Social interventionism

Social interventionism is an action which involves the intervention of a government or an organization in social affairs. Such policies can include provision of charity or social welfare as a means to alleviate social and economic problems of people facing financial difficulties; 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 that the policies violate individual freedom or human rights. Such policies include conscription; state-forced abortions like in China's One child policy or bans on abortion and birth control; bans on associations and organizations; forced sterilization programs; mandatory institutionalization of people with mental or physical disabilities; prohibition of substances or items; bans on homosexual relationships; segregation policies; state-sponsored discrimination or persecution of people based on age, cultural identity, ethnicity, gender, people with mental or physical disabilities, race, social position, political affiliation, religion, and 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.

Academic research of Social Interventions occurs in many public policy schools around the world. Some universities also have dedicated research centres or clusters covering Social Intervention, for example the Department of Social Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford.