Social Policy and Welfare State Issues - Essay Example

Social Policy and Welfare Issues The concept ‘welfare’ and ‘welfare are heard more often in speeches of today’s politics, which provides them a reliable ground for gaining more and more electoral per cents of success. These words are generally understood and perceived as the state responsibility for creating affordable and just conditions of life, whereas there are no strict and clear definitions for these phenomena. It is recognized, however, that the state is the responsible party for these aspects of the society’s life, and it performs its duties in this regard by means of conducting of social policy. There are also different approaches and views on welfare and all the things related to it, and they also differ in defining this concept and the ways of its realization. The UK social policy has experienced many significant changes over the decades since the end of the World War II, and the correct way of its conducting is still one of the most debatable things. Social Policy and Welfare State Issues Introduction The idea of welfare is one of the most important in terms of development of the society and country, providing equal conditions of life for every citizen and determining the direction of the governmental policy. This is also one of the ideas which are really long-term and do not limit to certain groups of society because human desire for justice and equality is strong, and violation of these two important aspects has been and still remains a driving force of social unrests, revolts and strikes. In this regard, the government faces the need of actions which could diminish such risks, and this becomes possible through conduction of social policy and securing of welfare and welfare state. To understand the mechanism of realization of these actions it is necessary to define and briefly describe them and to consider their theoretical background. A Brief Description of Welfare The meaning of the word ‘welfare’ is defined today as “Health, happiness, and good fortune; well-being; Financial or other aid provided, especially by the government, to people in need.” (The Free Dictionary, 2015). Both definitions are correct, and the second one is of big importance for investigation into social policy. Welfare also has to do with just distribution of the resources of the country among all its citizens, and this may be the key point of the essence of welfare at all. There are many examples today in many countries of the world how the resources can be disproportionally divided between the rich and the poor, and in some countries the indices of this phenomenon are striking: there are countries where one to three per cent of population possesses up to ninety percent of all the resources and material goods of the state. (Pearson Education, 2008). The reason for such inequalities concern themselves with the peculiarities of social economics, when the ones able to create business are likely to be rich that those unable to do it. (George, Wilding, 1994). The gap between the rich and the poor goes on growing year to year, and the government has to do something with the poor to help them survive in conditions of economic realities of different countries. This is done by means of providing the poor with welfare, that is, supporting the people in need by material and non-material things necessary for life maintenance and organization of affordable conditions of life. Theoretical Aspects of Welfare Services Delivery There are different theoretical aspects of social policy and its conduction. Ramesh Mishra, for example, suggests that “…the welfare state was to make liberal capitalism more productive economically and more just socially.” (Mishra, 1984). In this regard, social policy should be based on liberal and capitalist economic model, that is, the market should be undisturbed by the state authorities and develop according to its internal regulations and procedures, all the relations of its participants should be based on capitalistic, that is, monetary basis, which creates sound competition on the market and makes its players increase the quality of their goods and services provided, on the one hand, and that the division of the profits gained from such economic activity should be divided within the society more just. The author wrote the word ‘was’ reasonably: a just division of the profit would cause governmental interference with the market and distribution of monetary funds among the poor, which contradicts market-oriented economy, when any economic activity is aimed at profit receiving by the market player and by no other party or person, and this is similar to communist ideas about material goods. It is, of course, obvious that market players would not agree with forced alienation of part of their profits, and such way of welfare distribution cannot last long when applied. One more theory of welfare delivery is a combination of two behavior models of the state, or economic stances: liberal and regulatory in relations of the government with business, trade unions and banking sector. (Deacon, 2002). This model would enable supporting business in certain periods of time in order to increase taxation incomes to the state budget, which in its turn would increase monetary reserves of the state which it could direct at welfare programs, and to interfere with it, as it was already stated in the previous theory, to gain more benefits without stimulation, for example, by taxes increase. In this case, this would cause cyclic changes in the amount of welfare services provided, and too big pressure on business could distract many investments, including foreign ones. The above mentioned theories concern themselves mostly with direct monetary funding of the poor, but there are also approaches in welfare services delivery that involve indirect and not material, in usual sense of this word, perspectives. Marjorie Kornhauser, for example, provides information about the US programme of welfare support: “The federal government delivers many of the benefits it provides to improve the general welfare of its citizens - poor and non-poor alike - through the tax system rather than traditional direct spending programs.” (Kornhauser, 2009). In reality, however, people need money more often than, say, decrease of certain tax rates, because money is the thing they can buy necessary things for them. The reason such practice was introduced was that, according to recent information, direct monetary spending lead to formulating of egalitarian or even communitarian norms of cooperation and views, altruism, “…they also can moderate anti-tax attitudes by removing the direct connection between tax and welfare that exists when the tax system is the delivery mechanism.” (Kornhauser, 2009). The reality proves, though, that direct spending still prevails in society views on the essence of welfare, because capital welfare programmes taken by the government contribute to emerging of a society of equal opportunities for all its members, which, in its turn, raises consciousness in terms of support and cohesion, when the poor would not be considered as a helpless and hopeless element. (Kornhauser, 2009). Since welfare means well-being, it is quite possible to state that governmental efforts in terms of provision of qualitative health and safety and educational services, especially when they are cheap or free at all, are also part of governmental social policy. This theory cannot be applied to all the countries today, as most of nations provide fee-paid services, but this could be the best policy from the point of view of society: as the state needs qualified specialists, it should educate them for its own account, and if it demands a sound and healthy nation, the situation is the same. This would also embrace all the society independently of financial situation of each of its members: the countries which provided free education and health and safety services did it on a whole-country basis (Libya, Scandinavian countries). In terms of health and safety, the best way of welfare services provision would be insurance which would cover the treatment expenditures, and its cost, obviously, should be covered by the state. This is also in practice is reached in developed countries, which are traditionally referred to as ‘welfare states’, and other nations can reach this by means of conduction of appropriate reforms and adoption of the experience of the countries successfully operating this model. Another considerable aspect of welfare services delivery is charity and non-governmental organizations and cooperation of the government with them. This can be observed on the example of education: for instance, in China, where rural education system leaves very much to be desired – the number of schools is insufficient, the material basis is either too outdated or present in very low quantities or absent at all, and the overall system of the country management is rather central-focused, when such distant areas are typically deprived of the governmental attention. Non-governmental organizations in China, though having not so much influence and power as the governmental authorities, organize schools, restore and replenish libraries, support the rural teachers both materially, as the salary rate is very low in a typical Chinese village, and morally, because, first, the teachers in such locations are overloaded because of their small number, and, second, because working with children who are not adopted to educational conditions – constant sitting and listening to the information – is not easy, and these organizations also pay for psychological help to the teachers. The non-governmental organizations in China were usually treated not very well as they were suspicious in terms of ‘cooperating with foreign agents’ and ‘destabilization of political situation in China’, but the government noticed positive effect of these organizations in the sphere of rural education and preferred to support them and cooperate with them, as they did the job that is typically a governmental obligation. (Zhou, 2013). Conclusion Social policy is a very important sphere of the governmental policy and it concerns itself with provision of welfare services. There are different approaches to delivery of such services, for example, direct and indirect approach, monetary and non-monetary, promotion of education to the categories of society which have no access to it, and the thing that unites these approaches is that this is a crucial aspect of creating a society of equal opportunities and establishment of welfare state. References Deacon, A. (2002). Perspectives on Welfare: Ideas, Ideology and Policy Debates. Buckingham: Open University Press. George, V., Wilding, P. (1994). Welfare and Ideology. Harvester Wheatsheaf: Hemel Hempstead. Kornhauser, M. (2009). Cognitive Theory and the Delivery of Welfare Benefits. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1351890 Mishra, R. (1984). The Welfare State in Crisis: Social Thought and Social Change. Brighton: Wheatsheaf Books Ltd. Pearson Education. (2008). Gap Between Rich and Poor: World Income Inequality. http://www.infoplease.com/world/statistics/inequality-income-expenditure.html The Free Dictionary. (2015). Welfare – Definition by The Free Dictionary. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/welfare Zhou, M. (2013). What Should China’s NPOs Do to Promote Rural Education? http://chinadevelopmentbrief.cn/articles/what-should-chinas-npos-do-to-promote-rural-education/ Read More