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The roots and goals of social policy 575

conflict. More money for health insurance subsidies, Social Security, Medicare, food

stamps, and welfare means less money for highways, the military, or development

of alternative energy. These trade-offs become especially acute as the population

ages, requiring an increasing share of federal spending to go to Social Security and

Medicare. The trade-offs must be resolved through a political process filled with

conflict and compromise.

One of the biggest challenges Americans face today is how to make sense of all

the claims they hear about public policy. Is Social Security going bankrupt, and will it

therefore not pay the current generation of young Americans any benefits when they

retire? Does the government spend too much money on food stamps and welfare,

or are these important tools for reducing inequality? Has the Trump administration

essentially eliminated Obamacare? This chapter will help answer these important

questions by discussing the evolution of social policy in the United States, outlining

the conditions that create the need for social policies, describing the key players in the

social policy-making process, and explaining the status of key social policies today and

the efforts to reform them. We begin with the historical background of social policy.

The Roots and Goals of Social Policy

Social policy is generally defined in terms of the “social safety net,” or welfare, which is

financial or other assistance provided to individuals by the government, usually based

on need. A broader conception of social policy includes government programs aimed

at achieving some general social goal, such as programs that support public education,

the income tax deduction for interest paid on home mortgages (to encourage home

ownership), or policies designed to promote job creation and growth. This chapter will

address both types of social policies and discuss how some traditional social welfare

programs, such as Social Security, are not based on need. First, we’ll outline the

evolution of social policy in the United States and describe various types of social policy

(see Nuts & Bolts 16.1).

Early Social-Policy Efforts

Early in our nation’s history, the federal government took little responsibility for social

welfare. Private charities, churches, and families largely took care of the poor and

disadvantaged. The first significant social policy appeared in the nineteenth century in

the form of federal financial support for Civil War veterans and their families. Between

1880 and 1910, the national government spent more than a quarter of its budget on Civil

War pensions and support for veterans’ widows. Other than interest on the debt, this

was a larger share of the budget than any other single item and a greater percentage of

federal spending than today’s expenditure on Social Security.^9 (Today we spend nearly

one-fourth of our budget on Social Security, but, of course, the overall budget was

much smaller then.) During the recession of the mid-1890s, populist and progressive

reformers sought a national system of unemployment compensation, but such broad-

scale policies were several decades ahead of their time.

EXPLAIN WHAT WE MEAN

BY SOCIAL POLICY AND

HOW THE NATIONAL

GOVERNMENT’S ROLE

IN SOCIAL POLICY HAS

E VO LV E D

social policy

An area of public policy related to

maintaining or enhancing the well-

being of individuals.

welfare

Financial or other assistance

provided to individuals by the

government, usually based on need.

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