social work, organized effort to help individuals and families to adjust themselves to the community, as well as to adapt the community to the needs of such persons and families.

Modern Social Work

Modern social work employs three methods of assistance: case work, group work, and community organization. Case work is the method by which individual persons and families are assisted. The person in need of case work may be physically, mentally, or socially handicapped. Among those regarded as socially handicapped are: the unemployed, the homeless, members of broken families, alcoholics, drug addicts, and neglected or problem children. To determine the cause of maladjustment, the social worker must understand individual psychology as well as the sociology of the community. Physicians, psychiatrists, and other specialists may be required to help diagnose the difficulty.

Social group work is exemplified by the social settlement, the supervised playground and gymnasium, and the classroom, where handicrafts may be learned. The community may be called upon to provide the buildings and grounds for such activities; often the services of volunteers and of public groups are utilized; in recent years people living in poverty areas have been employed to work in and direct poverty projects in their own communities.

Through community organization the welfare work of single agencies as well as of whole communities is directed, cooperation between public and private agencies is secured, and funds are raised and administered. The funds required by private agencies are often pooled in a community chest, from which each agency receives a share. Community welfare councils are organized to map programs of rehabilitation, to eliminate duplication of services, and to discover and meet overlooked needs.

The Development of Social Work

Social work emerged as a profession out of the early efforts of churches and philanthropic groups to relieve the effects of poverty, to bring the comforts of religion to the poor, to promote temperance and encourage thrift, to care for children, the sick, and the aged, and to correct the delinquent. Orphanages and homes for the elderly were typical results of these activities. The word charity best describes the early activities, which were aimed at the piecemeal alleviation of particular maladjustments. In such charitable work the principal criterion in determining aid to families was worthiness, while the emphasis in later social work was on restoring individuals to normal life both for their own sake and for the sake of the community.

The first attempts to solve the problem of poverty in a modern scientific way was made by P. G. F. Le Play, who in the 1850s made a detailed study of the budgets of hundreds of French workers' families. Forty years later Charles Booth investigated wages and prices, working conditions, housing and health, standards of living, and leisure activities among the poor of London and revealed the extreme poverty of a third of the population. Booth's social survey became a method for determining the extent of social maladjustment, and through surveys in other cities in Europe and the United States a vast number of facts were accumulated, and methods were developed that provided the basis for modern social work.

In 1874 the National Conference of Charities and Correction (now called the National Conference on Social Welfare) was organized in the United States. Public relief and private philanthropic effort remained largely matters of local and state concern until after 1930, when the federal government entered the field of social work on a large scale to cope with the effects of the Great Depression. Resources were made available, the number of social workers was greatly increased, and it became necessary to coordinate public and private activities. Social work has been steadily professionalized, and special graduate schools as well as departments in universities have been established to train social workers. By 1999 there were 377 accredited undergraduate schools of social work in the United States.

social welfare or public charity, organized provision of educational, cultural, medical, and financial assistance to the needy. Modern social welfare measures may include any of the following: the care of destitute adults; the treatment of the mentally ill; the rehabilitation of criminals; the care of destitute, neglected, and delinquent children; the care and relief of the sick or handicapped; the care and relief of needy families; and supervisory, educational, and constructive activity, especially for the young.

Early Forms of Assistance

Among the Greeks and Romans public assistance was given chiefly to those holding full citizenship. It was early connected with religion, as among the Hebrews and, from them, among the Christians and later the Muslims. The Christian Church was the main agency of social welfare in the Middle Ages, supplemented by the guilds. Later, national and local governmental agencies, as well as many private agencies, took over much of the charitable activity of the church.

First of the extensive state efforts was the Elizabethan poor law of 1601, which attempted to classify dependents and provide special treatment for each group on the local (parish) level. During the Industrial Revolution, many entrepreneurs believed that social welfare programs undertaken by the state violated the concepts of laissez faire and therefore opposed such measures. Exceptions were such men as Robert Owen, who believed that social welfare measures were essential but their implementation should be undertaken cooperatively rather than as a function of the state.

Modern Welfare Programs

The first modern government-supported social welfare program for broad groups of people, not just the poor, was undertaken by the German government in 1883. Legislation in that year provided for health insurance for workers, while subsequent legislation introduced compulsory accident insurance and retirement pensions. In the next 50 years, spurred by socialist theory and the increasing power of organized labor, state-supported social welfare programs grew rapidly, so that by the 1930s most of the world's industrial nations had some type of social welfare program.

Not all governments have equally extensive social welfare systems. Great Britain and the Scandinavian countries, often termed "welfare states," have wide-ranging social welfare legislation. Britain's National Health Service, for example, was established (1948) to provide free medical treatment to all. Private philanthropies and charitable organizations, however, continue to operate in these countries in many areas of public welfare. International relief bodies, such as the Red Cross, and agencies of the United Nations, such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), provide social welfare services throughout the world, especially during times of distress and in poverty-stricken areas.

In the United States the Social Security Act of 1935 provided for federally funded financial assistance to the elderly, the blind, and dependent children. Subsequent amendments broadened the act in terms of coverage provided and eligibility; included was the provision for medical insurance to the aged (1965) under the Medicare program and to low-income families (1965) under the Medicaid program.

In the United States public assistance has increasingly come under state and federal control, although private philanthropy still plays a major role. By the early 1990s the Clinton administration approved changes in many states' welfare systems, including work requirements in exchange for benefits (so-called workfare) and time limits. In 1996 the president signed a bill enacting the most sweeping changes in social welfare policy since the New Deal. In general the bill, which sought to end long-term dependence on welfare programs, represented a reversal of previous welfare policy, shifting some of the federal government's role to the states and cutting many benefits. Among the bill's major provisions were the requirement that about a quarter of the population then on welfare be working or training for work by 1997 (a goal that was reached in most states) and that a half do so by 2002; the granting of lump sums to states to run their own welfare and work programs; an end to the federal guarantee of cash assistance for poor children; the limitation of lifetime welfare benefits to five years (with hardship exemptions for some); the requirement that the head of every welfare family work within two years of receiving benefits or lose them; and the establishment of stricter eligibility standards for the Supplemental Security Income program (which excluded many poor disabled children from benefits).

In terms of reducing the welfare rolls, the bill initially proved successful; in 1999 there were fewer welfare recipients then there had been in 30 years. Most states also reported a surplus of federal welfare funds. Those funds, which by law remained fixed for five years, provided an unforeseen benefit for the states, enabling some states to increase social welfare spending. Additional changes passed in 2005 forced states to increase the hours worked by recipients while tightening the regulations for those who are affected by the work requirements, raising concerns in a number of states with education and addiction-treatment programs for welfare recipients.

social settlement: see settlement house.

social security, government program designed to provide for the basic economic security and welfare of individuals and their dependents. The programs classified under the term social security differ from one country to another, but all are the result of government legislation and all are designed to provide some kind of monetary payment to defray a loss of or a deficiency in income.

In Other Countries

A social security program was adopted first in Germany in the 1880s, when Chancellor Otto von Bismarck advocated social legislation not only in order to benefit the workers but also to forestall the program of the socialists and gain the support of the workers for his own party. Legislation setting up compulsory sickness insurance, for which the worker paid two thirds of the cost and the employer one third, was passed in Germany in 1883. Compulsory old-age insurance (see pension), the cost of which the employee, employer, and government shared, was adopted in 1889; unemployment insurance legislation, however, was not passed until 1927.

As economic insecurity among workers in the highly industrialized countries spread, an increasing number of social security programs were enacted. In Great Britain, the National Insurance Act, devised by David Lloyd George, was passed in 1911, and a compulsory unemployment insurance program as well as old-age insurance and sickness insurance programs were established. The unemployment insurance system excluded many workers, notably government employees, nurses, casual workers, and those who earned over £250 per annum. A survivors insurance program was adopted (1925); in 1942, Parliament was presented with a plan, by Sir William Henry Beveridge, for a more expanded social security program, much of which was enacted after World War II.

France adopted in 1905 a program of voluntary unemployment insurance and in 1928 made insurance plans for old age and sickness mandatory. Meanwhile, diverse social security programs were adopted throughout Europe, differing from country to country as to the kinds of insurance instituted, the categories of workers eligible, the proportions paid by employee, employer, and government, the conditions for receipt of benefits, the amounts of the benefits, and finally in the overall effects of the programs. In 1922, the Soviet Union adopted comprehensive social security plans as part of their socialist economy. Chile became (1924) the first Latin American country to adopt a social security program.

In the United States

The United States did not have social security on a national level until 1935, when the Social Security Act was passed as part of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal program. The act established two social insurance programs: a federal-state program of unemployment compensation and a federal program of old-age retirement insurance. It also provided for federal grants to assist the states with programs for the disabled, the aged, child welfare services, public health services, and vocational rehabilitation. The compulsory old-age insurance paid benefits proportionate to prior earnings for persons over 65, with a reserve fund being accumulated through payroll taxes on employers and employees; the rate of the tax was originally set at 1%.

The original Social Security Act of 1935 covered only workers in commercial and industrial occupations, but since then several major amendments have increased the categories of persons eligible for benefits. The amendment of 1939 provided for benefits to the dependents and survivors of workers; an amendment in 1950 broadened the coverage to include full-time farm and domestic workers, many self-employed persons, employees of state and local governments, and employees of nonprofit organizations; later amendments extended coverage to members of the armed forces and to self-employed professionals; and a 1957 amendment provided benefits to insured workers 50 years of age and older who became permanently and totally disabled. The age of eligibility for retirement benefits was lowered from 65 to 62, but with lower benefits for persons retiring before 65.

In 1965, Congress enacted the Medicare program, providing medical benefits for persons over the age of 65, and an accompanying Medicaid program for the indigent regardless of age. A 1972 amendment tied increases in Social Security retirement benefits to increases in the Consumer Price Index. In 1974, Social Security insurance was taken over by the Social Security Administration, and in 1983 an amendment allowed partial taxation of the benefits given to upper-income recipients. In 1999, payroll deductions for Social Security were set at 6.2% of annual wages below $72,600, and payroll deductions for Medicare were 1.45% of annual wages (no upper limit), with employers contributing matching amounts.

Social Security funds are invested in federal securities, mainly long-term bonds. In 1997 a government advisory panel proposed that some of the revenues be invested in stocks and bonds to generate higher returns. The panel was divided over whether the money should be invested by the government or by individuals, as well as the amount that should be shifted from government bonds. Both approaches have their critics. Some regard government investment in stocks as a potential source of intrusive federal influence on U.S. businesses; others feel that allowing individuals to invest their Social Security funds would endanger the minimal postretirement "safety net" for all workers that the program is designed to provide if individuals invest unwisely. President George W. Bush, who campaigned for personal Social Security investment accounts, appointed (2001) a commission that offered several options for allowing individual investments in stocks and bonds as part of the Social Security program and for securing the program's financial health; it estimated that it would take as much as $3 trillion of additional revenue over the next 75 years and reductions in guaranteed benefits to accomplish both goals.

Underlying these proposals is the anticipation that the costs of the program as presently structured will outstrip the revenues raised and invested in the early to mid-21st cent. and that benefits will have to be paid from revenues alone, which are expected to be inadequate. If this occurs, Social Security will place a greater burden on the federal budget, and benefits may need to be reduced, or taxes increased, significantly. Although historical returns from investment in stock and bonds over the past century suggest that placing funds in those securities would forestall the program's financial difficulties, the dramatic fluctations in stock prices during and after the market bubble of the late 1990s has given many pause, particularly where individual investment accounts are concerned.

Administration of retirement, survivors, and disability insurance (OASDI) and supplemental security income (SSI) programs is vested in the Social Security Administration. The administration was part of the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services until becoming an independent agency in 1995. The Medicare and Medicaid programs are administered by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services of the Dept. of Health and Human Services. Unemployment insurance is administered by each state under the overall supervision of the U.S. Dept. of Labor. Contributions are collected by the Internal Revenue Service, while the preparation of benefit checks and the management of trust funds are the responsibility of the Dept. of the Treasury.

social science, term for any or all of the branches of study that deal with humans in their social relations. Often these studies are referred to in the plural as the social sciences. Although human social behavior has been studied since antiquity, the modern social sciences as disciplines rooted in the scientific method date only from the 18th cent. Enlightenment. Interest at first centered on economics, but by the 19th cent. separate disciplines had been developed in anthropology, political science, psychology, and sociology. The 19th cent. was characterized by the development of wide-ranging theories (e.g., the work of Auguste Comte, Karl Marx, and Herbert Spencer). Developments in the 20th cent. have moved in these directions: the improvement and increased use of quantitative methods and statistical techniques; increased use of the empirical method, as opposed to general theorizing; and the direct practical application of social science knowledge. Social science departments are now firmly established in universities, and social scientists are increasingly called upon to advise industries and governments for future planning.

social contract, agreement or covenant by which men are said to have abandoned the "state of nature" to form the society in which they now live. The theory of such a contract, first formulated by the English philosophers Thomas Hobbes (in the Leviathan, 1651) and John Locke, assumes that men at first lived in a state of anarchy in which there was no society, no government, and no organized coercion of the individual by the group. Hobbes maintained that by the social contract men had surrendered their natural liberties in order to enjoy the order and safety of the organized state. Locke made the social contract the basis of his advocacy of popular sovereignty, the idea that the monarch or government must reflect the will of the people. Like Locke, the French philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau, in Le Contrat social (1762), found the general will a means of establishing reciprocal rights and duties, privileges, and responsibilities as a basis of the state. Similar ideas were used as a justification for both the American and the French revolutions in the 18th cent. Thomas Jefferson held that the preservation of certain natural rights was an essential part of the social contract, and that "consent of the governed" was fundamental to any exercise of governmental power. Although historically important, the theory as a basis of society and the state has generally been discarded by modern social and political scientists.

United Nations Economic and Social Council: see Economic and Social Council.

Social War or Marsic War [Lat. socii=allies], 91B.C.-88 B.C., struggle brought on by demands of the Italian allies for the privileges of Roman citizenship. The allies had fought on the side of Rome and had helped establish Roman hegemony, but they did not have the rights of the Romans. Most Romans were greatly averse to sharing the citizenship, but Marcus Livius Drusus in 91 B.C. proposed laws granting it to the allies. He was murdered, and a coalition of the allies, chief among them the Marsi, arose in desperation, waged war against Rome, and planned an Italian federation. Led by Quintus Pompaedius Silo and Caius Papius Mutilus, they gained some success but could not overcome the power of Rome. The revolt died down only after Lucius Julius Caesar secured passage of a law (90 B.C.) granting citizenship to allies who had not joined the revolt and to those who laid down their arms immediately. The allies were divided, and the revolt ceased. Citizenship was soon given to all of them.

Social Gospel, liberal movement within American Protestantism that attempted to apply biblical teachings to problems associated with industrialization. It took form during the latter half of the 19th cent. under the leadership of Washington Gladden and Walter Rauschenbusch, who feared the isolation of religion from the working class. They believed in social progress and the essential goodness of humanity. The views of the Social Gospel movement were given formal expression in 1908 when the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America adopted what was later called "the social creed of the churches." Advocated in the creed were the abolition of child labor, better working conditions for women, one day off during the week, and the right of every worker to a living wage. With the rise of the organized labor movement in the early 20th cent. the Social Gospel movement lost much of its appeal as an independent force. However, many of its ideals were later embodied in the New Deal legislation of the 1930s.

Social Democratic party (SDP), former British political party founded in 1981 to offer a centrist alternative to the more extreme positions of the then ruling Conservative party on the right and the opposition Labour party on the left. The SDP began with the defection of 12 Labour members of Parliament who opposed their party's leftward drift. The party joined in an electoral alliance with the Liberal party in 1981 and merged with the Liberals in 1988 to form the Social and Liberal Democratic party, now the Liberal Democrats. Some SDP members re-formed the party in 1988, but they disbanded in 1990.

Social Credit, economic plan in Canada, based on the theories of Clifford Hugh Douglas. The central idea is that the problems fundamental to economic depression are those of unequal distribution owing to lack of purchasing power. To solve these difficulties Douglas proposed a system of issuing to every citizen dividends, the amount of which would be determined by an estimate of the nation's real wealth; the establishment of a just price for all goods would be the result. The program became highly influential in Alberta during the depression years, and the Social Credit party, led by William Aberhart, won a resounding victory in the provincial elections of 1935. The program included distribution of a social dividend of $25 a month, but it proved impossible to put this scheme into practice. Attempts to tax banks and to enter on currency schemes were declared unconstitutional by the courts. Nevertheless, the party remained in power in Alberta until defeated in 1971. In the federal parliament, the party retained 6 seats until 1980, when it lost them all. The Social Credit party that continues in British Columbia diverged from the doctrines of the original party early on.

New York School of Social Work: see Columbia Univ.

New School for Social Research: see New School Univ.

Economic and Social Council, constituent organ of the United Nations. It is established by chapter 10 of the UN Charter and has 54 (18 before 1965) member nations elected annually for three-year terms by the General Assembly. The council undertakes investigations of international economic and social questions and reports its conclusions and suggestions to the General Assembly and other organs of the United Nations for action. The council also coordinates the activities of the specialized agencies of the United Nations and arranges for consultations with international nongovernmental organizations. The full council meets annually; decisions are taken by a majority of members present and voting, which insures a majority of developing nations. The council has established functional commissions, including the Statistical Commission, the Commission on Narcotic Drugs, the Commission for Sustainable Development, the Commission on the Status of Women, the Population and Development Commission, and the Commission on Human Rights and regional commissions. A director-general directly below the UN secretary-general has been created to coordinate programs under the council. The activities of the Commission on Human Rights have been particularly important. In Aug., 1948, a draft of a Universal Declaration of Human Rights, drawn up by the commission, was adopted by the General Assembly. In 1967, the commission was authorized to investigate and monitor violations of human rights in both developed and developing countries. The council supervises the activities of the United Nations Children's Fund, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations Development Program, and the International Narcotics Control Board, and it has consultative relationships with numerous nongovernmental organizations. It also undertakes special studies at the request of countries belonging to the United Nations.

also called social work

Any of various professional activities or methods concerned with providing social services (such as investigatory and treatment services or material aid) to disadvantaged, distressed, or vulnerable persons or groups. The field originated in the charity organizations in Europe and the U.S. in the late 19th century. The training of volunteer workers by these organizations led directly to the founding of the first schools of social work and indirectly to increased government responsibility for the welfare of the disadvantaged. Social service providers may serve the needs of children and families, the poor or homeless, immigrants, veterans, the mentally ill, the handicapped, victims of rape or domestic violence, and persons dependent on alcohol or drugs. Seealso welfare.

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Concept of government in which the state plays a key role in protecting and promoting the economic and social well-being of its citizens. It is based on the principles of equality of opportunity, equitable distribution of wealth, and public responsibility for those who lack the minimal provisions for a good life. The term may be applied to a variety of forms of economic and social organization. A basic feature of the welfare state is social insurance, intended to provide benefits during periods of greatest need (e.g., old age, illness, unemployment). The welfare state also usually includes public provision of education, health services, and housing. Such provisions are less extensive in the U.S. than in many European countries, where comprehensive health coverage and state-subsidized university-level education have been common. In countries with centrally planned economies, the welfare state also covers employment and administration of consumer prices. Most nations have instituted at least some of the measures associated with the welfare state; Britain adopted comprehensive social insurance in 1948, and in the U.S., social-legislation programs such as the New Deal and the Fair Deal were based on welfare-state principles. Scandinavian countries provide state aid for the individual in almost all phases of life.

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Branch of economics established in the 20th century that seeks to evaluate economic policies in terms of their effects on the community's well-being. Early theorists defined welfare as the sum of the satisfactions accruing to an individual through an economic system. Believing it was possible to compare the well-being of two or more individuals, they argued that a poor person would derive more satisfaction from an increase in income than would a rich person. Later writers argued that making such comparisons with any precision was impossible. A new and more limited criterion was later developed: one economic situation was deemed superior to another if at least one person had been made better off without anyone else being made worse off. Seealso consumer's surplus; Vilfredo Pareto.

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or social welfare

Any of a variety of governmental programs that provide assistance to those in need. Programs include pensions, disability and unemployment insurance, family allowances, survivor benefits, and national health insurance. The earliest modern welfare laws were enacted in Germany in the 1880s (see social insurance), and by the 1920s and '30s most Western countries had adopted similar programs. Most industrialized countries require firms to insure workers for disability (see workers' compensation) so that they have income if they are injured, whether temporarily or permanently. For disability from illness unrelated to occupational injury, most industrial states pay a short-term benefit followed by a long-term pension. Many countries pay a family allowance to reduce the poverty of large families or to increase the birth rate. Survivor benefits, provided for widows below pension age who are left with a dependent child, vary considerably among nations and generally cease if the woman remarries. Among the world's wealthy countries, only the U.S. fails to provide national health insurance other than for the aged and the poor (see Medicare and Medicaid).

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Relative rank that an individual holds, with attendant rights, duties, and lifestyle, in a social hierarchy based on honour and prestige. Status is often ascribed on the basis of sex, age, family relationships, and birth, placing one into a particular social group irrespective of ability or accomplishments. Achieved status, on the other hand, is based on educational attainment, occupational choice, marital status, and other factors involving personal effort. Status groups differ from social classes in being based on considerations of honour and prestige rather than purely economic position. Relative status is a major determinant of people's behaviour toward one another, and competition for status seems to be a prime human motivator.

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or social settlement or community centre

Neighbourhood social-welfare agency. The staff of a settlement house may sponsor clubs, classes, athletic teams, and interest groups; they may employ such specialists as vocational counselors and caseworkers. The settlement movement began with the founding of Toynbee Hall in London in 1884 by Samuel Augustus Barnett (1844–1913). It spread to the U.S. in the late 19th century with the establishment of such institutions as Chicago's Hull House (founded by Jane Addams). Many countries now have similar institutions. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, U.S. settlement houses were active among the masses of new immigrants and worked for reform legislation such as workers' compensation and child-labour laws.

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Public provision for the economic security and social welfare of all individuals and their families, especially in the case of income losses due to unemployment, work injury, maternity, sickness, old age, and death. The term encompasses not only social insurance but also health and welfare services and various income maintenance programs designed to improve the recipient's welfare through public services. Some of the first organized cooperative efforts to provide for the economic security of individuals were instituted by workingmen's associations, mutual-benefit societies, and labour unions; social security was not widely established by law until the 19th and 20th centuries, with the first modern program appearing in Germany in 1883. Almost all developed nations now have social security programs that provide benefits or services through several major approaches such as social insurance and social assistance, a needs-based program that pays benefits only to the poor. Seealso Social Security Act; unemployment insurance; welfare; workers' compensation.

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Any discipline or branch of science that deals with the sociocultural aspects of human behaviour. The social sciences generally include cultural anthropology, economics, political science, sociology, criminology, and social psychology. Comparative law and comparative religion (the comparative study of the legal systems and religions of different nations and cultures) are also sometimes regarded as social sciences.

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Branch of psychology concerned with the personality, attitudes, motivations, and behaviour of the individual or group in the context of social interaction. The field emerged in the U.S. in the 1920s. Topics include the attribution of social status based on perceptual cues, the influence of social factors (such as peers) on a person's attitudes and beliefs, the functioning of small groups and large organizations, and the dynamics of face-to-face interactions.

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In psychological theory, a change in behaviour that is controlled by environmental influences rather than by innate or internal forces. In zoology, social learning is exhibited by innumerable species of birds and mammals, who modify their behaviour by observing and imitating the adults around them. Birdsong is a socially learned behaviour.

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Compulsory public-insurance program that protects against various economic risks (e.g., loss of income due to sickness, old age, or unemployment). Social insurance is considered one type of social security, though the two terms are sometimes used interchangeably. The first compulsory national social-insurance programs were established in Germany under Otto von Bismarck: health insurance in 1883, workers' compensation in 1884, and old-age and disability pensions in 1889. Austria and Hungary soon followed Germany's example. After 1920, social insurance was rapidly adopted throughout Europe and the Western Hemisphere. The U.S. lagged behind until the passage of the Social Security Act in 1935. Social Security in the U.S. now provides retirement benefits, health care for persons over a specific minimum age, and disability insurance. Social-insurance contributions are normally compulsory and may be made by the insured person's employer and the state as well as by the individual. Social insurance is usually self-financing, with contributions being placed in specific funds for that purpose. Seealso unemployment insurance; welfare.

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Disease transmitted primarily by direct sexual contact. STDs usually affect the reproductive system and urinary system but can be spread to the mouth or rectum by oral or anal sex. In later stages they may attack other organs and systems. The best-known are syphilis, gonorrhea, AIDS, and herpes simplex. Yeast infections (see candida) produce a thick, whitish vaginal discharge and genital irritation and itch in women and sometimes irritation of the penis in men. Crab louse infestation (see louse, human) can also be considered an STD. The incidence of STDs has been affected by such factors as antibiotics, birth-control methods, and changes in sexual behaviour. Seealso chlamydia; hepatitis; pelvic inflammatory disease; wart.

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Political ideology that advocates a peaceful, evolutionary transition of society from capitalism to socialism, using established political processes. It rejects Marxism's advocacy of social revolution. Social democracy began as a political movement in Germany in the 1870s. Eduard Bernstein argued (1899) that capitalism was overcoming many of the weaknesses Karl Marx had seen in it (including unemployment and overproduction) and that universal suffrage would lead peacefully to a socialist government. After 1945, social-democratic governments came to power in West Germany (see Social Democratic Party), Sweden, and Britain (under the Labour Party). Social-democratic thought gradually came to regard state regulation (without state ownership) as sufficient to ensure economic growth and a fair distribution of income.

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Actual or hypothetical compact between the ruled and their rulers. The original inspiration for the notion may derive from the biblical covenant between God and Abraham, but it is most closely associated with the writings of Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Hobbes argued that the absolute power of the sovereign is justified by a hypothetical social contract in which the people agree to obey him in all matters in return for a guarantee of peace and security, which they lack in the warlike “state of nature” posited to exist before the contract is made. Locke believed that rulers also were obliged to protect private property and the right to freedom of thought, speech, and worship. Rousseau held that in the state of nature people are unwarlike but also undeveloped in reasoning and morality; in surrendering their individual freedom, they acquire political liberty and civil rights within a system of laws based on the “general will” of the governed. The idea of the social contract influenced the shapers of the American Revolution and the French Revolution and the constitutions that followed them.

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Group of people within a society who possess the same socioeconomic status. The term was first widely used in the early 19th century, following the industrial and political revolutions of the late 18th century. The most influential early theory of class was that of Karl Marx, who focused on how one class controls and directs the process of production while other classes are the direct producers and the providers of services to the dominant class. The relations between the classes were thus seen as antagonistic. Max Weber emphasized the importance of political power and social status or prestige in maintaining class distinctions. Despite controversies over the theory of class, there is general agreement on the characteristics of the classes in modern capitalist societies. In many cases the upper class has been distinguished by the possession of largely inherited wealth, while the working class has consisted mostly of manual labourers and semiskilled or unskilled workers, often in service industries, who earn moderate or low wages and have little access to inherited wealth. The middle class includes the middle and upper levels of clerical workers, those engaged in technical and professional occupations, supervisors and managers, and such self-employed workers as small-scale shopkeepers, businesspeople, and farmers. There is also often an urban substratum of permanently jobless and underemployed workers termed the “underclass.” Seealso bourgeoisie.

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In biology, a subset of individuals within a colony of social animals (chiefly ants, bees, termites, and wasps) that has a specialized function and is distinguished from other subsets by morphological and anatomical differences. Typical insect castes are the queen (the female responsible for reproduction), workers (the usually sterile female caretakers of the queen, eggs, and larvae), soldiers (defenders of the colony; also sterile females), and sometimes drones (short-lived males). The differentiation of larvae into various castes is often determined by diet, though hormonal and environmental factors can also play a role.

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or Italic War or Marsic War

(90–89 BC) Rebellion waged by ancient Rome's Italian allies (Latin, socii). The allies in central and southern Italy had aided Rome in its wars, but they were denied the privileges of Roman citizenship. The people of central Italy's hills—the Marsi in the north and the Samnites in the south—organized a confederacy and began an uprising for independence, winning victories over Roman armies in the north and south. After Rome granted citizenship to those who had not revolted and those who would immediately lay down their arms, Italian interest in the struggle declined. Sulla defeated the weakened rebels in the south, and legislation was passed to unify Italy south of the Po River.

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Religious social-reform movement in the U.S., prominent from circa 1870 to 1920 among liberal Protestant groups. The movement focused on applying moral principles to the improvement of industrialized society and particularly to reforms such as the abolition of child labour, a shorter workweek, and factory regulation. Many of its aims were realized through the rise of organized labour and through legislation of the New Deal.

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formerly New School for Social Research

Private university in New York City. It was established in 1919 as an informal centre for adult education and soon became the first American university to specialize in continuing education. In 1934 it established a graduate faculty of political and social sciences, staffed mainly by refugee academics from Nazi Germany. It also includes a liberal arts college, a graduate school of management and urban policy, the Mannes College of Music, and the Parsons School of Design.

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