Social Planning as an Instrument of Social Policy
| Author | J.A. Ponsioen |
| Published date | 01 March 1959 |
| Date | 01 March 1959 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002085235902500107 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Social
Planning
as
an
Instrument
of
Social
Policy
by
Dr.
J.
A.
PONSIOEN
S. C.
J.,
Member
of
the
Academic
Staff,
Institute
of
Social
Studies,
The
Hague.
UDC
338.984 :
304
1.
-
NEW
THEORETICAL
PROBLEMS
FOR
SOCIAL
POLICY
It
has
become
evident
that
the
process
of
development
in
low-income
countries
is
not
only
a
challenge
to
the
creative
imagination
of
the
politicians
but
also
to
that
of
the
social
scientists.
This
challenge
is
felt
especially
by
economists,
sociologists
and
agronomists
who
have
here
to
deal
with
entirely
new
data.
How
much
more
importance
it
has,
therefore,
for
the
theory
of
social
policy!
The
few
theories
which
have
been
developed
in
this
field
to
date
are
only
concerned
with
turning
an
individualist-capitalist
society
into
a
more
socially-minded
society
capable
of
providing
actual
legal
equality
and
an
equal
share
in
cultural
benefits
for
everyone.
These
theories
assume,
as
though
self-evident,
a
society
with
a
very
definite
Western
way
of
thinking.
The
following
have
been
regarded
as
the
proper
agencies
for
effecting
this
alteration :
the
state,
as
the
creator
of
the
new
legal
order
adapted
to
a
society
defined
by
trade
and
in-
dustry ;
the
trade
unions,
as
groups
exerting
pressure
on
the
state
and
as
structural
factors
in
the social-economic
life;
and,
lastly,
the
so-
cial
service
agencies,
which
were
originally,
and
often
still
are,
carried
on
hay
private
or-
ganisations,
but
are
more
and
more
ruled
by
the
state
in
countries
influenced
by
socialism.
In
all
of
this,
however,
the
entrepreneurs
are
assumed
to
be
the
pacemakers
in
the
econom-
ic
life
of
the
country.
How
entirely
different
are
the
problems
of
the
low-income
countries !
I
In
most
cases
so-
cial
policy
is
not
a
correction
of,
or
an
accom-
paniment
to,
economic
change,
but
a
means
in
itself
of
raising
economic
standards.
On
the
other
hand,
the
economic,
sociological
and
political
aspects
are
less
insular,
more
inten-
sely
overlapped,
than
in
the
West.
Interna-
tional
as
well
as
national
organs,
of
both
pub-
lic
and
private
character,
act
in
the
low-in-
come
countries
as
agencies
of
social
policy.
The
trade
unions,
however,
have
less
con-
structive
force
than
in
the
West,
whilst
the
agencies
of
social
welfare
work
play a
much
greater
role.
While,
in
the
West,
the
heading
-
Social
Services
*
and,
therefore,
social
wel-
fare,
includes
almost
exclusively
those
ser-
vices
which
aim
at
the
relief
of
poverty
and
deprivations,
in
the
low-income
countries
it
is
also
considered
to
include
health
services,
education,
housing,
and
welfare
services
in
industry.
The
difference
in
approach
is
perhaps
of
even
greater
importance.
Traditional
West-
ern
social
policy
has
primarily
followed
the
path
of
legal
reformation,
going
so
far
as
to,
create
a
new
category
of
law
which
is
halfway
between
public
and
civil
law,
viz.
social ~
»
law,
as
the
legal
expression
of
an
industrial
society.
This
law
produced
all
sorts
of
new
organs,
which
carry
on
an
administration
of
their
own
for
the
benefit
of
the
individual
in
society.
In the
low-income
countries
a
com-
munity
development
approach
has
originated
which
lays
much
more
emphasis
upon
com-
munal
action,
upon
popular
initiative
taking
charge
of
district
development,
or
at
least
on
evoking
and
making
use
of
the
initiative
of
the
local
population.
The
focus
here
is
much
less
on
a
formal
legal
structure
and
much
more
on
the
economic,
cultural
and
social
de-
velopment
itself,
on
welfare.
That
is
why
the
most
varying
methods
of
social
policy
are
put
into
use
and
are
meant
to
form
a
common
group
of
forces
for
the
promotion
of
welfare.
The
theory
of
social
policy
cannot
any
long-
er
keep
this
process
of
community
develop-
ment
out
of
its
sphere
of
study,
not
even
if
the
theory
should
remain
only
Western-orien-
tated,
because
community
development
ap-
proach
is
there,
in
the
West,
also
applied
to
the
lately
discovered
under-developed
regions.
Furthermore,
looking
back
we
find
that,
al-
though
less
consciously,
similar
processes
have
presented
themselves
in
the
past.
Of
course,
it
has
now
also
been
discovered
that
commu-
nity
development
is
not
always
and
every-
where
a
uniform
process.
Significant
divisions
can
be
made
along
all
kinds
of
lines :
whether
it
concerns
an
over
or
under-populated
region,
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