ABSTRACT
The liberal tradition holds that equality helps civilize society and, by promoting fraternal bonds and decreasing the structural sources of discontent, also assures its stability. The commonly accepted practical strategy for resolving conflicts between efficiency, choice, and equality usually translates into a preference for cash transfers as contrasted with benefits in kind. The ideological positions that policy analysts take with respect to the ancient issue of choice and equality also provide them with the framework for proposing new programs and the criteria for evaluating established ones. Policy analysis is no longer ideologically based on an integrated belief system about efficiency, choice, and equality and how they relate to each other. Therefore, the study of social policy involves the interaction between values, operating principles, and outcomes. While competing systems of belief affect the purposes that social policy addresses, the ordering of priorities within a belief system presents equally demanding conflicts.
