In the news on radio, television and in all other mass media, it is often said that the state and the government to one degree or another carry out social policy in the country. What is social policy?
Social policy is a set of principles, methods and methods of the state's influence on the social sphere of society. Social policy can be pursued both across the country and at the regional level. Social policy has many goals, the main of which is the smoothing of social inequality in the country and the elimination of social tension by improving the quality and standard of living of the population.
Social policy includes such methods of influencing the social sphere as taxation policy, pension provision for citizens, social security and support for socially disadvantaged groups of citizens, non-taxable single and regular payments to the population, as well as a number of others inherent in various countries, depending on their traditions and customs.
Any social policy should have its own strategy, which would have the most general principles for solving certain social problems. Social policy should have its own priorities, which, as a rule, include:
- ensuring a normal standard of living for a person from a young age to a very old age;
- creating optimal living conditions for families;
- ensuring the protection of all constitutional rights and freedoms of citizens;
- implementation of social protection of the population, protection of his life and health.
In the Russian Federation, the most acute social problems are:
- Too big discrepancies in the income level of different layers of citizens;
- deterioration of the demographic situation in the country, "aging" of the population;
- a small number of kindergartens and schools;
- low quality of the existing housing stock.
All of the above problems are just the tip of the iceberg of the pile of problems that has accumulated since the collapse of the USSR. They can be solved only by building a competent, step-by-step and clear social policy.
