Zawaya

Social policy

By: Driss Ben Ali

Is it possible to carry out an economic policy without a social one? If we ask this question to politicians, their answer will certainly be no, since all economic policies are meant to ensure a decent life for citizens.

Therefore, what is sought through the economic action of governments is social coherence. Logically, the whole economic policy of a government could be considered a component of its social policy. In fact, efforts to increase efficiency and economic growth, and achieve full employment and prices stability, etc., ultimately aim at improving the living conditions of citizens.

It is a common practice, however, to distinguish between mere economic policies whose effects are global, and social policies that take care, for both individuals and groups, of the distribution of income among households, the nature of goods and services available, and the integration of individuals in economic, educational, health, and social protection systems, as well as their integration in society in general.

That is why governments need indicators that may enable them to identify social issues, and arrange suitable tools for understanding them and finding appropriate solutions to them.

From this perspective, the Human Development Index is a very effective instrument. The HDI presents the average of three components of human development (monetary, educational, and health). These components are cash income (GDP per capita), health (life expectancy at birth) and education (literacy rate and gross enrollment ratio).

Thus, by integrating new key variables such as health and education, the HDI revamps the old model which was strictly based on economic growth, and where economic policies were mainly based on the accumulation of physical capital.

The HDI allows overriding the economic monism to move towards taking into account social factors in development.

In sum, rethinking development here means to dive into the complexity and magnitude of action. For development to be simultaneously economic and human, it must take into account the social dimension that makes the human being the essence of everything.

However, this indicator should be complemented by other information on the functioning of society, its transformations, and contradictions.

Ultimately, the HDI is a useful indicator but it is not sufficient. It should be supplemented by other dimensions of social life (governance, environment, etc.) for it to become a tool for understanding economic problems.