Introduction

In this chapter we introduce our approach to societal problems. Importantly, we draw a distinction between societal problems and social problems. The latter refers to problems occurring in social life – that is, in relations and interactions between people. These social problems only become societal problems if they are experienced by a large group of people and leave their mark on society as a whole. We begin this chapter with a historical overview of how societal problems have been approached over the past centuries by public thinkers as well as governments. We then discuss the process through which societal problems arrive onto the public agenda and eventually become targets for government policy. We also address the philosophical underpinnings of social norms, present a simple model of the structure of society, and provide a justification for our selection of societal problems. In particular, we focus on problems that emerge at the societal level from the aggregation of many individual actions. These problems can be viewed as public bads, which stand in contrast to their well-known counterpart, public goods.