Society Assignment essay writing help online: Social work in UK & Marxism
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Introduction
An ideology is considered to be a collection or a body of ideas regarding the world or related to human nature, morality, politics and society which quite often have some connection with varied institutions like state regimes, political movements or political parties (Leach, 1996). An ideology or better known as a tradition of thought for the people who are holding to that particular ideology, explains, describes and justifies it too. An ideology helps in delivering better or lesser understanding or some kind of interpretations of the social reality for the people who hold the ideology (Pearson and Williams, 1984).
Ideologies are considered to be action guiding to the core as much as they are considered to be influencing the behaviour of the people. Thus ideologies can be described as views, ideas as well as the opinions which are being combined together. Rather it can be seen as the social changes which different groups in the society would like to see implemented (Vincent, 2009). Therefore the term ideology can also be defined as the beliefs and the ideas with the help of which human beings in the society get to understand their surrounding world and realise their place in that world (Gamble and Heywood, 2003).
Social Work and Social Care in UK
The main aspect which has evolved in the social public policy and social care in the recent years is to get involvement of ‘the patients’, ‘the public’ and the ‘service users’. IN UK there has been an enhanced control of service users and increased choices in the field of social care and social work with the help of ‘user-focused’ and ‘user-led’ approaches so that the social policy can be supported and the services of social care can be delivered keeping the service user at the central point of practice, provision and policy.. Recently in UK there have been major and key changes in the social care which have been reflected through ‘personalisation’ as well as ‘self-directed support’ (Poll et al., 2006) (DH, 2006) (DH, 2005) (Henwood and Hudson, 2007) (Leadbeater, Bartlett and Gallagher, 2008).
This kind of development in the social policy has offered transformational potential which enables the service users to have a budgetary control over a varied range of service policies for which they are completely eligible and thus they are able to put forth their own personalised support package which is holistic in approach. Then too it has been found that social care and social work do not show stronger histories which depict high level of participation in UK.
In the UK there has been major discussions regarding the political , ideology and socio-economies of participation, however they have always been limited in range as well as number too (Held, 1987). In contrast to this there has been major inclination towards the various technicalities of participation which has been reflected in the form of development and creation of large number of ‘how to do’ manuals consultants and courses as well (Hanley et al., 2000).
Two philosophical Ideologies Dominating Social Policy
The two major philosophical traditions or ideologies which have been found to be dominating the modern history of social work and social policy are ‘Marxism’ and ‘Fabianism’. Both the ideologies are related to reform as well as changes; however one supports revolutionary changes in social policy. Both the ideologies are committed towards planned economy and are related to perfect societal changes along with being centrally associated with social policy. Both the ideologies have been found to affect the expert and very famous understanding of social policy as both of them are multi-faceted and are definitely not at all monolithic.
Fabians, Social Policy and Connection with Social Work
Fabinism is seen as the political ideology which flowered in UK to the fullest in the early 20th and late nineties century after the World War due to creation of welfare states. There are two strands which have been identified in its UK origins which are: showing reflections of competing commitments to social democracy and socialism. This also covers its being indebted to utilitarism which led to the generation of the New Poor Law because of the very high level influence of Charity Organisation Society as well as the ethical and Christina Socialism, (Sullivan, 1998) (Tawney, 1931).Fabinism has been associated with strong commitment towards collective provision and is synonymous with state welfare but in case of UK it has started being getting associated with mixed economy of welfare where significant and continuous role has been played by charitable/ voluntary and for profit/private organisations.
There are many principles with which Fabianism is consistently as well as strongly been associated and these covered reliance and commitment towards:
- ‘Experts’ act as official advisors and play central role in not juts planning but also help in shaping the policy especially the social policy.
- ‘Specialists administrators’ who are helping in making the administration of social welfare enhanced and improved. Therefore the experts help in shaping the social policy while the administrators help in implementing it (Sullivan, 1998).
- The academic knowledge and the research of the experts can be used for social problems like handling poverty and to develop social policy so as to create pressure on the state so that they would introduce welfare reforms with the help of ‘public’ ;educated’ through its ‘experts’
- For the practice development of education as social service workers and the professionalization of the roles of welfare can be done.
Thus the Fabians believe that social policy measures can be very helpful in achieving social equality and abolition of poverty while capitalism prevails. They believe that a welfare state can be created with universal benefits and redistribution of taxation through mutual partnership with municipal services which is delivered and imparted through highly competent administrators and professionals, which should be financed as well as regulated so as to ensure uniformity which is acceptable across the country (Ginsburg, 1998).
Marxism, Social Policy and Connection with Social Work
For the Marxists state welfare has been the part of the problem in social work. IN case of Marxism the social policy in relation to decision-making has been seen as subordinate to the needs of capitalism. The social policy decision-making is just restricted to a simple role of supporting and aiding in legitimising the capitalist order (Hills, 1998). According to the Marxist analysis the exploitative relationships of the labour markets have not been replaced by the welfare state. The Marxist believe that the welfare state has proven to be complete failure in resolving the problems and issues the people who were suffering from poverty as well as the issues of the broader working class. Rather they think that welfare state simply supported capitalism instead of posing a challenge to capitalism (Ginsburg, 1998).
For these kind of Marxist the state should play major if not exclusive role for the provision of not just social policy rather economic and other policies too. However it has been also argued that social policy developments have resulted in transformation of capitalistic society (Alcock, 1996). Even Ian Gough highlighted the contradictory nature of the welfare states in the capitalist society which meant that the welfare states in the capitalist society worked towards the accumulation of capital and at the same time provided social benefits to the people who needed who required them (Gough, 1979). During this period only it was also discussed by Norman Ginsburg in relation to how the welfare states tried to control and oppress the service users while providing them social welfare (Ginsburg, 1979).
Fabinism, Marxism and Social Participation
During the 20th century it was found that both Fabinism and Marxism did not encourage or support the advancement or practice of participation in the modern social policy and both the theories started operating on the basis of grand theories and mainly at the macro level. On one hand Fabians believed in approaches towards social policy based upon the notions related to elite ‘expertise’ and based upon the model of basic education. While Marxist believed in ultimate inclusion and participation of people which reflected the founding thinking of Marxism (Marx and Engels, 1998).
Conclusion
Therefore due to failure of both the traditional dominant social philosophies in relation to enhance the participation and this led to emergence of two new philosophies which have major ramifications regarding participation and these new modern ideologies are : ‘ New Right’ and ‘Third Way’. These two philosophies have helped in reshaping the social policy in the west and beyond too. New Right or Neo-Liberalism gained prominence in US and UK during 1980s. And the ‘Third Way’ gained prominence with the implementation of Britain’s New Labour and it also reflected generalised development in social policy , western politics and modern European countries too (Giddens, 1998).
Thus this is very vital time when we need to explore the role of service user involvement in and its widespread implication towards social work and for social policy. Social policy as well as participation are facing difficult times and are very complex stage all through their life. Although government in UK has modernised the voting systems and enhanced the provisions for political provisions then too there is seen very low level of participation from the public (Ashley, 2002). In this situation only a democratic model of participation is what seems to offer some potential for implementing change in social policy.
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