The Policy-Based Profession: An Introduction to Social Welfare Policy Analysis for Social Workers

by Philip R. Popple

Like most terms and concepts in the study of social welfare policy, the term policy analysis tends to be used in vague and inconsistent ways. David Bobrow and John Dryzek (1987) refer to the policy analysis field as “home to a babel of tongues.”

necessary to deal with the term before any progress can be made in learning policy analysis skills.

The definition we like is based on the one offered by the Canadian political scientist Leslie Pal (2006): “Policy analysis is the disciplined application of intellect to the study of collective responses to public problems.” This definition is sufficiently broad to include the wide range of policy analysis approaches we describe but is still precise enough to exclude many other types of social work knowledge-building activities.

fashion, the term policy analysis is used to refer to everything from the processes citizens use to familiarize themselves with issues prior to voting, to a multiyear, multimillion-dollar project to set up and evaluate programs using different approaches to financial assistance.

analysts

their purpose is to create new knowledge, the results are generally published in fa...

the social work practitioner needs to understand relevant policy in order to function effectively on a daily basis.

The lowest level of sophistication is that of the citizen analyst. The purpose of this type of analysis is for a person to obtain the information required to carry out the responsibilities of an informed citizen. Although we classify this as the least sophisticated approach to policy analysis, we should note that many citizens become quite skilled in studying policy. This type of analysis is the major focus of voluntary citizen groups such as the League of Women Voters.

when you read policy analysis literature, you need to identify which approach to analysis the author is using. Most of the literature concerns the top two levels of sophistication and is generally read by people who identify themselves as policy analysis professionals.

can be frustrating for the social work practitioner who has neither the time nor the inclination to become skilled in the application of highly sophisticated, often mathematical, techniques such as difference equations, queuing models, simulations, Markov chains, and the like. Fortunately, in recent y...

Descriptive policy analysis can be further subdivided into four types: content, choice, comparati...

Content analysis is the most straightforward type of ...

simply a description of an existing policy in terms of its intentions, problem definition, goals, and means em...

most often employed by agencies charged with administering a policy and is generally published in manuals, brochures, ...

Content analysis is generally not widely circulated to the general public and rarely is published in standard academic outlets.

is a systematic process of looking at the options available to planners for dealing with a social welfare problem.

42–43). The four primary dimensions of choice are described in some detail below.

phrase “social allocations” to describe decisions about who will be...

universal and selective p...

Universalism assumes that all citizens are “at risk,” at some point, ...

Social Se...

Unemployment in...

Eligibility depends solely on characteristics such as age and prior attach...

The alternative to universal allocation i...

has a specialized meaning: the allocation of benefits based on indiv...

generally determined through an income test (called ...

selectivity suggests a variety of ways to distinguish who wi...

to remember its tie to income level and the fact that there is no national consensus that the benefits are a fund...

“universal versus categorical” di...

categorical refers to particular groups o...

Public welfare benefits and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) are examples of categorical public assistance programs.

based on need,

considered a selective approach to alloca...

universal basis of allocation carries relatively little stigma and fits with democratic notions of equal treatment for all. It also provides ...

Programs for particular subsections of the population are more vulnerable. Groups who vote regularly and have their own advocacy organizations can protect their programs. Groups who participate less in the political process and who have fewer resources, for example, low-income people, are...

critics add that selectivity leads to a twotrack system; benefits for low-income groups don’t seem as important to society as benefits for the majority and are thus allowed to be of lesser quality.

broad universal–selective distinction is perhaps most helpful in discussing government income maintenance programs such as Social Security and Temporary Assistance to Needy Families.

Another principle of allocation is compensation; this is based on membership in a gro...

The second dimension of choice is concerned with the following question: What are the types of social benefits to be provided? A traditional way of categorizing types of provision is to di...

The third dimension of choice is concerned with the structure of the delivery system. After the “who” and “what” questions have been resolved, this set of policy choices is about how services or benefits will be delivered. There are a variety of administrative or organizational structures for doing this.

final dimension of choice analysis relates to decisions on how benefits are financed.

Rather than relying on any one approach to social welfare, the United States has opted for a mixed public/voluntary/for-profit system.

the line between for-profit and nonprofit social welfare activities has blurred. As voluntary agencies have witnessed a decline in contributions as a portion of their resources, they have turned more and more to what has been called the “commercialization” of their financial base, charging more fees for services and even selling products.

The bottom line is effective and equitable service to clients.

Social workers must continue to gauge what these developments mean to people who need assistance and whether they ameliorate such ...

involves systematically comparing policies across two or more settings. The most common form is cross-national analysis: The policy in one nation (in these examples, the United States) is compared with...

An example of comparative analysis of policies within the United States is Kamerman and Kahn’s study of child care policy: In this study, they compare local child care initiatives, state child care actions, private approaches, public school systems as child care providers, employers and child care, and family day care

difficult,

Historical analysis, as a policy analysis type, goes well beyond this and is based on the assumption that current policies can be fully understood only if we have ...

Content analysis defines policy as what currently exists, but the historical orientation views policy as patterns of behavior by the state and private gr...