Social And Economic Policy Analysis

In most modernized democracy, U.S. and West European countries, there exist of government influences that revolve around social and economic policies. Social polices mainly concerns of ideals that directly promote the well-being of every individual in society; most social policies tend to target different groups involved, with the opinion of existing biased towards the wealthy (Greenberg and Page 2007, p. 414). Economic policies are policies with the ideal of improving the welfare of individuals through managing and improving the economy. Economic policies had become a major part of democracy as the views on such policies became a great influence on the selection process of national leaders and national elections can be decided on the …show more content…
This means the focus in on monetary policies and fiscal policies, seldom does the U.S. over commit to microeconomic policies that concerns the individual consumers. Economic policies strive to raise the level of gross domestic product (GDP) and increase inflation (Greenberg and Page 2007, p. 416). Government’s tools of fiscal and monetary policies are to manage government spending and money supply, which enables the government to manipulate interest rates and tax rates (Greenberg and Page 2007, p. 418). The current policies are in the spectrum of controlling interest rates, recent policies are to either lower or maintain interest rates to increase GDP and stimulate the growth of inflation rate. All of which, is protecting the individual interest to stop the spikes in tax rates, while simultaneously expanding the …show more content…
policy differ from that of western European countries devotion to prioritizing social wellbeing over individual interest, the difference likely arose due to different preference of the citizens. Many West European countries provide universal health care, which differs from the American health care system of health insurance with Medicaid to those with low income (Greenberg and Page 2007, p. 428). Most West European countries have universal health care to enable low income individuals to receive medical assistance, a great accomplishment that showcases a different result stemming from the same ideals of U.S. policies, where not everyone can afford health insurance. The difference is a result that the American political culture works against generous and comprehensive social welfare (Greenberg and Page 2007, p. 434). Comprehensive welfare systems, like ones seen in West European countries are supported by high taxes; American citizens have strong belief in individualism and a very strong resistance to high taxes (Greenberg and Page 2007, p. 434). These are parts of political culture of in America that result in the differences between American social welfare and that of West European countries. Overall, American policies strive to aid the less wealthy and fulfill the demand/interest of citizens; while in West European countries there is a more generous welfare system, the differences brought by political culture. American polices pensions, unemployment aid, SNAP,