Introduction

The concept of societal policy, as described in Chapters 1 and 2, is used in a special sense. It encompasses the sphere of social policy (the organization of social services or the redistribution of incomes), but also includes systematic social intervention at all points of the cycle of the reproduction of social life, with the aim of changing the structure of society. That is why the term ‘structural policy’ may also be used instead of the rather awk­ ward term ‘societal policy’.