ABSTRACT
The historical analysis and treatment of social policy is at a watershed. The internationalisation of the market, and the partial loss of the capacity of national welfare states to control their own destinies, has transformed the nature of the arguments about social problems and developments. One way to deal with this is to construct models of change. What are the labour market, ethnic minority, unemployment, income inequality, regional and dependency problems likely to be in Europe after 1992? Does the membership of the EEC hold problems for the Third World? If there are trends in favour of the continuing concentration of wealth and therefore of growing poverty and deprivation in Europe, what means of redress are open to states, agencies and pressure groups? The outlook for living standards in Eastern Europe, most Third World countries and the poorest 20 per cent or 30 per cent in the rich EC countries, the United States and Japan is gloomy. The social as well as economic problems created by a poorly regulated and controlled international market economy have yet to be traced and understood — so that the life and conditions of a majority of the world's population can be made at least tolerable. Multinational collaboration and action have to become the basis of any effective approach to social policy.
