girls and different social classes were given equal opportunities so they could provide a better future for themselves.

As a result of more children being educated schools needed to be built. Under the ‘Education Act 1944’ three different types of secondary schools where formed on the bases that the intelligence of a person was Academic, Technical or Practical, this tripartite system catered for different academic levels and gave children with different abilities a chance to further their education.

The system reflected the nature of the British class and occupational structure at the time, as there were far more semi-skilled and unskilled manual jobs available at that time. The schools were grammar, secondary modern and technical. Entry to these schools was based on the 11+ examination, taking this exam gave lower class children a chance to obtain the highest education within grammar schools, lower income families became unhappy because their children would have previously contributed to the household income.Although these schools had many benefits the system became scrutinized, parents both working and middle classes weren’t happy with the system and labour in 1960s argued the system was elitist and divisive. (Class handout) As the 11+ tests determined the rest of children’s academic future and it was not taken into consideration that children develop at different rates.

The 11+ had an effect on primary schools, it was realised middle class children potentially had the upper hand, as they were in higher streams of primary schools or had home schooling, because of this grammar schools remained overwhelmingly middle classed.Few technical schools where established and there was a rise in private schooling as upper and middle class families paid for private schooling if their children did not pass the exam. Although children were being educated when they left school employers found it difficult to know their level of achievement as the General Certificate of Education was not implemented until 1951.

The document 1965 circular issued by the labour government formed the start of the conversion from the tripartite system to comprehensive schools. omprehensive schools created equal education opportunities by abolishing the 11+ exam as they did not select their intake on the basis of academic achievement, all children where accepted which encouraged social mixing, claims where made that a brighter child would be held back and larger schools would be impersonal and some parents did not want their children integrating so they sent their kids to private schools.Although the comprehensive system took place in many areas, some grammar schools still remained. Education was still patchy as teachers competence varied and there was a lack of communication between teachers and parents, there was no set national system in place to ensure all children were being educated to the same level.

‘Education Reform Act 1988’ allowed all schools to be taken out of the direct financial control of local authorities, financial responsibly was handed to he governors of the schools. The National Curriculum was developed so children received education to the same standard, maths English and science where tested at three key age stages 5-7, 7-11,11-14 so progress could be monitored and recorded, individual needs could now be identified. GCE exams where replaced by GCSE’S and schools performance where monitored by offsted inspectors who ensured a high standard of teaching.Schools where now being ranked, parents had knowledge and options available creating a free market, which enable them to choose schools best suited for their children as exam results were now being published, on some occasions it was found that the better schools could get over subscribed. In 1946 whilst Labour was in power an Aneurin Bevan the Minister of health began the nationalisation of all hospitals and health care for expansion of the welfare state, in order to provide a high quality consistent free healthcare service.Society viewed the NHS as the most important public good provided by the Government but although there where great advantages, the NHS still faced Challenges as it was only funded by National insurance and general taxation. The NHS started to be unable to cope with the rising demand for free medical care, which caused inefficiency and a drop in the quality of care which was being provided.

Doctors were recommending medical treatment freely without much consideration for cost; there was a growing need for medical research with life expectancy of the population Increasing, government spending on healthcare greatly increased, which in turn meant higher taxation on the people. Due to excessive government spending inflation occurred as Labours relaxed keynesian approach advocated government intervention, by the failing of the free market in order to achieve full employment to stimulate a depressed economy.When the conservative Thatcher government in 1979 came into power the first priority was the economy, the objective was to reduce the inflation rate and decrease direct taxation and to place accountability back into the community, by encouraging British citizens to take responsibility for their own welfare, this task was finance led by using financial controls to change focus A key control being though interest rates. (wikipedia. org/wiki/Margaret_Thatcher 18. 11. 10)A law was passed in 1980 ‘National health Services community care Act’ this act lead the reorganisation of the NHS, an internal market was created by Margret Thatcher who gave the NHS a budget and brought business and management ideas by implementing privatisation policies, hospitals began contracting out non-medical services such as laundry, catering and cleaning to private companies.

Prescription prices where increased, dental treatment and free services provided by opticians were cut.A funding system Purchaser-provider split was created in 1990 this introduced the concept of self-governing hospitals meaning Hospitals/ providers where no longer paid directly and each hospital was managed by its own board of directors, NHS Hospital Trusts. Government funding was allocated to these Trusts who then selectively purchased care from hospitals. Providers where no longer guaranteed a flow of patients instead providers would need to attract contracts with regional bodies responsible for purchasing care.Two types of purchasers were developed District health authorities and GP fund holding, Doctors were given budgets to buy health care from NHS Trusts or the private sector, this scheme was mostly taken on board in middle class areas. Care packets where brought, meaning they could customise care to the patients needs and were motivated by the ability to reinvest any profit gained from efficient purchasing to spend as they liked. This gave hospitals and GP’s the control and ability to become specialised in specific areas of care.

Patients of GP fund holders were able to obtain treatment more quickly as hospitals were seen to select fund holders patients from waiting lists more often. This selective process was against labours ideology of the welfare NHS system and was scrutinised as they felt all people should have the equal consistent level of care. By creating an internal market productivity was expected to increase through introducing competition among private companies which in turn meant benefits for the patients, more choices better services and importantly cost affective.Although Thatcher made efficient changes her monetarist ideas were met with resistance as the British were not receptive to her idea of a self-reliant society and were against the reduction in government spending on healthcare. Housing is profoundly ideological issue and is such a basic need, there are three types of housing tenure: Private rented, social housing and owner occupancy. Private rented is when a landlord is renting for profit; Social housing is when the government and counsel rent to the public for prices lower then privet renting.Owner occupancy is when the property is owned, people usually own houses though a mortgage.

Lack of housing was a major problem faced by Atlee’s Labour government after the war as demands for homes were great, one of the solutions Labour implemented to the housing shortage was to build pre-fabricated homes, ‘pre-fabs’ By 1948 125,000 had been assembled and distributed to areas in need although these ‘pre-fabs’ were meant to be temporary many were lived in for decades. www. historylearningsite. co. uk 2010) Bevan also directed his energy at the building of quality council homes, Labour felt they had a duty to provide good quality social housing for those who had a low income and wanted to live where they work, at this time Labour severely restricted the availability of licences which allowed the building and sale of private homes.

After Margret Thatcher become Prime Minister in 1979 the Conservatives rejected the idea of local councils being landlords they wanted to abolish the idea of council housing as they had a principle that the population should be self sufficient, the answer was the ‘Right’ to Buy the legislation implementing the Right to Buy was passed in the Housing Act 1980. This scheme gave families who previously were unable to afford a mortgage a chance to own their own homes, have independence and the responsibilities that come along with it maintenance. This was an incentive for the unemployed to work so they could have investments for their families; this idea was welcomed by the population.

Property was offered at a reduced price, or could take out a 125 year lease on their flat, Housing and building control Act introduced shared ownership and local authorities could give grants to tenants. Some houses where difficult to sell, so in 1986-1988 homes where discounted at 60% and 70% on flats. Local authorities became obliged to make 100% mortgages available.Councils where now selling to housing associations and private landlords but the proceeds of these sales where not to be spent on the rebuilding of social housing. By 1990 on average 52% of market value, over half the council stock was literally given away it became the biggest single privatisation of the Thatcher era.

Despite public interest Labour government argued that the good quality properties had now been sold, and could not be given to another family in need. The remaining stock of council housing was in undesirable areas with little or no employment opportunities, which lead to further isolating and stigmatising tenants.

References

1. Social policyBibliography Books Howard Glennerster 2000
2. British Social Policy since 1945 Cliff Alcock Daly Griggs- 2008
3. Introducing Social Policy Pete Alcock, Margaret May 2008
4. The student’s companion to social policy Web pages
5. http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Margaret_Thatcher
6. http://www. educationengland. org. uk/history/chapter05.html