This paper will discuss social policy from a historical perspective. Social policy, back in the days, referred to the primary principles, guidelines, legislation as well as activities that affected the dwelling conditions of human beings (Foner 54). Social policy copes with the problems brought about by wickedness in people.
Social exclusion, poverty, lack of education, poor health and inadequate housing were all and are still persistent problems in life. In the U.S, industrialization brought progress and wealth to many individuals. It also, however, brought hazardous problems such as the creation of overpopulated towns. This is because citizens flocked in multitudes to urban centers and this brought about deprivation, misery as well as slum dwellings. In the 19th century, American philanthropists and voluntary organizations put efforts to address these widening social problems. They sponsored public housing blocks for individuals to live in (Morris 1). They initiated soup kitchens as well as visited the deprived people all in an effort to create awareness of the social issues. The funds, though, from these initiatives could not eliminate these mounting problems. This is the part where the government decided to step in and set up the National Health Service, as well as a welfare state. With all this efforts, the social problems are still consistent in the society to this day. In a recent seminar held in London to address these issues, the lecturers considered the actions, disciplines as well as the significance of social policy over time (Foner 63).
In conclusion, they found out that what the society thinks of as “social policy issues are, in fact, constructed from a mixture of social, political as well as economic circumstances and attitudes” (Morris 1).
Work Cited
Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty! An American History. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2004. Print.
Morris, Susannah. Social Policy: From the Victorians to the Present Day. NP, 2011. Web.
