The role of redistribution in social policy

Abstract

IN THE literature of the West, concepts and models of social policy are as diverse as contemporary concepts of poverty. Historically, the t,wo have indeed had much in common. They certainly share diversity. There are today those at, one end of the political spectrum who see social policy as a tra.nsitory minimum activity of minimum government for a minimum number of poor people; as a form of social control for minority groups in a “natural” society ; as a may of resolving the conflict. between the religious ethic of compassion and undiluted individualism. In this view social policy is not good business. Statistical estimates of t.he national income per capita look healthier if the infant mortalit,y rate rises. At the other end of the political spectrum there are writers like Macbeat,h who has comprehensively stated that “Social policies are concerned with the right. ordering of the network of relationships between men and women who live together in societies, or wit.h the principles which should govern the act,ivities of individuals and groups so far as they affect t)he lives and interests of other people.“’ Some.where bet.ween these extreme visionary notions lives a convent,ionai, text.book, definition of social policy. 2 The social services or social welfare, the labels we have for long attached to describe certain areas of public intervention such as income maintenance and public health, are seen :AS the main ingredients of social policy. They are obvious, direct and measurable acts of government, undertaken for a variety of political reasons, to provide for a range of needs, material