ABSTRACT
Although I consider poverty a key issue to be addressed through social policy, there are other issues of importance that affect the entire population and, therefore, need to be made part of the social policy discourse. In some cases these themes manifest themselves because of poverty or, in other instances, are the cause of it. Although many of these additional themes are directly related to poverty, they can also stand on their own and constitute concerns that society wants to address as separate public questions. Many of these domains affect the entire population of a society and they possess attributes that, if treated or enhanced, would constitute a desired benefit to the general public. These actions can be remedial or developmental in nature. They are remedial in that the policy attempts to overcome a noticeable inadequacy that impairs the functioning of an individual or group in society. Some of the measures taken up by social policy are developmental in that their adoption will lead to the general enhancement of social performance and add to civil enrichment; however, their absence will not impair present social functioning. These remedial and developmental areas of concern can be classified in many ways, but they will be categorized here as healthcare, housing and homelessness, education, justice, and democracy. This chapter will address each of these issues individually and relationally where appropriate. Each has an institutional component to it in addition to its substance, which also needs to be made part of the discussion. Each of these subjects could form a volume on their own so they are briefly introduced in this book to provide the reader with a framework for understanding more broadly the field of social policy.
