Social policy

Abstract

Basically, social policy and—more specifically—social security imply either social welfare,¹ social insurance, or a mixture of both systems. Equally, social policy must take account of the four major groups in a national economy, the government, the trade unions, the employers’ organisations and consumer groupings. Last, but not least, any examination of social policy automatically implies that one has to take into consideration the basic social rights of individuals and the degree of equality existing or desirable between them. In the specific case of the EEC, this last consideration involves the question of equal pay. Unfortunately, however, and this study is no exception in this respect, works on social policy usually and wrongly (the author would maintain) omit an examination of education (and the financing thereof, together with the question of scholarships) plus the fundamental question of opportunity. The author believes that, if studies included a thorough examination of these questions, then the picture of social policy concerning individual countries that one normally receives would be changed.