ABSTRACT
In the industrialized countries around the world, social policies are a major determinant of citizens’ standard of living and general welfare (Gil, 1970). For example, most developed countries have social policies that provide their members with universal or nearly universal access to a host of social protections against changing life circumstances and the unpredictability of a market economy. These protections include health care across the life cycle (the United States being a notable exception), social assistance, and social insurance. In spite of its importance to the quality of life, there is no universally accepted definition of social policy; each country has a definition that reflects its political ideologies, values, history, cultural norms, economic system, and structural institutions.
