The Marginalization of Social Welfare in Developing Countries: The Relevance of Theories of Social Policy Development

Abstract

Social welfare development has been marginalized in many developing countries. This study examines the social policies of developing countries and refers to four major theories of social policy development (social con-science, modernization, dependency and diffusion) to see if they offer an explanation of the phenomenon. It is argued that dependency theory and diffusion theory provide better interpretations than the other two theories. The paper shows how theories of social policy have international relevance in explaining current trends in social welfare. Until recently, the debates on social policy have focused ex-clusively on the advanced industrial countries and have disre-garded events in developing countries. While the welfare state has been subjected to critical appraisal, the underdevelopment of social welfare in the Third World is often taken for granted. Parallel to this, there is great optimism that lessons drawn from the advanced industrial nations will explain social policy devel-opment in the Third World. Not surprisingly, studies of social welfare in developing countries are limited. This is undesirable in view of the fact that the majority of the world's nations are neglected by social policy analysis. The belief in the universality of western experiences is also unfounded. The aim of this paper is to study the marginalization of social welfare in developing countries and account for it using four major theories of social policy development.