Social policy theory and practice: key concepts and traditions

U.K. Government: Social Policy Theory & Practice

The objective of this study is to answer all four questions stated as follows: (1) What is the social administrative tradition? (2) What is meant by liberal welfarism? (3) Explain the parliamentary policy- making process? In addition (4) Detail the New Right critique of the welfare state?

Social Administrative Tradition

Grover Starling, administration scholar is reported to have described six characteristics of government's public administrative responsibility: (1) responsiveness; (2) flexibility; (3) competence; (4) due process; (5) accountability; and (6) honestly. (Shiguang, nd) Traditional government responsibility is noted to be that of maintaining public order. (Shiguang, nd) The World Bank identifies four primary administrative traditions as being those of: (1) Anglo Saxon (minimal state); (2) Continental European: Germanic (organicist); (3) Continental European: French (Napoleonic); and (4) Scandanavian: (mixture of Anglo-Saxon and Germanic). The most fundamental difference is reported to be "between the Anglo-Saxon and the Continental European traditions." (The World Bank, 2011) IN the Anglo-Saxon administrative tradition "the state does not exist as a legal entity but rather one speaks of 'government' or 'government departments'." (The World Bank, 2011) In the Continental European traditions, the state is "an overarching entity capable of entering into legal contracts with other moral persons (including regions, communes, universities, etc.)." (The World Bank, 2011) The Anglo-Saxon tradition is reported as being evident "in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Anglo-American derivative systems." (The World Bank, 2011) It is reported that the "role and position of the civil service are also more subordinate within the Anglo-Saxon tradition than in the Germanic. This does not mean that the civil service is unimportant in government policy making. But the civil service in the Anglo-Saxon tradition is not assigned to a constitutional role, and tends to be subject to structural changes produced by the government of the day." (The World Bank, 2011) It is reported by the World Bank that the "separation of politics and administration is prominent in a good deal of thinking about governance in the Anglo-American tradition. And issues of politicization or possible bureaucratic dominance of public policy have been most salient in the Anglo-American democracies." (The World Bank, 2011) The key features of the Anglo-Saxon administrative tradition is that in the Anglo-Saxon tradition there is no legal basis for the state and state-society relations are pluralistic and the form of political organization is limited and federalist with the basis of policy style being incrementalist. The form of decentralization in the UK is that of political with the dominant approach to discipline of public administration being political science and sociology in the UK. Specific reforms initiatives in administrative traditions include: (1) privatization and deregulation in which functions are removed from the public sector or public regulations are eliminated; (2) personnel management which has been "dominated by new public management principles; (3) financial management including reforms directed toward minimizing government costs and increasing government efficiency; (4) customer orientation; (5) empowerment; and (6) deconcentration and decentralization. (The World Bank, 2011)

II. Liberal Welfarism

The liberal welfare state is one that is representative of individualism, laissez-faire, residualism and a punitive view of poverty." (S-cool, 2012) The social democratic approach is that which is reported to have dominated both political and public opinion "for the thirty years after 1945. It is based on the economic theory of J. Keynes and the social thought of W. Beveredge." (S-cool, 2012) Keynes held that the government "could and should intervene in the economy, and that it could manage demand for goods and employment levels by its own taxation and spending policies." (S-cool, 2012) Beveredge held that "it was the duty of individuals to combine as a society with the strong supporting the weak. The liberal consensus involved an acceptance of the mixed economy and the welfare state." (S-cool, 2012) This view is that the free market produces various undesirable features including: (1) The free market has as its basis "accumulation not social purpose and inevitably leads to avoidable ills and misery for some individuals; (2) market forces are "undemocratic being controlled by a few very powerful individuals; (3) the free market provides rewards that are unjust and moral principle does not govern penalties and rewards; (4) the market is not self-regulating and unless the market is regulated the result is economic crisis, unemployment, inflation and over production"; and (5) because of the first four stated issues "poverty and inequality increase in a free market economy. (S-cool, 2012) From the view of the social democrat, the welfare state "is an obvious response to the drawbacks of the free market." (S-cool, 2012)

III. Parliamentary Policy-Making Process