EMERGENCE OF SOCIAL POLICY
INTRODUCTION
The word “Social Policy” has two general two words
such as “social” and “policy”. A policy is typically described as a principle
or rule to guide decisions and achieve rational outcomes. Policies are
generally adopted by the Board of or senior governance body within an
organization whereas procedures or protocols would be developed and adopted by
senior executive officers. Policies can assist in both subjective and objective
decision
making, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Policy).
The development of social policies between
industrialized and non-industrialized varies in term of date of origin or
existence. The word Industrialized means those countries which is well
industrialized such as Germany, United State of America, United Kingdom, and
Denmark, and Non-industrialized countries are those countries which are not
well industrialized in other term we call Developing countries including
African Countries excluding South Africa and some of Asians Countries. Therefore,
the explanation on emergence of social policy will be based much in two
countries such as United Kingdom
(British), and Tanzania.
1.1 DEFINITION OF THE KEY TERMS
1.1.1 Social means living or disposed
to live in companionship with others or in a
community, rather than in isolation, (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/social).
1.1.2 Policies are guidelines, rules,
regulations, laws, principles, or directions. This means what is to be done,
who is to do it, how it is to be done and for (or to) whom it is to be done,
and that Policy occurs at various levels and points of interaction—personal,
organizational, and public, (http://partcfood.msvu.ca/section4/index.html).
Policies
are principles,
rules,
and guidelines
formulated or adopted by an organization
to reach its long-term
goals
and typically published in a booklet
or other form
that is widely accessible, (http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/policies-and-procidure).
1.1.3 Social policy primarily refers to guidelines, principles, legislation and
activities that affect the living conditions conducive to women welfare, or Social
Policy is defined as actions that affect the well-being of members of a society
through shaping the distribution of and access to goods and resources in that
society. Social policy often deals with wicked
problem (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_policy).
Social policy is the study of actions
and decisions of government that contribute to the wellbeing of the population
and individuals. It involves policy areas such as social security and welfare,
disability, health, education, employment services, Indigenous peoples,
community services and child protection, (http://www.uq.edu.au/swahs/social-policy).
Generally, Social Policy means what government
does when they attempt to improve the wellbeing of the people based on
politically, socially, economically as well as socially, whereby improve health
care, human services, crime justice, inequality and education.
2.0 EMERGENCE OF SOCIAL POLICY
Historically, the earliest example of
direct intervention by government in social policy dates back to Umar ibn al-Khattāb's rule as the second caliph of Islam in
the 6th century. He used zakah collections and also other governmental
resources to establish pensions, income support, child benefits, and various
stipends for people of the non-Muslim community, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_policy).
This is where Social policy started to emerge in Arabian countries; letter the
idea speeded all over the world so as to improve the well being of the people
in a given country.
Therefore, the
emergence of Social policy differs from Industrialized country and
Non-industrialized in term of its origin. So, due to this, the explanation of
the emergence of Social policy will be sighted in Britain
and Tanzania
whereby representing Industrialized country and Non-industrialized as follow:-
2.1 EMERGENCE OF SOCIAL
POLICY IN BRITAIN
General source
of emergence of social policy in British was the development of industrial
whereby known by the name of “Industrial Revolution”. Industrial revolution
affected society in both socially as well as economically as follow; the labor
strikes, dangerous machinery, poor living conditions, working class was not
clean or hygienic, mothers taken away from children to work in the factory,
family suffered, poor workers were at
the hands of the wealthy factory owners, who mistreated then with harsh
punishments and unrealistic working hours and schedules, women were required to
return to work 3 days after childbirth, ideas of the enlightenment and
revolution were not being expresses through human rights issues, children who
worked din factories often dies and lost limbs due to the dangerous conditions
of the factory. The impact of industrial revolution brought many effect to Britain
hence the emergence of social policy from 1750-1850.
The origin of
social policy in industrialized countries including Britain is based on
providing money and services to their citizens in five mainly areas according
to www.oup.com/uk/orc/bin/pdf :-
(1)social protection benefits (often known as social security), (2) Health
services, (3) Education services, (4) Housing provision and subsidies, and (5)
Personal social services. The following are the explanation of each one:-
Social Protection. It is aiming at
exclude direct purchases of goods or services (such as medical or social care)
by individuals, and families and early entirely Private Insurance or servings
contracts which are additional to payments required by the government. For example
health and pension contribution may be at a fix rate per person or in proportion
to income but benefits will depend on how much healthcare is used or how long
someone lives. In industrialized like Britain and spending on health
services is largely by the government or social insurance funds directly
controlled by the government (public social expenditure).
Health Services. The government of
British introduced a new policy to provide an enhanced form of community care
called “Intermediate care” for older people newly out of hospital and or at
risk of returning to hospital. The policy requires the health services and
Local government to cooperate in precise way as issued by Department of Health
(DoH 2001 a: 49-50). Also social policy involve National Insurance; 1942 Beveridge report
proposed a system of National Insurance, based on three 'assumptions', family
allowances, a National Health Service, and full employment.
Education services. The Scotland had
free schooling from 1691, organized since 1803 on a parochial basis. But in England, by
contrast, before 1870, the only main state provision for education was under
the Poor Law. 1870 Education Act in Scotland provided free compulsory
elementary education for all, up to the age of 12 at first, later to 14. 1902
Local Education Authorities were formed, based in the new local government
system. This was extended to Scotland
in 1908.
Personal social services. After 1948,
three departments were responsible for personal social services:- health
departments, responsible for public health and various aspects of social care,
welfare departments, responsible for residential care and help to elderly and
disabled people, Children's departments, responsible for child care. This gave
the impetus to social policy makers as a generic profession, though genericism
is increasingly rare in practice. The balance was shifted by the introduction
of community care policies in the 1990s, following the Griffiths report of 1988. Since then there
has also been a movement towards integrating children's services, combining
personal social services for children with education departments, and services
now being planned jointly, (http://www2.rgu.ac.uk/publicpolicy/introduction/pss.htm).
2.2 EMERGENCE OF SOCIAL POLICY IN TANZANIA
The emergence of social policy in Tanzania goes hand in hand with Ujamaa policy
from 1961 soon after gaining its Independence
from the hand of Britain.
Ujamaa was the concept that formed the basis of Julius Nyerere's
social and economic development policies in Tanzania
after gained its independence from the hand of Britain in 1961, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ujamaa).
From 1961 to
1967 social policy of Tanzania
were Urban-based and oriented to influence economic growth. From 1967-1986
social policy focused on the broader population. Since 1986 social policy
characterized by succumbing to IMF and World Bank conditionality, (Holman,
1975) and 1972 social policy based on improving standard of living people all
over Tanzania, (Mchomvu, 1996).
In 1967 Arusha Declaration marked the establishment of
the general parameters of social policy as well as machinery for social policy
making, (Hardiman and Madgley, 1982. Ujamaa and Self Reliance formed the
ideological framework for all social policy decision. The government introduced
national development plans which enumerated priority areas the government
intended to take on, (Hyden, 1980).
In 1977 the supremacy of the CCM (Chama Cha Mapinduzi)
party was announced which thereby assumed the primary role of social policy
making, (Citinka, 1966). Social policy issues were presented to the NEC by
party Secretariat, and the government was left with role of implementing
party-sanctioned policies.
2.2.1 AIM OF SOCIAL POLICY IN TANZANIA
Mwalimu J. K. Nyerere believed that, social policy in Tanzania should base on fighting
three enemies such as ignorance, poverty and diseases. Therefore, the following
are the explanation of each one and policies formed:-
To fight against Ignorance. Majority of Tanzania before independence and
after independence who had ability to read and write were few in number. This
was a great problem whereby forced J. K. Nyerere to introduce the policy of “Education and Self reliance” so as to
make Tanzanian people independent by solving their own problem without aid from
various agencies and donors. The fostering of
Tanzanian self-reliance through was in two dimensions:
the transformation of economic and cultural attitudes. Economically, everyone
would work for both the group and for him/herself; culturally, Tanzanians must
learn to free themselves from dependence on European powers. For Nyerere, this
included Tanzanians learning to do things for themselves and learning to be
satisfied with what they could achieve as an independent state. This is goes
hand in hand with existence and implementation of free and compulsory education for all Tanzanians in
order to sensitize them to the principles of Ujamaa. Therefore, by giving
Tanzanians education would fight against Poverty and diseases.
To fight against Poverty. Soon after gaining
independence majority of Tanzanians were to poor. And the word poverty refers
to situation whereby a person fails to acquire basic needs. Absolute poverty became
an enemy to fostering development, hence Mwalimu J. K. Nyerere come up with
various policies so as to increase the wellbeing of the people in term of
socially and economically dimensions. Examples of policies which had formed
are; “Agriculture is a Back born of the Nation”, “KILIMO CHA KUFA NA KUPONA”,
“KILIMO NI SIASA”, “VILAGELIZATION POLICY”, “The National Poverty Eradication
Strategy (NPES), The Tanzania Development Vision (TDV), Poverty Reduction
Strategy (PRS), and “MKUKUTA”. All these policy were aimed at improving
livelihood of the Tanzanian people.
To fight against diseases. After independence because of ignorance
and poverty existed to large number of people among Tanzania, majority were faced by
diseases such as cholera, Malaria, sexual transmitted diseases, and other
chronic diseases. Therefore, Mwalimu J. K. Nyerere took various measures so as
to increase livelihood of the people by providing free health services and
education hence Infant mortality was reduced from 138 per 1000 live births in
1965 to 110 in 1985; life expectancy at birth rose from 37 in 1960 to 52 in
1984.
4.0 CONCLUSION
The concept of social policy is not clear
to decision-makers, implementers, and the public. The social policy formulation
is the preserve of the government while community participation is very
minimal. Most of social policy especially Non-industrialized tend to be
fragmented, disjointed, and uncoordinated. The process of formulation does not
address all social problems. For example in Tanzania we haven’t the policy
dealing with Natural Hazards. This led to mass to lack required needs when the
natural hazards including floods, drought and Earthquakes occurred.
5.0 REFERENCES
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