What's Wrong with Social Policy and How to Fix It

What's Wrong with Social Policy and How to Fix It PDF Author: Bill Jordan
Publisher: Polity
ISBN: 0745647413
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
This book argues that the financial crash of 2008-9 has exposed the disastrous consequences of applying economic theory to the collective life of societies. In seeking to manage social relationships through incentives for individual gain, market-like menus of choices and business-style sets of interlocking contracts, the model adopted by the governments of the UK and USA has subverted the basis for social policy in mutuality and membership. This has been demonstrated by growing inequalities, by failures and scandals in the social services, by the flat-lining of measured well-being (even during the boom years), by increases in a wide range of social problems, and by public disillusion over the effectiveness of policy programmes. In the post-crash world, the political culture needs to enable the expression of collective action for the benefits of interdependence, and to overcome the threats of ecological catastrophe and divisive ideology. Only in this way can social policy be part of an inclusive global movement to restore faith in a politics of social justice. Bill Jordan's up-to-date, passionate and engaging argument forges convincing links between a wide range of the troubling phenomena in the public life of our times.

What's Wrong with Social Policy and How to Fix It

What's Wrong with Social Policy and How to Fix It PDF Author: Bill Jordan
Publisher: Polity
ISBN: 0745647413
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 265

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book argues that the financial crash of 2008-9 has exposed the disastrous consequences of applying economic theory to the collective life of societies. In seeking to manage social relationships through incentives for individual gain, market-like menus of choices and business-style sets of interlocking contracts, the model adopted by the governments of the UK and USA has subverted the basis for social policy in mutuality and membership. This has been demonstrated by growing inequalities, by failures and scandals in the social services, by the flat-lining of measured well-being (even during the boom years), by increases in a wide range of social problems, and by public disillusion over the effectiveness of policy programmes. In the post-crash world, the political culture needs to enable the expression of collective action for the benefits of interdependence, and to overcome the threats of ecological catastrophe and divisive ideology. Only in this way can social policy be part of an inclusive global movement to restore faith in a politics of social justice. Bill Jordan's up-to-date, passionate and engaging argument forges convincing links between a wide range of the troubling phenomena in the public life of our times.

Social Policy, Public Policy

Social Policy, Public Policy PDF Author: Meredith Edwards
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000247279
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 194

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Book Description
'Seldom has a senior public servant been so candid. As a key policymaker, Meredith Edwards takes us inside the process to reveal how we get the policies the affect so much of our lives.' - Paul Kelly, International Editor, The Australian 'This innovative and important volume, unique in the policy literature, provides ideas and case studies of interest to everyone who cares about the quality of Australian public policy. It will be an indispensable guide to past choices, and its lessons should help shape future Australian social policy decisions.' - Dr Glyn Davis, co-author of The Australian Policy Handbook How are social policies conceived, developed and put into practice? Based on four case studies of social policy reforms in which the author was a major player (the Child Support Scheme, AUSTUDY, the Higher Education Contribution scheme (HECS) and long-term employment policies presented as 'Working Nation') Social Policy, Public Policy provides insights into what is often otherwise seen as a 'black box' on how policy advice occurs. Meredith Edwards' personal experience, revealed in extracts from her journal, provides a picture of what social policy participants actually do, something on which too little has been written. Questions addressed in the book include: How was the policy problem identified and articulated and by whom? What were the key ingredients in policy analysis? When did consultation occur and in what form? How was the policy decision arrived at? What were the events between decision and implementation? And what evaluation processes occurred? Social Policy, Public Policy is essential reading for all students of public policy and policy advisers.

The Limits of Social Policy

The Limits of Social Policy PDF Author: Nathan Glazer
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780674534445
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 215

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Book Description
Many social policies of the 1960s and 1970s, designed to overcome poverty and provide a decent standard of living for all Americans, ran into trouble in the 1980s with politicians, with social scientists, and with the American people. Here Nathan Glazer looks back at what went wrong, arguing that our social policies, although targeted effectively on some problems, ignored others that are equally important. Glazer's knowledge and judgment, distilled in this book, will be a source of advice and wisdom for citizens and policymakers alike.

Policy Problems and Policy Design

Policy Problems and Policy Design PDF Author: B. Guy Peters
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1786431351
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 253

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Book Description
Public policy can be considered a design science. It involves identifying relevant problems, selecting instruments to address the problem, developing institutions for managing the intervention, and creating means of assessing the design. Policy design has become an increasingly challenging task, given the emergence of numerous ‘wicked’ and complex problems. Much of policy design has adopted a technocratic and engineering approach, but there is an emerging literature that builds on a more collaborative and prospective approach to design. This book will discuss these issues in policy design and present alternative approaches to design.

How Can We Solve Our Social Problems?

How Can We Solve Our Social Problems? PDF Author: James A. Crone
Publisher: SAGE Publications
ISBN: 141299358X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
Updated with recent issues such as the national debate on health care reform, this Second Edition of How Can We Solve Our Social Problems? gives students a sense of hope by demonstrating specific, realistic steps we can take to solve some of the most pervasive social problems in America today. Author James Crone maintains a sense of sociological objectivity throughout and helps students realize that we can take steps to solve such key social problems as poverty, racial and ethnic inequality, unequal education, and environmental issues. The book's first two chapters define "social problem,," provide a theoretical background, discuss the daunting barriers we face in attempting to solve social problems, and demonstrate how sociology can help.

Social Policy

Social Policy PDF Author: Hartley Dean
Publisher: Polity
ISBN: 9780745634357
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 182

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Book Description
How do human societies provide for the wellbeing of their members? How far can we organise the ways in which we care for and about each other? And who should take responsibility for providing the support we all need? These are some of the fundamental questions addressed by social policy today. In this short introduction, suitable for students at any level, Hartley Dean explains the extraordinary scope and importance of social policy. He explores its foundations and contemporary significance; the principal issues it addresses and their diverse economic, political and sociological dimensions, and concludes by looking at the fundamental challenges facing social policy in a dramatically changing world. Taking an innovative approach to social policy as the study of human wellbeing, Hartley Dean examines the ways in which governments and peoples throughout the world attend to, promote, neglect or even undermine the things that make life worth living. These include essential services, such as healthcare and education; the means of livelihood, such as jobs and money; and vital but sometimes intangible things, such as physical and emotional security. Some of these are organised by governments and official bodies. Others are provided by businesses, social groups, community organizations, neighbours and families. Trying to understand all these elements, which together constitute human wellbeing, is the stuff of social policy.

U.S. Health in International Perspective

U.S. Health in International Perspective PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309264146
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 421

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Book Description
The United States is among the wealthiest nations in the world, but it is far from the healthiest. Although life expectancy and survival rates in the United States have improved dramatically over the past century, Americans live shorter lives and experience more injuries and illnesses than people in other high-income countries. The U.S. health disadvantage cannot be attributed solely to the adverse health status of racial or ethnic minorities or poor people: even highly advantaged Americans are in worse health than their counterparts in other, "peer" countries. In light of the new and growing evidence about the U.S. health disadvantage, the National Institutes of Health asked the National Research Council (NRC) and the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to convene a panel of experts to study the issue. The Panel on Understanding Cross-National Health Differences Among High-Income Countries examined whether the U.S. health disadvantage exists across the life span, considered potential explanations, and assessed the larger implications of the findings. U.S. Health in International Perspective presents detailed evidence on the issue, explores the possible explanations for the shorter and less healthy lives of Americans than those of people in comparable countries, and recommends actions by both government and nongovernment agencies and organizations to address the U.S. health disadvantage.

Social Policies and Social Control

Social Policies and Social Control PDF Author: Malcolm Harrison
Publisher: Policy Press
ISBN: 1447310756
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
This book offers an innovative account of social-control and behaviorist thinking in social policies and welfare systems and the impact it has had on disadvantaged groups. The contributors review how controls have been applied to individuals and households and how these interventions have narrowed social rights. They illuminate the links between social control developments, welfare systems, and the liberalization of economics, and they highlight the negative impact that behaviorist assumptions--and the subsequent strategies that have grown out of them--have had on the disadvantaged. Overall the volume provides a cutting-edge critical engagement with contemporary policy developments.

Sociology and Social Policy

Sociology and Social Policy PDF Author: Herbert J. Gans
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231545096
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 378

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Book Description
This collection of recent essays by the influential sociologist Herbert J. Gans brings together the many themes of Gans’s wide-ranging career to make the case for a policy-oriented vision for sociology. Sociology and Social Policy explicates and helps solve social problems by presenting a range of studies on what people, institutions, and social structures do with, for, and against one another. These works from across Gans’s areas of interest—the city, poverty, ethnicity, employment and political economy, and the relationship between race and class—together make a powerful call to action for the field of sociology.

Understanding Social Problems

Understanding Social Problems PDF Author: Margaret May
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
ISBN: 9780631220299
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Book Description
This up-to-date and accessible text fills an important gap in the market by introducing students to social policy perspectives on social problems. Written in an accessible, student-friendly style, using subheadings, boxed material, tables, and up-to-date examples Each chapter includes a brief outline of the issues to be explored and question sections to help learning, develop evaluative skills and encourage project work Includes an annotated guide to further reading, helpful internet addresses, and a bibliography of sources cited Chapters can be used independently or in conjunction with others addressing related questions