Social interventionism

Social interventionism is an ideology which involves the intervention of a government or an organization in social affairs. Such social intervention policies can include provision of social welfare as a means to alleviate both social and economic problems of people with lower lower-incomes or who are unemployed; provision of health care; provision of education; provision of safety regulations for employment and products; delivery of food aid or recovery missions to regions or countries negatively affected by an event; adoption programs; etc.

Some social interventionist policies have been labelled by critics as social authoritarianism due to views of the policies as violating individual freedom or human rights which include government sponsorship of birth control and abortion such as the People's Republic of China's One child policy or bans on abortion and birth control; forced sterilization programs; mandatory institutionalization of people with mental or physical disabilities; bans on homosexual relationships; racial segregation policies; state-sponsored discrimination or persecution of people based on age, cultural identity, ethnicity, gender, people with mental or physical disabilities, race, social status, political affiliation, religious affiliation, and/or sexual orientation. This criticism also arises from the use of social interventionism by authoritarian or totalitarian governments such as in the Soviet Union, Fascist Italy, and Nazi Germany

History

Prior to government-sponsored social intervention, charity provided by non-governmental organizations was a the common source of organized social intervention on the issue of social welfare, provided by charitable organizations such as some religious institutions, anti-poverty activist organizations, as well as other associations including guilds and trade unions.

The issue of social interventionism became a major concern in Europe during the Industrial Revolution, as working-class people grew steadily frustrated with poor working and living conditions and began to associate with left-wing socialist and later communist and radical left-wing political movements that promised extensive social interventionism such as the provision of social welfare and establishing a society to weaken or destroy the social, economic, and political influence of the upper-middle class and the upper-class who were commonly refered to in socialist politics as the bourgeoisie. Initially the elites in Europe disregarded these demands and labelled the groups as enemies of society, however their growing influence and support in some countries led to political changes.

In Germany in the late 19th century, the political position on governmental social intervention changed when Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, a conservative, submitted to some of the demands from the left passed various laws that established basic workers' rights along with various social welfare policies. However in addition to these, Bismarck began a number of other major social interventionist policies outside of social welfare, such as the policy of Kulturkampf which promoted the assimilation of Roman Catholics to become Protestant or at least abandon affiliation with the Pope.

In 1917, the overthrow of the Tsar by the agarian socialists and the subsequent overthrow of them by the communist "Bolsheviks" of Vladimir Lenin resulted in the creation of an totalitarian socialist state known as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics after 1922 which was committed to extensive social interventionism. Under communism, an extensive social welfare system was created; organized religion was banned; individual freedom of association was banned (particularly regarding non-communist association); education became state-operated and became known for instilling propaganda about the goodness of communism and the immorality of capitalism; and people who were believed to have associated with the previous ruling classes or who were deemed opponents of the communist regime were persecuted, killed, or sent to forced labour camps called gulags.

Social interventionism became a major world issue in the 1930s during the Great Depression and resulted in the rise of numerous governments advocating social interventionism such as the administration of United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt which promoted the "New Deal" policy which involved significant social welfare policies as well as the rise of the radical and totalitarian National Socialist German Workers Party (a.k.a. the Nazi Party) in Germany under Adolf Hitler which promised social welfare, persecution of Jews and other groups deemed as enemies, the utilization of eugenics to create a racially-pure state, and state control over cultural affairs.