In US politics, social policies are those which regulate and govern human behavior in areas such as sexuality and general morality.

Social policies are in contrast to other, more traditional forms of political policy, such as foreign policy and economic policy.

In the modern-day, social policies usually deal with the following issues:

• abortion, and the regulation of its pratice
• the legal status of euthanasia
• homosexuality and the rights of gay couples
• the rules surrounding issues of marriage, divorce, and adoption

Social policy is often heavily inspired by religion and the religious beliefs of politicians. Political conservatives as a whole generally favor a more traditionalist approach to social policy than political liberals.

In Europe and in Canada, social policy usually means something entirely different and refers to policies affecting the social conditions under which people live.

Important areas of social policy are

• Health insurance
• Accident insurance (for workplace accidents )
• Unemployment insurance
• Retirement insurance
• Labor regulation

In most European countries, those types of insurance are made mandatory by law. As a result, for example, the number of people without health insurance is very small, other than in the US. However, those policies are facing additional challenges in recent years, as the population is aging and the number of contributors dwindling, while there are more and more beneficiaries. Social policy is thus becoming an important challange for politicians and policymakers.

Also see

• Socio-economics