The Crisis in Social Policy Planning

Abstract

Social policy planning was dominated for approximately the first seventy-five years of its existence by a view that social policy ought to operate through the paternalistic interventions of the state. Beginning in the 1960s this view has been the subject of major criticism. Left- and right-wing political activists have challenged the welfare state on ideological grounds, and more recently policy analysts and evaluators have brought challenges on the basis of efficacy and efficiency. From this turmoil a new view of the proper nature of social policy is emerging. It is based in a different set of assumptions than the welfare state and will yield a different set of policies and programs. This paper explores the transformation which is occurring in social policy planning from the perspective of social and intellectual history.