This paper is a reaction to the assigned readings for the week of September 22 and covers the topic of Social Construction. I have chosen to review the article by Helen Ingram, Anne Schneider and Peter deLeon, Social Construction and Policy Design, and the article by Anne Schneider and Helen Ingram titled Social Construction of Target Populations: Implications for Politics and policy.
OVERVIEW.
The social construction framework attempts to explain Lasswell's infamous question of "Who gets what, when and how? ". In simplified terms, the theory argues that target populations are constructed by policymakers and couched in both negative and positive terms. Policymakers then proceed to allocate benefits and burdens among these target groups in a way that reflects and propagates these social constructions. The social construction theory is important to the field of public policy because it helps to explain why certain groups receive more benefits from government, while other tend to carry a higher burden. .
CRITICAL ASSESSMENT.
The authors break down the theory into six proposals. A closer look at these proposals allows for a better understanding of the theories application. I found the first proposition (policymakers send messages to target groups through policy that shape their social construction) to be particularly useful in understanding how certain target groups shape their identity. This proposition could be quite helpful in trying to understand and identify the relationship between the poor and government. Although I was aware of the negative social perception of individuals who participate in government welfare programs, I had never considered the affects of the messages contained within welfare policy. This is an important consideration when analyzing welfare policy. The authors state that those receiving welfare are less likely to be politically active than those receiving AFDC benefits.