The Future of Social Policy

James Midgley and Michelle Livermore

I n seeking to provide a comprehensive overview of American social policy, the authors of this book have addressed many diverse aspects of the social welfare field. They have dealt with the nature of social policy and the policy· making process, the history of social policy, the political economy of social policy, and social policy and the social services. By covering a wide field, the book’s authors hav~ sought to provide a state of the art account of American social policy at the beginning of the 21st century.

As social policy faces the challenges of a new century, it is appropriate that some tentative, sp~culative comments on its future direction be made. However, social policy is subject to many complex influences and events, so it is extremely difficult to predict future trends. As is well known, social scientists’ attempts to discern the future have not been very successful. Nevertheless, some of the factors that will affect social policy development in the years to come can be identified. These include demographic, eco­ nomic, cultural, and political factors, among others. By examining these factors, it may be possible to glimpse the future of social policy.

The task is complicated by the fact that the policy-making process is subject not only to the forces of economics, demography, cultural change, and electoral politics but also to beliefs and ideologies that offer very dif­ ferent prescriptions for the future direction of social welfare. These factors exert an indirect but powerful influence on social policy makers. Although social policy is often regarded as a technical process in which rational pol­ icy makers identify problems and dispassionately formulate cost-effective solutions, they are influenced by ideologies as well as wider economic, demographic, political, and other forces.

An understanding of these forces is relevant to any attempt to speculate on the future of social policy in the United States. As this brief chapter endeavors to show, many complex factors will shape and determine social

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policy’s future trajectory. It will also show that social policy commentators have reached different conclusions about these factors and their effects on the future of social policy. Generally, their opinions tend to be either pes­ simistic or optimistic. Since the 1980s, liberal scholars have tended to take a pessimistic view about .the future of social policy while those on the polit­ ical right have been more optimistic, claiming that the changes introduced over the last two decades have reduced the role of government and encour­ aged greater personal responsibility in social welfare. On the other hand, there is some agreement about the role of economic, demographic, cultural, and political factors in shaping future trends. These trends, the role of ide­ ologies and normative theories, and the views of social policy commenta- . tors about their importance are essential in attenipting to discern the future of social policy.

forces of Change and Sodal Policy _________

Economic factors are obviously very· influential in determining current and future social policy events. Significant and often dramatic economic changes have certainly shaped the evolution of social policy in the past. This has been particularly evident in times of economic difficulty. As was shown in Chapter 9 of this book, the Great Depression created pressing social needs that exerted pressures on government to respond. Similarly, the economic difficulties o{ the 1970s, which were associated with high inflation and unemployment, contributed to the redirection of social policy thinking in the 1980s. By blaming economic difficulties on social expenditures, conservative thinkers legitimated the retrenchment of social programs and, many com­ mentators believe, redirected the social policy trajectory from one of incre­ mental expansion to one of containment if not retrenchment.Due Friday, Nov 8th BY 4 pm Central Time U.S.

Ideology, politics, and the influence of values often override evidence-based policy. When there is an evaluation conflict, a policy advocate must be prepared to defend his/her reasons for wanting to implement a policy. Because almost all proposed policies are circumscribed by politics (for reasons brought up by Jansson throughout the course when discussing the subtleties of policy implementation), you should be prepared for some conflict, ranging from having your research ignored, to having the accuracy of your data questioned, to having your personal values brought into question.
In this Discussion, you consider the assertion that the evaluation of specific policies is often strongly influenced by values. You also examine and evaluate ways to mitigate the evaluation conflict to defend the feasibility of your policy.

Required Reading

Community Toolbox. (2016). 12. Evaluating the Initiative. Retrieved from http://ctb.ku.edu/en/evaluating-initiative

Jansson, B. S. (2018).Becoming an effective policy advocate: From policy practice to social justice (8th ed.). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Cengage Learning Series.

Chapter 14, “Assessing Policy: Toward Evidence-Based Policy During Task 8” (pp. 488-503)

Midgley, J., & Livermore, M. M. (Eds.) (2008). The handbook of social policy (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Chapter 33, “The Future of Social Policy” (pp. 557“569) (PDF)

DQ

Post a response to Jansson’s assertion that evaluating specific policies is strongly influenced by values with respect to the case of the evaluation of special services. How do the values of evaluation conflict adhere to social work values? What practices would you use to defend the feasibility of and effectiveness of your evidence-based policy?

Use APA format and In-text Citations and References, as well as outside credible websites.