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Law and social policy

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Law and social policy

Introduction
Social policies are made by the government of a state which defines the social aspects of
the citizens (Spicker, 2015). These policies depend upon the history of the nation, type of
government, the needs of the people and the aims and objectives of the state. A more proper
definition of social policies can be taken from the London School of Economics which defines it
as, an interdisciplinary and applied subject concerned with the analysis of societies' responses to
social need", which seeks to foster in its students a capacity to understand theory and evidence
drawn from a wide range of social science disciplines, including economics, sociology,
psychology, geography, history, law, philosophy and political science (Christine Cheyne, 2005).
However some people define social policy as the policies made to solve any social problem such
as racism, unemployment, unequal distribution of money and security issues etc. The social
policies and Laws of the state are highly driven by the ideologies behind them. A few events, that
took place in the past have huge influences on the social policies and on the basis of these
ideologies, defined categories have been made. States either fall in one category or the other and
these policies have a huge impact on the economic, political as well as the financial structure of
the state. These social policies are designed by the government and are followed in all matters of
the state. Without the proper social structure a country may not be able to satisfy the citizens and
therefore these policies are made with care so that the problems can be handled in an efficient
ways. As discussed earlier, these policies can vary according to the different ideologies they
follow and in this paper all these types of ideologies and the social terms associated with them
shall be discussed. Moreover, we will also discuss if the driving force of the British welfare state

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still Beveridge and social democracy or has it been superseded by a neo liberal approach dating
from the 1980s.
Social work and law works side to side as there are a lot of social issues which are
directly or indirectly associated with law. Starting from the ecological perspective, the law plays
important role for the monitoring and regulation of laws and rules. This is done so that if anyone
is found violating this rule, legal actions could be taken against them. If a social worker is
working against the problems such as deforestation and pollution he can take legal actions
against a guilty person in the presence of law for this purpose. Other than that, there are hundreds
of social institutions such as schools, hospitals, and other public organizations which cannot
work properly without a defined law (Braye, 1988). So we can conclude that for the proper
working and formation of social policies, law is very important and therefore, both of them work
together to achieve desirable results.
A social worker today is well aware about the laws and policies related to the field
because a failure to do so can result in disaster. At the same time if there are inappropriate social
policies and law structure, the social worker will have to struggle far more and is more likely to
fail in this process. Looking at an example, if the social policies and legislation allows a citizen
to file a case against the people who are involved in an illegal act, all the people will be confident
that if any illegal thing will happen, they have the hope to seek justice. This feeling will make
them feel secure and will also discourage the criminals. The same case can entirely change if the
law and social policies are not up to the mark. If there is no such law that would allow the
common citizens to take action against illegal acts, the powerful and criminal bodies of the state
will continue their crimes while the common citizens will have no place to report. This will not
only discourage the citizens, but will also result in a high crime rate and will result in collapse of
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the society. It is therefore seen that the social policies and laws are very strict so that the state can
work efficiently in the right direction.
The social policy is therefore a tool to provide the citizens with the power by which they
can live a life in which their rights are protected and their voices can be heard. Basically, social
policies were not given much importance in the past but due to some disastrous events, the
human life and rights gained more importance. Now, with a strong social policy structure, the
human life style has improved considerably. The function of the social policy includes a few very
basic but important aspects which shall be discussed here. These functions are focused on
providing citizens with such leverages, which could benefit both, the government as well as the
public. This is however a very broad class of functions which can include many specific tasks
and these functions can also change on the basis of ideologies behind that policy. For example,
one state might provide free education to the citizens so that the y can promote education and
benefit from a more educated society. While on the other hand, another states example can be
taken, which charges money from the citizens and provide quality education in order to earn
revenue and benefit from them. So it is basically a matter of ideology and thinking of the policy
makers which differentiates a state from another. Similarly the matters of poverty, health,
education, crime, housing, jobs, transport and all related things for the public are dealt under the
social policies.
Social Exclusions and inclusions is yet another deep and complex concept which is often
looked upon as a bad concept. It is used by the policy makers to include or exclude special
people within the limits of a policy or law. Social exclusion and inclusion is sometimes also
misconcepted and the people suffering from this blame the policy for being biased. However, this
is not the case in all such matters and sometimes, it is important to include or exclude certain
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bodies and this is done after carefully calculating the results and foreseeing the consequences
involved. Taking an example, the foreign people, who do not have the citizenship are not eligible
to work or study in that country unless they are sponsored by the institution. This law may sound
rough for the people who fail to get a job or study in that country but if seen on a larger scale,
this step is important otherwise, the population of prosperous countries will increase dramatically
causing huge problems. There is security issues related to this problem as well. This is the reason
why almost all the countries of the world have made this a very important part of their policy.
In the case of inclusion, there are also some conflicts among the citizens that why the
policy has included specific people but again at this stage, it should be understood that these
policies are made for the betterment of the society on a broader scale. Social inclusion is the
inclusion of specific people in a policy or a policy defined for that specific class (Vanhalst,
2015). For example there are laws and policies which are to protect the rights of women. Any
man can claim that this is discrimination, but if we look at the history, we can see that women
have always been treated badly and in order to protect them from these kinds of things, separate
policies for them are very important.
The social policies differ due to ideological difference of the countries. In this matter, we
will consider two of the more prominent ideologies which are exactly opposite to each other. In
this paper we will look at two main types of social policies based on the ideologies of social
democracy and neo-liberalism.

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Bibliography
Christine Cheyne, M. O. &. M. B., 2005. Social Policy in Aotearoa New Zealand: A Critical
Introduction. p. 3.
Spicker, P., 2015. An introduction to Social Policy.
Braye, S. and Preston-Shoot, M., 1998. Social work and the law (pp. 56-66). Macmillan
Education UK. Retrevied from http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-349-14400-6_5
Vanhalst, J., Soenens, B., Luyckx, K., Van Petegem, S., Weeks, M.S. and Asher, S.R., 2015. Why
do the lonely stay lonely? Chronically lonely adolescents attributions and emotions in situations
of social inclusion and exclusion. Journal of personality and social psychology, 109(5), p.932.
Retrieved from http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/psp/109/5/932/

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