Editing Social policy (section)

==History==
{{unreferenced section|date=May 2015}}
{{See also|Welfare State|Welfare spending}}
[[File:Hans von Aachen 002.jpg|thumb|''Allegory or The Triumph of Justice'', an 1858 painting by [[Hans von Aachen]]]]
'''Social policy''' is a plan or action of [[government]] or institutional agencies which aim to improve or reform [[society]].
Social policy was first conceived in the [[1940s]] by [[Richard Titmuss]] within the field of social administration in Britain.<ref>{{Cite book |last=STEWART |first=JOHN |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv128fqbs |title=Richard Titmuss: A Commitment to Welfare |date=2020 |publisher=Bristol University Press |doi=10.2307/j.ctv128fqbs |jstor=j.ctv128fqbs |edition=1}}</ref>  Titmuss's essay on the "Social Division of Welfare" (1955) laid the development for social policy to gradually absorb social administration.  Titmuss was an [[essayist]] whose work concerned the failure of the market; the inadequacy of selective social services; and the superiority of [[Collectivism and individualism|collectivism]] and universal approaches.  While some scholars describe social policy as an [[interdisciplinary]] field of practice, scholars like [[Fiona Williams]] and Pete Alcock believe social policy is a [[academic discipline|discipline]] unto itself.

Some of the earliest examples of direct intervention by government in human welfare date back to [[Ancient Rome]]'s ''[[Cura Annonae]]'' (grain dole) founded in 123 BC, and [[Umar ibn al-Khattāb]]'s rule as the second [[caliph]] of Islam in the 6th century: he used ''[[zakat]]'' collections and also other governmental resources to establish pensions, income support, child benefits, and various stipends for people of the non-Muslim community{{Citation needed|date=June 2018}}.  The enactment of [[English Poor Laws]] helped curb [[poverty]] and recidivism: these laws influenced the justices of Berkshire to implement the [[Speenhamland system]], which was the first [[social program]] in the modern sense of that word.  In the modern West, proponents of scientific social planning such as the sociologist [[Auguste Comte]], and social researchers, such as [[Charles Booth (philanthropist)|Charles Booth]], contributed to the emergence of social policymaking in the first industrialised countries following the [[Industrial Revolution]]. Surveys of poverty exposing the brutal conditions in the urban [[slum]] conurbations of [[Victorian Britain]] supplied the pressure leading to changes such as the [[decline and abolition of the poor law system]] and [[Liberal welfare reforms]]. Other significant examples in the development of social policy are the [[Otto von Bismarck#Social legislation|Bismarckian welfare state]] in 19th century [[Germany]], [[Social Security (United States)#History|social security policies in the United States]] introduced under the rubric of the [[New Deal]] between 1933 and 1935, and both the [[Beveridge Report]] and the [[National Health Service Act 1946]] in Britain.  Thus, two major models of [[social insurance]] arose in practice:  Bismarkian welfare from Germany and Beveridgean welfare from Britain.

Social policy in the 21st century is complex and in each state it is subject to [[Local government|local]] and [[Central government|national governments]], as well as [[Supranational union|supranational]] political influence. For example, membership of the [[European Union]] is conditional on member states' adherence to the [[Law of the European Union#Social chapter|Social Chapter]] of European Union law {{clarify span|text=and other [[international laws]].|date=May 2015}}<!-- Which "other international laws"? -->