ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we would like to introduce a new theory of effectiveness of social policy. 1 This theory addresses two specific but important sources of policy failure that are outlined in the previous chapter: a misfit between policies and target groups, and policy gaps. It is concerned with situations in which policies (largely) exist, but their effectiveness is often sub-optimal or even counterproductive due to misfit or to specific missing elements. In the previous chapter, we outlined several criticisms of current activation policies. The most important elements are that people’s own perspectives and ambitions are not (sufficiently) taken into account, and that discourses and policies focus in an individualised way on people’s problems rather than in a broader way on their potentials and resources. Different discourses on social exclusion that can be distinguished (Levitas 2005) have in common that they are all normative in their focus on the issue of deservingness, even if they disagree on the content of this normativity. For that reason, we prefer to use the more neutral terms motivation or ambition to indicate this important dimension of social policy, as these terms leave more room for the clients’ own perspectives, in addition to the societal ambitions that underpin our social support systems.
