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[Anne-Marie]

I would be grateful for views on the relationship between public
administration and social policy.

For example, how far do these two fields differ, and how similar are they?  

What are the key public administration areas/ social policy areas?

Are they basically the same thing?

Does anyone have any thoughts on the common elements in an undergraduate Social Policy Bachelor's degree and an undergraduate Public Administration Bachelor's degree?
 
Also, am I correct in noting that in the USA they don't seem to have many degree courses in "Social Policy"? - so far, I have been assuming that Public Administration/ Public Policy in the US equals Social Policy in the UK.  
 
One of the things that I find confusing is that I have observed that Public Policy/ Public Administration seems to be a branch of Politics/ Management Studies, whereas Social Policy doesn't seem to be associated so much with these areas.

[%sig%]

[anon]

and cultural policy is taught in art schools etc. etc.  the history of disciplinary/school boundaries in the u.s. is not necessarily rational or justifiable.  if you are interested in a topic, your best bet is to find out who writes about what you are interested in, then apply to the program in which they teach, or where they went to school.

[Dr. Zarkov]

In the US, social policy issues are addressed by the various social science disciplines, economics, poli-sci, sociology, etc.  Perhaps a "social policy" approach requires more interdisciplinary study than is common in the US.

From another angle, I think the concept of social policy assumes a level of government activism that many Americans do not support.

[kby]

I hope my response isn't too late to catch your attention, Anne-Marie.  This board has been busy!

I teach public administration and my background is social policy, so I feel compelled to comment.  The fields are not the same, but there certainly is overlap.  Public administration and policy studies are (to make up a handy phrase) trans-substantive-policy-area.  That is, the tools that students learn in public management courses, policy analysis courses, policy process courses, etc., can be applied to any of substantive policy area.  Social policy would be one of those substantive policy areas.  A source of confusion (and a source of great overlap) is that some people define "social policy" so broadly that it includes pretty much anything that in any way affects people (so, everything!).  More conservaitve definitions of social policy limit it to what are generally called social welfare policies, leaving education, health, criminal justice, etc., to be their own substantive policy area.

I think the best public administration programs, policy studies programs, etc., give students the opportunity to gain some expertise in at least one substantive policy area in addition to the trans-substantive-policy-area tools that form the core of the program.  George Washington University's MPP program is a good example of this that I happened to be looking at this morning.  Most good programs do this, frequently with opportunities to study social welfare policy.  You'll also find some programs focused strictly on social welfare policies in social work programs (occasionally called social welfare programs) and in some sociology programs.

Hope that helps a little.