Public Policy: - in the Era of SDGs -

By Tetsuo Ogawa

This book provides an overview of public policy, but rather than describing a country's policies, it deals with explanations for each area. By doing so, basic concepts, issues related to policy effectiveness, and approaches reveal researchers' methods in describing its characteristics. In this way, the book explores how public policies and policy systems are performing sector by sector among developed countries. It will be clarified by many examples of how different the so-called "society" to which this document is directed includes developing countries and OECD member countries. This book also shows that public policy is still growing in the process that needs to be covered, and government, where public policies are undergoing drastic changes to allow optimism. Therefore, it cannot be handled either. The examples dealt with in this book are issues that have been studied comparatively.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing Singapore
• Release date: Aug 28, 2023
• ISBN: 9781543774627

Tetsuo Ogawa

Tetsuo Ogawa is Professor of Public Policy, Chiba University, Japan. Prior to the position, he worked at the University of Oxford, UK and the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), Geneva, Switzelrand. He specialises a wide range of Public Policy. His degrees are from King's College London and the University of Sheffield, UK.

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Copyright © 2023 by Tetsuo Ogawa.

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CONTENTS

Part I. Public Policy Trajectory

Introduction

Chapter 1 Well-Being and the State

Chapter 2 Public Policy Development

Chapter 3 Public Policy Theory

Part II. Particular Areas of Public Policy

Chapter 4 Public Health

Chapter 5 Personal Social Services

Chapter 6 Housing

Chapter 7 Social Security

Chapter 8 Employment

Chapter 9 Education

Chapter 10 Environmental Policy

Part III. Public Policy and the State

Chapter 11 Social Division and the Role of Public Policy

Chapter 12 The Future of Public Policy - towards SDGs -

Bibliography

PART I

Public Policy Trajectory

INTRODUCTION

This book provides an overview of public policy, but rather than describing a country’s policies, it deals with explanations for each area. By doing so, it moves through essential concepts, issues related to policy effectiveness, and approaches to researchers’ methods in describing the characteristics of public policy. In this way, the book explores how public policies and policy systems are performing sector by sector among developed countries. Clarification is provided by many examples of how different the so-called society to which this document is directed includes developing countries and OECD (Organisation for the Economic Co-operation and Development) member countries. This book presents a view that public policy is still in the process of growing and that optimism is allowed for as governments undergo drastic changes in public policy. The examples dealt with in this book derive from comparatively studied issues limited to fields suitable to the method used.

This is an extensive comparison given that much effort has been put into the examples from the society the author is familiar with. It is not intended to present a theory. Instead, the book is concerned with public affairs. The author appreciates working with public policy design as it leads him to acquire a global perspective, helping to transcend petty ethnocentrism. As a field of study, public policy research has spread to EU member states as represented by many. In a limited way, Australia and New Zealand are also developing. In other societies, especially in the United States and Canada, public policy research and education are carried out in public policy schools. There is a rigid link between public, economic, and social policies.

People emphasise pathology and procedures directly linked to the welfare of disadvantaged groups and people. As a result, interest in public policy research is confined to a narrow scope. In recent years the relationship with social policy has characterised public policy education and research. We recognise that policy impacts all groups in society, moving them away from tight integration. Therefore, addressing the interplay between social policies and economic policies is necessary when conducting policy analysis. These methods seek to improve the quality of society.

Making public policy particular means that the policy contributes broadly to the welfare of society, being seen in the context of service to society’s victims rather than as a tribute. Therefore, it tends to narrow the policy’s code of conduct. Thus, as public policy research has developed outside Europe, the related education also has to take into account of developments outside Europe, and as we pay attention to sociology, political science, and knowledge, we should make the connection with economics. There is development in these two directions that profitably coincides with the conclusions of Scandinavian scholars. However, in most countries, the same research into their own sociology, politics, and economics (and corresponding education) has seen progress.

It has happened in schools in Asia too. The author has spent about half his life in Switzerland and the United Kingdom, where he has worked in public policy. The author has observed public policy research and innovation, an academic field related to methodology, in which the author has a strong interest. In addition, he has spent virtual my entire working life at a university. On the other hand, he has been excited to work together with colleagues from international organisations under the United Nations, where he has observed MDGs transition to SDGs—global goals for development.

To supplement what the author has said about other disciplines, the author would like to talk about two methods of effective public policy analysis. One is a method that emphasises the aspect of social well-being. This position holds that individual well-being is merely the result of policy. The other focuses on policy in order to focus attention on the role of the state. Economics deals with a dichotomy, but only if the approach attempts to account for problems that market function fails to address.

We have no choice but to step into areas where ideas and values conflict. One sociological study found that communities and states influence individuals differently. Of these three (family, communities, states), political science puts the nation at the centre of attention. Since this book is about public policy, the author will say that public policy is central to the state’s role. Academic perspectives other than those in political science are also critical, as economics deals with the market and its rises, with relationships dealt with in various ways. Sociology is concerned with preserving the state’s and society’s relationship to policy-making.

In Chapter 1, these issues are examined more in depth. Subsequent chapters explore the mechanisms and structures from which all developed countries find a carefully devised role for the state, revealing how important context is to the system.

CHAPTER 1

Well-Being and the State

Introduction

A fundamental difficulty in defining public policy is that there is a conflict between the parts that should be of theoretical interest and the scope of the state’s primary responsibility to provide welfare. Let us talk about the main factors. Public policy research is the study of the role of the state in the welfare of its citizens. Two questions immediately arise. First, in the interest of citizens (other than being influenced by one’s own actions and the actions of others, including various collective organisations), what are the different roles of state welfare? Second, what kinds of state activities affect welfare? Table 1.1 brings together these two issues related to the definition of public policy, which serves a guideline and needs to be more complex to express the main points in a limited number of words.

Table 1.1 Regulations on the provision of revenue-providing services

Model of Individualism

In speaking of individualism, it is possible to go back to the philosophical hypothesis of the state of nature. It is appropriate here is to transform people’s involvement in the market into social activities. You will find that there are individualistic philosophical hypotheses that can be taken as fundamental principles of organisation (Hayek 1960; Nozick 1974; Gray 1992). This claim has merit, bringing into question certain activities of the state. From the point of view of the individualistic economic man, the distribution of income is appropriately determined by the workings of the market. Income is earned by the labour of market participation (investments, leasing of land, assets, etc.). Once the income is secured, individuals determine how to spend it, whether services or merit goods such as education and healthcare. People save through savings or market devices such as private insurance, which can even provide for income compensation and care needs. Even environmental pollution is often caused by people’s market activities and by the use of masks and processed water. Doing things such as buying goods or paying neighbours to refrain from doing harmful activities can be dealt with by using economical solutions. In market theory, the regulation of economic activity involves the interdependence of economies. Individuals enter into a series of exchange relationships with other people. Therefore, this prohibits the exploitation of short-term economic gain.

Exploitation undermines future long-term profits, so it is appropriate that market principles determine society. However, there has been much debate about whether or not regulation of economic activity naturally arises because it impairs economic interests. This needs to work more effectively. Now we move on to the question of whether or not Paul Ormerod is one of the founders of economics. Ormerod pointed out an important message in Adam Smith’s writings. New Right commentators emphasise Smith’s argument that private interests are the origin of success.

This seems to be the driving force, which must be followed up by the following words: When people have a common understanding of what constitutes appropriate behaviour. Moreover, the state has a role in promoting this shared understanding (Ormerod 1994: 13). In individualistic social models, family relationships are not governed by market exchange principles. However, the author has always acknowledged that perhaps the family is a forum (public place) where income is redistributed to deal with the immaturity and uncertainty of its members. Logically, it is within the family that much of the exchange of resources between generations, including inheritance, occurs.

Many intrafamily exchanges are courtesy rather than cash payments. In this sense, the family is the primary place where social care is carried out. This last exchange of meaning (gratuitous transfer) is a way of caring within the family. There is a possibility that some are labour market participants or are dependent on their work. This tends to give rise to gendered divisions of responsibility, where women may be at a disadvantage. Free exchange determines each person’s role (Pascall 1986).

The term family role expresses the complex, tense, tangled web of obligations and emotions that regulate our interrelationships. Perhaps it is a controversial choice to use the word affection for the market. Just as there is much debate about self-regulation within the system, the extent to which family self-regulation affects broader social relationships determines the nature of the natural family. Research has been conducted on whether the families include nuclear families (where one adult is the head of the family and lives alone). In contrast, other families have become an extensive network of kinship. This extension allows for a greater scope for sharing opportunities and work within the family. An extensive kinship network is a small community. It may be united with the local community.

Community

The term community was chosen to describe the next phase of this research. A child is a vague concept with so many implications (Hillery 1955), and the term has also been used frequently to refer to a volunteer organisation which thinks it should be like that. The term society could have been chosen in studying contemporary society. It is imperative to avoid mentioning the state when discussing culture, which is always tricky. So, we will use the term community here to cover an extensive range, including social groups, extended family networks, lower-level divisions, and family and neighbourhood relations, also including a wide range of social organisations which summarise the various ways the community provides cash or services to specific individuals. Therefore, the term charity has been chosen. However, this philanthropic response is an effort at caring for others. It may arise from the feeling of being too good—close to the surface of working in a family. It may also arise from social norms that dictate behaviour which may arise from relationships—expectations of give-and-take. What is the significance of these three motives in the conducting of altruistic acts? Love has also been much debated (Titmuss 1973; Reissman 1977).

State

The state is an organisation derived from the social bodies discussed in the previous section, a place where social bodies function better. It was created as a method of organisation for working hard to achieve success and high status. When justifying a state’s actions, we rely on the former argument. On the other hand, when attacking an obtrusive form, we will rely on the latter view. The condition may interfere with the market or cause the market to prosper. It also influences the initial income distribution by redistributing income after it has produced its results. Can states intervene to do what others do to provide income and services?

By shifting from the community to the state in terms of the above logic or justification, there is a danger that self-regulatory mechanisms, which also exist in society, will not be given a due mention. Social institutions play an essential role in welfare that varies from community to society. There is a difference. This difference is due to the ideological differences of each culture. They may be related. This difference also means that solid social institutions like churches, associations, professional organisations, and even industrial and commercial enterprises are central to social policy.

How much they demand to play a role may also lead to a causal relationship. Focusing on such differences, some researchers began to speak of a stateless society. This expression is used in Britain and the United States and is used as examples (see Page 1991: 14–16). This statement contains exaggeration to make a claim. Any complicated state is essential to society, but the state needs to act decisively and independently in policy-making, the availability of which varies from institution to culture (see Chapter 2). Indeed, in the so-called stateless society theory mentioned above and with those who subscribe to the individualistic economic man worldview, the theory is so influential that it seeks to limit the state to the role of a night watchman.

Aiming to broaden the scope of research to include international comparisons, this book introduces the concept of national service. It recognises the possibility that NGOs (nongovernmental organisations) are embedded in different administrative structures as essential to the state. Local government is below the level of the nation-state, but it often plays a role higher than that of the nation-state. Supranational organisations such as the European Union (EU) that represent society’s response to individual needs has been at the nation-state (and even supra-state) level because of the size of the family in relation to various systems. However, suppose these extremes are simply substitutable. In that case, they cannot be analysed as institutions interact, work together, and expect that it is possible to control and regulate each other. A mixed economy of welfare would exist (Pinker 1979; Kummerman 1983). But there is debate as to whether or not such a mix is correct. Hence, we see mixed states. What needs to be emphasised among the issues of the Catholic Church? It is particularly pertinent to note the subordination doctrine that has developed into social theory. The reason for this argument is as follows:

A higher level community is more likely than a lower level community. We should not interfere in our inner life and deprive it of its function, but rather assist and help it when needed. Movement should be helped to harmonise with the activities of the rest of society (John Paul II 1991: 69). The term subordinate is also prominently used in discussions about the role of the state in the European context. However, the higher community here is most typically the nation-state. So that is what it means. The author is interested in what makes the state play a role. What is the public policy? The state has brought specific demands upon other institutions. Alternatively, the state is pressured to assume challenging roles that other institutions cannot perform independently. However, it is essential to recognise how much force is applied. However, national control will seek to impose certain obligations on other institutions. To pursue these issues in more depth, the following three sections will focus on the three points in Table 1.1: categories of behaviour, i.e. income transfers, services, and regulation (already at different levels of society).

Policy Approach

In a typical market economy (at least the one taken for granted in classical economics), the main ways to earn income are through selling necessities, working, securing investment income, and starting a business of welfare economics. We have paid attention to contingent justifications (Laurie and Peacock 1975), such as the approach based on the premise that it must be the norm that the market determines income distribution and that the market mechanism is more important than any other principle of distribution. Those who subscribe to this view are thinking implicitly that there the premise was in existence prior. By contrast, historical studies and anthropological research show an interest in fair rewards for economic activity, and the markets have long had concerns about the appropriate level of resources to meet the existing needs and obligations. These interests will be considered more fully as the market develops.

In this glimpse into historical anthropology, the author wants to emphasise that communities (as defined above) have often been concerned with how all kinds of income transfer processes occur. This is something the author has often been interested in. To track this, look at the collective actions that have taken place as the economy has developed, right down to the trade unions of the 1970s. These concerns are not limited to minimum wage and guaranteed prices but are also concerned with what is today expressed as income security. Nation-states have accepted this policy concept in a variety of ways.

Indeed, income security is a significant issue for immediate consideration, but the state may seek other ways to influence income, maintaining sight of the fact that there are many ways to intervene, which is also impressive today in highly industrialised societies. And it’s not just nations. The family is crucial as society’s most important income transfer system. The critical features of marriage to make a family serve to facilitate inco me transfer between generations and households (including transfers between parents and children), a system that enables the use of resources throughout an individual’s life.

This statement should be understood analytically and not taken in a normative sense, but indeed it is not a challenge to contemporary critics of the family. In addition to the income transfer obligations determined by blood, there is a second market transfer method: recognition of communities’ interests, cooperation between neighbours, community-based mutual help in times of difficulty, and support for colleagues in the workplace. From these forms of acknowledgement of common interests and responsibilities, charities, trade unions, fraternities, and institutions were created to facilitate relocation, such as associations and building societies. These systems are for a broader society by uniting people for the common good, such as contributing to cultivating loyalty to a larger nation. I will talk more about this later. According to the terms used in Table 1.1, this interest is included in the general concept of charity. However, for deeper analysis, the direct concern is for those with whom it perceives a direct community relationship and a respect for their welfare.

Of Strangers

A distinguishing line can be drawn between intrafamily transfers and intracommunity transfers. Does the field or the government owe much? As noted earlier, the primary forms of financial transfer are the sale of daily necessities, the deal of one’s labour, the return on investment, and any start-up activities. How are social conventions and state interventions influencing attitudes? However long other economic activities extend, the participants recognise that there are complex requirements that market transactions cannot cover.

The first of this transaction is wages/salaries and (in recognition of the long-term needs and obligations of employees) other unique packaged or bundled benefits—the most ecocritical of unique advantages—such as a pension, which may be described as a late wage; nevertheless, it will be borne by the future economic activities of workers, related to benefits. Additionally, there are airfare, sickness, and maternity benefits which the employer provides to ensure that the employee who cannot work is paid in no time. A more complex matter is that employers must meet the needs and obligations of their employees. These needs include healthcare, children’s education, and often cash payments for the wife and children. An analysis of all these burdens should inform our market calculations (what employers do to secure and retain their workforce). Employers may have habitual and long-term-resource-availability prospects.

The second type of market-based transfer is individual concern about long-term security, an investment structure designed to cater to the heart. Included here, therefore, are various types of life insurance. A related third transfer system is insurance. Again, this is a case of self-sustenance, a bulwark against possible future risks. One may earn a living by investing the contributions of individuals wishing to protect their interests, including entrepreneurs. People’s lives and obligations can change as a result of unforeseen circumstances. What makes this area of business come to life, along with the limitations it deals with simplistically? The collective nature of this activity provides some mutual protection for insurance entrepreneurs. By doing this, we protect ourselves even more.

Societies thus use interpersonal transfers to compensate for the inadequacy of simple market transfers. Society has developed a variety of market and nonmarket means of accomplishing this. Earlier in the discussion, we discussed that the state supports only the most basic market devices. Even these do not play an utterly neutral role. So let us deal with the state’s income shortage due to devices that represent particular attempts of society to fund itself. However, other alternatives to direct state funding exist, many of which provide an alternative to state intervention. First, states could force their own involvement in transfers. Second, the state should give its income to the family and require communities to care for their poor members and provide funds to the poor. Third, the state could enforce sick pay and pensions on employers whose employees may be forced to engage in dangerous activities.

States could also regulate transfer arrangements. Alternatively, a legal framework could be set up to ensure that the employee’s obligations are met. Moreover, it has been argued that the state should protect people from injuries caused by occupational accidents. This calls attention to how the state tries to hold employers accountable by enforcing liability. Also, the state should decide where to invest and who should be the trustee by setting rules such as ensuring that charities do not misuse their funds. It could provide a legal framework.

States could guarantee transfer arrangements to ensure well-being and intervene in families, communities, and charities. There are many ways the state has been willing to get involved when business systems have failed. Similarly, states have often guaranteed pension and insurance arrangements. The state should also become a direct partner for individual income transfers by providing financial support and directly funding the activity. Many societies have exemptions from applicable taxes on charitable donations or tax on insurance (this method carries considerable weight in the social policy of the United States). As for the importance of this, see for example Stevens (1988). From a composite point of view, modern states support families’ actions to the extent possible.

These four forms of state intervention are interconnected in many ways. Coercion and regulation have many things in common as strategies. The former is a variation of the latter. Moreover, once the state becomes involved in enforcement and regulation, it becomes difficult to resist giving testimony (being drawn into the path that follows) and, from there, financial support. It also becomes difficult to resist help. Non-state transfer regimes that the state heavily regulates are in trouble, but this is the result of the uncontrolled development of institutions. Therefore, the fact that the state has been critically involved in these activities calls for the injection of fiscal funds (e.g. an insurance system designed so that it cannot refuse high-risk customers). The discussion becomes even more intense. Means of deepening state involvement are explored more fully in Chapters 2 and 7.

Choice of Services

For a discussion of the various ways in which services are delivered, it is crucial to recognise two issues that overlap. First is the purchasable market model services; as the theory asserts, services are satisfied by increasing the number people on the rolls (Ryan 1991; Peacock 1991). Therefore, as long as individuals have sufficient income to buy healthcare, social care services, and education, it should be up to them to purchase these things or not (no one should interfere with their decision-making). This choice is not just between the state and the market.

A variant of the New Right position mentioned above is that in this policy of increasing incomes, there is no choice but to fix the recipient’s pay-out for a particular service, for example an education voucher (parents receiving one of these can spend cash on some form of school for their children) or a scholarship conditional on receiving a particular service (Seldon 1986). An argument that justifies such a link between income and expenditure mentions valuable merit goods (Musgrave 1959). However, of course, this is more about providing services than providing dishdashas.

Next is the regulatory right of superior bodies to compel the provision of services to families, employers, and communities (this issue had already been raised with income security). The perfect body here is the state. Still, the idea is that the state has a responsibility to take care of its families and neighbours. Pay attention to the existence of pressure groups and volunteer groups (especially religious groups) that can impose their will. This is very important. When the state attempts to impose obligations in this way, it likely tends to contribute funds to meet those obligations under far greater pressure.

Such results can be seen particularly prominently in the history of education (Green 1990). Obliging poor parents to send their children to school is a way for parents to earn money for their children. Not only can some people live without this, but also they cannot afford it if they cannot pay tuition. If a competitor can steal an employee who can read, write, and count, then you would want to be something other than an educator. Many religious groups are involved in education. However, the author does not think they would be happy if they forced their students to attend. Education is a constant intellectual challenge. A formal system was required to reach a high level of education in the early 1990s, and a large part of academic education has been confined to the home, having been transferred to the outside by way of cultural capital transfer.

This requires much financial support from the government or the state. Modern medicine, likewise, removes much of the family and community responsibility for medical care and healthcare. Indeed, in the field of social care services, there is a mixed economy. We can see clear evidence of this (Knapp 1984). Such a phenomenon is a private and familial process that requires exceptional intervention only when the normal operation is not functioning.

This is not unrelated to the fact that disease is one major cause of bankruptcy. This will be seen in Chapters 4 and 5, which deal with medical and social care. The author sees various borderline problems in this area of social policy. The failure of normal processes results in holding people accountable and doing no harm to others or to themselves. Moreover, eventually moving individuals to other forms of care is a matter of interfering with choices for regulation. Table 1.1 presents regulation as an option at all levels, showing the reality and the conspicuous flaws in weaker forms of regulation (such as family and community).

It has been suggested that a nation is born. However, the extent to which self-regulation is possible is considerable. This indicates that in the real world, a higher body, such as the state, is given the option of threatening to interfere if self-regulation is not done or is inadequate. This line is used not only for families but also for companies. At the same time, what we observe about the state is that it is a form of collective activity. In this context, it is clear that to keep a medical condition at bay, the lower institutions (especially family and community) may rigorously internalise regulation problems. Let us look at a compelling example of someone deviating from the norm. You can see it in the system of vigilante law demanded by the community. This regulatory theme will be discussed in three different contexts in this chapter. First, one area of philosophical policy, namely policies to control environmental pollution, is examined from the viewpoint that doing so is essential for welfare. Second, aspects of service policy, social care services in particular (by their very nature), are considered regulatory. Third, the problems of public welfare are, in various ways, related to postmarket interventions as we have already pointed out. We will look not only at those interventions that impede market conduct but also at those that involve interference with and regulation of market conduct.

Conclusions

Public policy research extends in scope to matters of individual personal welfare and to social issues that concern the public and potentially the nation. This book is interested in how states become involved and why conditions develop as they do. A related question is whether the state should be involved. However, the author will not say anything about this directly. These problems are separately related. Conservative ideas emphasise family and community responsibilities and views such as inclusive distribution and a liberal theory that emphasises the market. This has been considered a problem (Evers 1994; George and Wilding 1994). These philosophical issues require a different treatment from the approach used in this chapter. However, this is not to say that I am not interested in this ideological matter. In my opinion, it is improbable that thought can solve the fundamental question, as ideas serve to justify our chosen positions. If the author has a firm view of the whole, then the author thinks it would be disrespectful to say that we do not have the solution. It will probably take work. That is why the author is elucidating his general point of view here. It is good to keep. He has written books on social policy, welfare, and the state’s role. A man who has devoted a large part of his life to the study of the problem has found that social welfare problems are essential, and it is no surprise that the state has a role to play in this regard.

The author has a view emphasising state control from social policy, sceptical of many efforts to dethrone the state. Contemporary criticism of state behaviour focuses too much on the shortcomings of this form of social organisation (the state). It is said that the problems of various social organisations (especially social organisations, including the market) must be acknowledged.

About the Rest of This Book

The first section explores how the state became involved in social policy. Chapter 2 focuses on understanding the different responses to conditions in other societies. In the third part, we discuss social welfare and social well-being. Chapter 11 deals with inequality, the question of social division and the prospects of public policy.

The second part deals with specific areas of social policy. This part of the book usually starts with the terms included in the definition of healthcare: income security, health policy, and social care services. It then covers more peripheral areas: housing, employment, and education, and social policy. The fact is that there little basis for removing education from the discussion. It happens often. These things, more than anything else, indicate that scholars suspect that it has something to do with how housing and employment policies, which differ in the degree to which jobs and housing are left to the market in many societies.

Welfare-oriented interventions are often the exception rather than the rule. However, because of the critical importance of employment and housing to individual well-being, state intervention deals with these things. A line between the concerns expressed in this book and those of economic policy studies should be drawn. The author argues that social policy should not be a problem if the economic institutions are correctly arranged. The author does not believe that economic policy will consider the social consequences. (An interesting discussion of this issue can be found in Wheel (1983).) Furthermore, monetary policy research is a highly specialised field of study. Interdisciplinary compromises raise the question of the role of the market in all the topics covered in this book,

It is inevitable that the workings of the economy include some particularly salient topics. A related issue here, and another very technical topic, is taxation. In this case, this book discusses tax issues and tax exemption forms in various locations. The chapters on income security and housing policy will be mentioned quite a bit.

After employment and education policy, there is a chapter on environmental policy. This includes the traditional National Health Service (NHS) in Great Britain, which needs to be more satisfied with a narrow approach to public policy research as the UK is country concerned with life security for its citizens. Ignoring issues of personal health and safety hazards directed towards the home’s traditional role is undoubtedly strange for a social policy argument. However, in terms of the regulation of economic activity, by including only environmental policy among the issues that seem to be of paramount importance, the author reaches a very unsatisfying place. The author is to receive criticism about environmental impact from other public safety policy guides. However, if you stop there, you throw away all the possibilities, especially issues of consumer protection and access to market opportunities, from which there some fascinating new social policy issues have arisen (Cahill 1994). The author would have preferred to deal with this because of the large scale involved in the emerging energy policy and transport policies. All of these are related to environmental policy and to broader contexts, which will become apparent in Chapter 10, but neither policy is a question of regulation.

This discussion involves what is necessary to profit from the social policy discussed (transportation to schools and hospitals, heating and cooling that make the workplace or school suitable for nursing and learning). The problem that transcends the various issues related to these regulations is the probate problem of social welfare. External defence was not considered, although it is related to multiple aspects of social welfare; law and order issues are only occasionally touched upon. Pragmatic solutions are needed to address these issues. There are researchers with vast amounts of specialised research literature, such as in criminology and criminal law, who are not very well connected to the main interests of the social welfare discipline.

The book concludes with a third part, two chapters, dealing with more general themes. Here public policy, society, and the current global trend in the development of public policy will be examined. Finally, Chapter 11 explores the fundamentals of the relationship between public policy and social stratification. The problem is determined. Social policy is a social right that mitigates the fragmenting impact of the capitalist economic system, which has been presented as containing a series of state institutions that guarantee this social right, but even scholars who agree with Marshall’s optimistic outlook on the development of industrial society disagree with welfare, pointing out flaws in the design of the state—the existence of a social division of welfare (Titmuss 1958).

The theme of social division has also been treated in two different ways. On the one hand, in comparative studies, scholars propose that some institutions are more egalitarian (Furniss and Tilton 1979). My reasoning for this is that they provide a stimulus for the orientation of the description developed. Much of this description is based on the labour market in a fully employed economy. The principle of solidarity is incorporated into state policy, relating field relations to the rights of the nonworking. We will deal with a range of things included as essential (Esping-Andersen 1990) (see Chapter 3).

On the other hand, both the early social division theorists and later researchers of the emphasis on labour market relations have increased their output because the argument is not for the benefit of welfare, ignoring gender divisions in availability and access to both labour and social benefits, and expressing indifference to the racial and ethnic divides in society that prevent access (Williams 1989; Bryson 1992). Chapter 11’s exploration of social divisions in welfare is simply a case of the welfare state in its heyday.

It is not just a question of the extent to which the system is flawed but is also a question of how these flaws appeared. But the fact of the flawed nature of the system has become more and more apparent, raising questions about the route taken. The fundamental thing here is that the idea of the early welfare state presupposed full employment for unequal married families—the breadwinner being the head of the household. The collapse of such assumptions forces a reconsideration of social policy. Policies should be repolarised, and the state’s role in family life should be diminished. Who will say no to this, because social policy is responsible for causing these changes (Murray 1984)? On the contrary, what is happening now is simply an unsustainable system.

Some say it is just a loose thread. The author does not want to turn the clock backwards; revolution and various other concerns need attention from those who do not want to sit back and wait. Some changes should be made. In modern times, the global economy, the latest technology, and the already omnipotent stale states are changing demographics and challenging traditional notions of citizenship and human rights; in times like these, comfortable partnerships between the welfare state, the capitalist economy, and the patriarchal family need to be reconsidered. These themes are dealt with in Chapter 12, In the previous chapters, they will naturally be considered when discussing individual policies. This chapter sketches a scenario that will be dealt with later in the book.

The literature introduction at this stage needs to be improved. However, as far as public policy principles are concerned, the author considers that with remarkable particulars, it discusses the construction of a way of thinking about the value of a policy from an ethical perspective. It emphasises all elements and is an introduction to the principles of public policy, especially public issues. For solutions, the author refers to methods of analysis through ethics, politics, and economics. In addition, to understand the academic field of public policy problems, he spends much time explaining policy theory and analytical methods as theory. Apart from that, it is also necessary to think about the meaning of the policy domain, which consists of ontology and epistemology. Standing up for the construction of so-called logical thinking, the author understands that some philosophical thought is also necessary. Therefore, the author recommends that the reader read what researchers in public policy, especially social policy, have written as to what factors combine to affect welfare. The author has been trying to figure out what that combination is. Kathleen Jones does this in the first part of Patterns of Social Policy (1985). Similarly, Drover and Kerans (1993) proposed a new approach to welfare theory (Chapter 1). This work is about social policy; it deals with many philosophical issues. George and Wildings’s Welfare and Ideology explores the state’s role in social policy. The different ideological perspectives on volatility are very effectively elucidated. Much has been written on the subject of social policy, but the issue is touched upon only fragmentarily in this chapter. It will be discussed in detail in the next chapter. A good primer written by an economist is Gordon’s Economics: Science and Social Policy (1982). Le Grand and Robinson’s The Economics of Social Problems (1984) is also worth a read.

CHAPTER 2

Public Policy Development

Advanced industrial countries in OECD countries are simply defined. All such organisations have developed a high degree of public policy, which will be pointed out later. In these societies, governments are involved in this effort, usually as suppliers or at least as regulators. Apart from that, East Asian countries such as Singapore and Taiwan have recently joined industrial societies. The countries have extensive public education systems, including primary education and secondary and tertiary education, based upon merit to reach university level. Indeed, social insurance systems in both these societies provide educational opportunities and medical insurance with a scope of coverage. In addition, their governments need to develop effective policies to control environmental issues, as do other industrial societies. In any advanced society, the universal fact of