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Acta Scientiarum. Education

versión impresa ISSN 2178-5198versión On-line ISSN 2178-5201

Acta Educ. vol.42  Maringá  2020  Epub 01-Dic-2019

https://doi.org/10.4025/actascieduc.v42i1.40226 

HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION

Social policy: from its genesis to the Braziliam context

Paola Andressa Scortegagna1 
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1243-1989

Rita de Cássia da Silva Oliveira1  * 
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9382-7573

1Conselho de Ensino, Pesquisa e Extensão, Universidade Estadual de Ponta Grossa, Praça Santos Andrade, s/n,84100-000, Ponta Grossa, Paraná, Brasil.


ABSTRACT.

This paper aims to present the genesis of social policy, from the first Law of the Poor in the fourteenth century to the neoliberal context of social policies in Brazil. A documentary and bibliographic study was carried out. In the fourteenth century lies the first law on poverty in Britain, which can be considered as one of the first social policies in the world. Until the eighteenth century other laws came to combat poverty, but much more punitive than welfare. The nineteenth century is marked by capitalism and the social struggle of the workers in search of rights. From the twentieth century to the present day, social policies have been linked to liberalism and neoliberalism. In the Brazilian context, social policies do not reach the objective of combating poverty, with palliative actions such as compensatory policies.

Keywords: policy; law of the poor; poverty

RESUMO.

O presente trabalho tem por objetivo apresentar a gênese da política social, desde a primeira Lei dos Pobres, no século XIV até o contexto neoliberal das políticas sociais no Brasil. Foi realizado um estudo documental e bibliográfico. No século XIV encontra-se a primeira lei voltada à pobreza, na Grã-Bretanha, que pode ser considerada como uma das primeiras políticas sociais do mundo. Até o século XVIII outras leis surgem para combater a pobreza, porém muito mais punitivas do que assistencialistas. O século XIX é marcado pelo capitalismo e pela luta social dos trabalhadores em busca de direitos. Do século XX até os dias atuais, as políticas sociais estiveram atreladas ao liberalismo e ao neoliberalismo. No contexto brasileiro, as políticas sociais não atingem o objetivo de combate à pobreza, havendo ações paliativas como as políticas compensatórias.

Palavras-chave: política; lei dos pobres; pobreza

RESUMEN.

El presente trabajo tiene por objetivo presentar la génesis de la política social, desde la primera Ley de los Pobres, en el siglo XIV hasta el contexto neoliberal de las políticas sociales en Brasil. Se realizó un estudio documental y bibliográfico. En el siglo XIV se encuentra la primera ley dirigida a la pobreza en Gran Bretaña, que puede ser considerada como una de las primeras políticas sociales del mundo. Hasta el siglo XVIII otras leyes surgen para combatir la pobreza, pero mucho más punitivas que asistencialistas. El siglo XIX está marcado por el capitalismo y la lucha social de los trabajadores en busca de derechos. Desde el siglo XX hasta los días actuales, las políticas sociales estuvieron ligadas al liberalismo y al neoliberalismo. En el contexto brasileño, las políticas sociales no alcanzan el objetivo de combate a la pobreza, habiendo acciones paliativas como las políticas compensatorias.

Palabras-clave: política; ley de los pobres; pobreza

Introduction

For the analysis of social policies, it is essential to understand their genesis. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the close relationship between social policy and poverty.

This article aims to present the genesis of social policy, from the first Law of the Poor in the fourteenth century to the neoliberal context of social policies in Brazil. For this research a documental and bibliographical study was carried through.

The text is organized into two sections, namely: 1. Poor Law - highlights from the first pro-poor actions to the last Poor Law of 1834 in Great Britain (14th to 19th centuries); 2. Origins of social policy - portrays the social question, and the influences of liberalism and neoliberalism on social policy; It also presents the characteristics of social policy in the Brazilian reality.

Poor law

Poverty is not a social phenomenon that arose from capitalist society. According to Sachs (2005), poverty was present in different peoples, with records throughout the history of humanity.

Throughout history, the concept of poverty has evolved. In antiquity, the distinction between rich and poor occurred by divine determination, and it was up to each subject to accept his social class. This condition lasted for several centuries, confirmed by the Catholic Church during the middle ages, to maintain the nobility and the clergy itself. At this time, poverty meant homelessness (Lacerda, 2012).

The condition of poverty in the feudal period required submission to you, for it was the possibility of survival and protection. Those who were not found as vassals were doomed to indigence, outside the fiefdoms and far from the burgos. These subjects were at the mercy of the church's charity.

In the fourteenth century, the number of homeless, sick and miserable was growing considerably. Limited assistance to Christian charity did not meet their survival needs. In addition, social conflicts were emerging.

Christian charity was compromised, because with the fall of monasteries in the fourteenth century, it was difficult to perform welfare actions. Thus, in each parish region a charity tax was imposed on the poor, and each church was responsible for collecting this tax from the faithful.

With the Black Death, the number of sick and orphans increased, there was a stagnation in wages and a decrease in jobs, social problems were growing along with hunger and the number of destitute.

To counter such a situation, a legal act (law character) made it mandatory for all healthy subjects to work, maintaining the old wages. Several workers sought regions with better wages, but others tried to claim sickness or disability not to work. Given the situation, The Ordinance of Laborers' Decree (1349) instituted that no person on a living (worker or employer) could assist or assist beggars (Higginbotham, 2012).

In the year 1388 the Cambridge Statute of Cambridge introduced regulations restricting the movement of workers and beggars. Each region was responsible for its impotent poor, that is, elderly or infirm, unable to work. Those workers wishing to leave their region needed a 'good man' authorization form, proving their working condition. The beggars could not try to flee or feign disease, for they needed permission to walk. Invalids are also subject to this statute, which prohibited them from going out or roaming the streets (Higginbotham, 2012).

The situation of the poor was getting worse. Faced with this situation, the Poor Law Act was implemented by the British monarchy. This law can be considered as one of the first social policies.

According to Pereira (1999), this law met wanderers and aimed to combat vagrancy, as it was understood that these subjects should not remain on the streets, seeking their survival. These wanderers should be confined, for poverty without territory could do much damage to the social order.

This law was not a social and welfare character in principle, but a punitive one. Over the years and the changes that have been taking place in society, this law has been modified and gave (restricted) subsidies to attend only those unable to work.

Lawsuits against the situation of beggars were increasing. Over the course of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, various punitive actions for those who were able to work and who did not do so increased. People considered idle (migrants) were arrested and left to bread and water, then expelled from the city. The others were forced to work, with punishment for refusal. Every beggar or work-wanderer should be in his area working. In addition, there was even more severity in punishment, enslaving for two years beggars who refused to work and for a lifetime those who fled (Higginbotham, 2012).

In this conflicting context, the first houses are beginning to appear to accommodate the poor without working conditions. The 1536 Act instituted that churches should have a fundraiser to help the disabled. However, punishment was still severely maintained for those considered capable and not working. There was a ban on alms.

According to Higginbotham (2012), in 1572 there was the creation of property tax throughout Great Britain, called the rate of the poor. This tax was to be administered in each region by the responsible parish and was intended for the care of the elderly, the sick and the miserable. From this period, some less punitive actions began to occur. They have been appointed leaders in each parish to seek employment for the able poor, as well as find places to build houses for the disabled.

Despite the small progress in caring for the poor, the situation was very complicated, as there was no guarantee of subsistence or meeting the basic needs of those subjects. There was not even clarity in the determination of the able and the incapable, which made many people ill and unable to work long hours.

With the social evolution between the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the Law of the Poor was revised and in the year 1601, the Act for the Relief of the Poor was enacted. This law retained parishes' responsibilities to assist the poor, including children in precarious conditions. The purpose of this law was to make the parish an administrative unit responsible for assisting the poor, such as tax collection; create asylums or hospices for the elderly and physically and mentally handicapped, as long as they have no family, otherwise the family was obliged to assist them; create correctional homes for the poor with working conditions (beggars, wanderers) who refused to do so; instruct children to work; create Workhouses to enable the work of the able poor (Pereira, 1999; Higginbotham, 2012).

Concerning the Poor Law of 1601, Dorigon (2006, p. 120) states that “[...] the law aimed at avoiding future social problems. Given the significant number of poor people who were unemployed in degrading conditions, they sought to crack down on begging and vagrancy and minimize misery”.

There was a concern to prepare marginalized subjects for work, rearranging society and preparing as many as possible for the productive system. Churches, who are directly responsible for assisting the poor, often also exploited their assistants, trying to profit from their work in the care homes.

The actions held for about two centuries, but the issue of the poor remained complex. According to Mantoux (1989 apud Dorigon, 2006), many parishes assisted only the poor in their region, excluding all those who did not come from the region as outsiders, thus exempting themselves from their responsibilities.

However, the issue of poverty was not limited to this issue, due to the Church's assistance, another situation was occurring: a large number of people able to work refused, as they survived without the need for work.

There were new discussions and the Poor Law was reformulated. The goal was urgent: to get the poor able to work from the street or from Christian assistance, to educate them, and then to put them to work, especially by the growing industrialization.

Thus, in 1834, the Poor Law was passed, amending the previous law (1601) and requiring better enforcement of the poverty laws. This law establishes the appointment of commissioners for the administration and supervision of care homes.

With this new law, the able poor could not ask for help in care homes or parishes. The aid should be intended only for those really in need. There was concern about assisted children, as they should be educated and trained to work, avoiding the formation of new ‘vagabonds-tramp’ (Poor Law, 1834).

Workhouses were being scrutinized to comply with the law. In these houses there should be the training of workers, responding to the needs of capitalist society.

These houses go from punishment correction houses to training houses. From the new law, a new workhouse begins to be structured. The first workhouse organized from the new system was in the city of Bristol, through church organization and the initiative of a merchant (Longmate, 2003 apud Dorigon, 2006).

These houses, based on the law, should follow the principles of discipline, education and work. Workhouses could accommodate people of all ages, from children to the elderly, in any health condition. Inside the house, these people were separated into age groups, gender and work capacity.

The workhouse was a very bold alternative that succeeded in its goal of controlling poverty. But being poor was not a social issue one wanted to overcome. Thus, these houses were not obligatory, either prisons or nursing homes. It was a space with many rules, but several people sought it voluntarily (Dorigon, 2006).

According to Higginbotham (2012), workhouses existed until the beginning of the twentieth century, being replaced by a shelter for the poor, but many of the institutions maintained the same principles of houses. With World War I and the economic depression, many institutions were closed. Officially from the 1930s, they become a Public Assistance Institution. In these homes many older people remain as residents, such as the disabled, single mothers and ‘vagabonds-tramp’. In the late 1940s, there is the institution of the National Health Service, which takes over the existing houses, turning them into hospitals. However, some maintain the same system of work and assistance until 1960.

Although laws and actions aimed at assisting the poor during the fourteenth and nineteenth centuries did not produce a satisfactory result, they can be considered social policies. There was care for a part of the excluded, which somehow contributes to their survival. Many elderly, sick, disabled, miserable and children were assisted.

However, none of the actions carried out concerned the emancipation of these subjects and the overcoming of the poverty condition (class overcoming). Although there was assistance, these guys were often forced to work long hours and had no right to what they produced. Moreover, these people, who by their own social condition had no education whatsoever, were still alienated from society, sometimes by the Church that preached poverty as divine desire and spiritual elevation, sometimes by capitalist industrialists, who need very productive and conforming workers. with the situation itself.

The last Poor Law (1834) aimed at the education of the able, but it was restricted to an instruction for work and acceptance of the conditions set by the ruling class. Marx (1996, p. 115) points out that “[...] they lowered the wages of rural workers beyond that strictly physical minimum, completing the indispensable difference to ensure the physical perpetuation of the race through the Laws of the Poor”, the still complete author “It was a glorious method for turning Shakespeare's wage laborer into slave and the proud yeoman (wealthy farmer)” (Marx, 1996, p. 115).

Origins of social policy

The Laws of the Poor evolve along with the evolution of the state. These laws have changed according to social organization, from the feudal system to liberalism.

The modern state, with theoretical apparatus from the contractualists (Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau), represents the need to legitimize the social order. The question of property determines the boundary between poverty and wealth.

With the rise of the bourgeoisie in the seventeenth century, begins a period of modification and modernization in the modes of production. Liberalism arises as a consequence of the bourgeois struggle against the clergy and the nobility for political control of the state. Thus, the freedom of subjects and the limitation of state powers are necessary for the growth of the bourgeois class.

Education plays an important role in this period, as it is necessary to train useful people for society. This condition of training contributes to the negation of the Poor Laws, as it results in expenses for civil society and the state.

The defense of property is endorsed by its meritocratic condition. What you have comes from work, so poverty cannot be justified. This condition questions welfare assistance to the poor, especially those who are able to work and do not.

According to Masson (2010, p. 85),

Throughout modernity there have been several splits: separation of man from his instruments of labor, social and technical division of labor, separation of civil society and the state. Domination and exploitation are undertaken under the principles of equality and freedom that are consolidated by the existence of the state, thus the self-perpetuating legitimation of liberal politics was developed throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries [...].

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, industrialization brought to the great centers a very large number of peasants, who are subjected to long working hours, for wages that do not allow minimum conditions of survival. There is a growing number of sick people, because in the given working conditions, many get sick. A large number of children also work on these long journeys, often just for food.

Work becomes a daily sacrifice and the worker just a controlled object, necessary for factories to function, but easily replaceable. According to Marx (1996, p. 55) “[...] in manufacturing and craftsmanship the worker uses the tool; in the factory serves the machine”.

In addition to working conditions, the worker still has the uncertainty of his survival, because if he is fired, ill or has an accident he will not be able to maintain himself and may soon become a miserable person, who may be able to get some kind of work. Christian assistance. Another problem that also increased the number of wretches was the constant technological evolution, especially in the nineteenth century, which eliminated many jobs. For Marx (1982), this condition takes away the tranquility and security of the worker, who remains in constant threat of losing his means of survival. The worker may be superfluous.

In addition to all these issues, the worker still has to support the family, especially the young children who do not work, and also the weight of old age, which does not represent a quiet life stage, on the contrary, reveals itself as the possibility of lack of any resources for survival. Thus, “[...] material misery weakens the worker both morally and physically” (Marx, 1982, p. 36).

Only in the nineteenth century, the first consistent movements of workers began, seeking better working conditions and survival. However, “[...] the rupture with the liberal conception of state only occurred effectively with the contribution of studies undertaken from Karl Marx” (Masson, 2010, p. 85).

Marx claims that work is the ontological foundation of social being, and through it all that is necessary for the existence of man is produced. Thus, the struggle of the workers is not against the work, but for the non-conditions to do it.

According to Dorigon (2006, p. 151),

The work eventually broke through all the barriers posed by morals and nature, age and sex, day and night. Historical and cultural conditions were destroyed by the pace that capital set, to form the disciplined worker who was obedient to the rules and schedules set by the factories.

During the nineteenth century, the union of workers made possible a struggle against the labor regime imposed by the bourgeoisie, there was the organization of unions and considerable gains in terms of working conditions. However, these gains are still tiny in the face of workers' needs. Alienation and conformation with the capitalist system limit workers' actions in the search for new rights to the present day. They are subjects formed by the state, which are unaware of their own rights and stand short of any understanding of the capitalist system.

Some rights are guaranteed to workers until the late nineteenth century, such as early retirement (in Brazil: Retirement of employees Correios - Decree No. 9,912-A, March 26, 1888, at least 60 years old and 30 years old), years of service. But there is still a long way between the needs of the proletarians and the desires of the bourgeois.

The social struggle still has many limits, because despite the workers organization, there are still a large number of poor, without working conditions that remain helpless. Some voluntary actions work for the poor, the handicapped, the sick, the elderly, and the orphans, but the size of the poverty was greater than any single action that tried to overcome it.

The social policy of capitalist society

The twentieth century brought with it the evolution and decay of social protection for workers. From the Welfare State (which was present in some countries - the USA, for example - especially in the postwar period) to neoliberal adjustments, the actions coming from social policies went from the extension of social rights to their privatization. Basic services and social security were expanded, accompanied by an abusive increase in taxes (property, income, consumption).

Advances can be considered over the course of this century. But from the attempt of a welfare state came the end of the century in conditions of a state of considerable social unrest. To maintain capital, the state asserts itself in the neoliberal context as minimal and applies structural adjustments, which according to Moraes (2000), are to focus, decentralize and privatize.

To understand the intricacies of social policy, such as its adaptation to neoliberal adjustments, it must be defined.

Social policy is a policy that arises from bourgeois capitalism, in economic and social relations, between the ruling class and the dominated class. It is directly related to the basic needs of the subjects versus the capitalist mode of production. It acts as a mediation policy, between the accumulation of capital and the maintenance of the workforce. Thus, the state has a managerial role, between the labor force and its price, as well as the conditions for its maintenance (Machado, 2006).

Pereira (1999, p. 63), social policy is

[...] a policy that, by privileging the status of citizenship as a prerogative of all, goes beyond the contractualist view of social protection and will encompass and protect, as a duty of the state, the poor, the incapacitated for work, the unemployed and redundant (permanently expelled from the labor market).

In this way, social policy gains the status of the modern Poor Law, since it considers welfare assistance as protection for the poor and miserable. It is not a policy for social development, perhaps for overcoming class antagonisms.

Marx (1996, p. 84),

[...] the reduction of the needs of the poor to the most miserable conditions of physical life, the satisfaction of which is intended only to enable them to engage in mechanical activities to keep themselves alive. And that ends up making many people believe that the poor are not targets of social injustice and therefore should not have rights guaranteed by the state.

The state implements social policies in accordance with the demands of the working class, but conditioned the interests of capital. These policies regulate the proletariat, preventing social conflicts from happening, that is, preventing the modern struggle of all against, social policy passed:

[...] to be seen in the best Marxist analyzes as a contradictory phenomenon, because while responding positively to the interests of labor representatives, providing them with claimed gains in the constant struggle against capital, they also positively serve the interests of representatives of capital, preserving the productive potential of the labor force (Pereira, 1999, p. 54).

Through social policies it is possible to control the working class by using laws that regulate and regulate labor activities. There are concrete actions on workers' organization, with financial and political limitations. The maintenance of the workforce is directly related to the needs of capital, which represents the direct subordination of the working class. Although there is partial fulfillment of claims and access to some goods and services, the fragmentation of the working class weakens it, leading to non-recognition as a class and free competition among workers (Machado, 2006).

Machado (2006, p. 28), social policy represents the modern Poor Law, because “[...] its ultimate objective is not the protection of the worker, but the capitalist - and its primary objective is to transform legitimate rights. life, work and social protection of the working class in profitable private capital”.

In this context, social policies represent the relationship between capital and labor. Despite the contradictions posed, the working class often remains stagnant, as the ruling class's action to alienate workers is both effective and cruel.

The ruling class, which holds the political power of the state, uses all available means (education, media) to maintain its position. The conquest of social rights does not represent that the working class is evolving and that human emancipation will be reached, but ideologically represents the face of the 'good' state, which controls either through formation or repression its dominated class.

Thus, as stated by Costa (2006, p. 51),

With the application of political rights, with the struggle of organized segments of the working classes, the capitalist state began to operate with two central determinations, the search for legitimacy - which makes the ideological disclosure that the central objectives of all productive organization and regulation are indispensable. Social policies are geared to the common good, the state being the center of the process of organization and ordering of society, and the need for accumulation, the source of all the dynamism of the economy and the revenues that the state may have through taxation.

The Brazilian context reaffirms the condition of the working class. On the other hand, it represents a country that has not reached economic development, but has more complex and urgent social issues such as poverty and hunger. High tax rates, discontinuous policies, lack of supervision and privatization are examples that represent Brazilian politics and social actions.

Social policies in Brazil

Social relations indicate the prevailing contrasts in society, both in the personal, educational, economic and political spheres. Such relations are on the threshold of human activities, thus characterizing the conditions of equality and inequality present in this reality, as well as the hegemony exercised by the government.

The hegemonic actions delimit the space of insertion of the population, and often the opportunities for improvement in the living conditions of the dominated class do not occur due to lack of opportunities and in some cases, ideological repressions, which are incisive in the social structure.

The state is based on a hegemonic power over the population, and the ideology of the ruling class has a direct impact on its actions.

Capitalist society is rooted in bourgeois selfish values, as stated by Marx (2006). In this society there is no place for those who do not produce.

Thus, social inequalities represent impossibilities for economic, political and social restructuring. People often find themselves drifting, with their interests and aspirations placed in the background. Social inequality presupposes social injustices, based on difference. Poverty and lack of conditions for survival increase.

As a means of alleviating serious social issues such as poverty, some policies are structured. Until the eighteenth century, poverty was synonymous with the absence of property. In the nineteenth century, there was discussion of the need for survival, which depended beyond material resources. In the course of the twentieth century and in this early 21st century, many elementary rights are considered, as can be observed in the Federal Constitution.

However, despite the evolution of the concept of poverty, policies to combat it have not evolved. “By understanding poverty only by the lack of monetary need, there is a tendency to limit political actions to the scope of cash transfers only” (Lacerda, 2006, p. 15).

These policies are necessary but not sufficient to alleviate the effects of poverty in Brazil. Poverty is justified by poor income distribution, financial crises, inefficient social policies and the severe effects of adjustment policies (Soares 2000).

According to the author, although social indicators represent advances, there are serious setbacks. Access to running water camouflages the lack of sanitation. Failure to treat sewage in most Latin American countries can mean cholera endemic within a few years, according to the World Health Organization (Soares, 2000).

Several social policies are disappearing or diminishing the social protection they provided. In addition, other social issues are emerging, such as rising unemployment, labor market deregulation, disease and an aging population (Soares, 2000). With the lack of public structure and the lack of access to the elementary conditions of survival, the poorest groups are being increasingly penalized.

Broadening the picture, the significant increase in the elderly, the decrease in birth rates and consequently the decrease in young people creates a serious problem. On the one hand, the number of workers is decreasing, on the other, the condition of survival of the elderly is getting worse, leading many of them back to the labor market. In addition, the lack of structure for health care and assistance and the poor survival conditions reflect one of the biggest current social problems: the elderly, who do not work and need social security, representing high expenses for the government.

There are still the most serious problems related to poverty and indigence in rural areas. Increasing unemployment rates, weakening unions, epidemiological problems, inadequate nutrition, malnutrition, school problems, poor sanitation, disorderly progress in metropolitan areas, child mortality, significant increase in adolescents and young people in risk groups, among other problems reinforce. the inefficiency of social policies.

Soares (2000), the large number of children and adolescents who work, live in precarious conditions and have little or no access to education reflects directly on young people who remain in this context and have little or no possibility of leaving poverty.

Given the situation, in recent years there have been a series of emergency measures, in an attempt to alleviate social issues. In Brazil, compensatory policies fulfill this role. There are projects for food, housing, access to water and low cost light, tax exemptions, among others (Fraternal Light, Bolsa Familia). The limitations of these policies refer to non-universalization, the number of people who have access to these policies and the costs for their maintenance, which generate tax burdens.

In addition, both social policies and compensatory policies are planned and implemented by the government, which follows the ideology of the ruling class. Through these policies no social problem will be addressed, nor will emancipation be achieved. It is understood that the overcoming of capital does not come from the state, but a population that cannot afford to leave its condition of alienation will not fight for this process to occur.

With regard to human emancipation, Marx (2006, p. 37)

States that political emancipation is the reduction of man, on the one hand, as a member of civil society, an independent and selfish subject, and, on the other, as a citizen, as a moral person. Human emancipation will only be full when the real and individual man has in him the abstract citizen; when as an individual man, in his empirical life, at work, and in his individual relationships, he has become a generic being; and when it has recognized and organized its own forces (forces propes) as social forces, so as never to separate this social force from itself as a political force.

Thus, labor relations are directly related to emancipation, since it depends on the understanding of production, since man is the result of his own work. The social division of labor is the origin of alienation.

Marx (cited Tonet, 2005, p. 64)

Social power, that is, the multiplied productive force born of the cooperation of various subjects required by the division of labor, appears to these subjects, because their cooperation is not voluntary, but natural, not as their own unified power, but as a force. stranger situated outside them, whose origin and destiny they ignore, which they can no longer dominate, and which, on the contrary, now goes through a particular series of stages and stages of development, independent of the will and action of men, and which, in fact, directs them. This will and this act.

In this context, thinking about overcoming alienated work and emancipation presupposes thinking about education. If on the one hand it is at the service of the reproduction of society and capitalist values, on the other without it it will be impossible to think of political emancipation and perhaps human emancipation.

As Tonet (2005, p. 139) states, “[...] work is a mediation between man and nature, while education is a mediation between subject and society”.

From an emancipatory perspective, the role of education is to guide the overcoming of partial political relations and political emancipation in human emancipation, in their entirety. But human emancipation does not occur only through the action of education, since it is one of the instances of society, although it expresses the totality of social processes, there is a need for all social instances in this emancipatory project (Mata, 2011).

In this sense, education cannot be focused only on the interests of the ruling class, which differentiates intellectual work from manual labor, according to social strata. Such separation between manual and intellectual, highlights the ruptures and difficulties of education for the dominated class. At the heart of this separation, in addition to alienation, is also the distinction between education and instruction.

According to bourgeois interests, it is up to the worker to be educated, which enables him for factory actions or simple duties. There is no need to scientifically and technologically instrumentalize this subject. This plea reiterates and confirms alienated labor and social exclusion. According to Marx (1996), the alienation that is the result of labor is not restricted only to the alienation of activity, but also of knowledge and science.

It is a product of the manufacturing division of labor to oppose the intellectual forces of the material process of production as alien property and power that dominates them. This process of dissociation begins in simple cooperation, in which the capitalist represents in the face of individual workers the unity and will of the social body of labor. The process develops in manufacturing, which mutilates the worker into partial. It is completed in the great industry, which separates science from work as an autonomous power of production and the power to serve capital (Marx 1996, 283-284).

Marx (2006) points out a critique of the state and bourgeois society, pointing out that the state is politically emancipated, but the subject is determined and its guarantees (freedom, equality and property) refer to individualism rather than emancipation.

We must overcome the condition of instruction for work, as this is not education. It is necessary to have educational actions for all subjects, so that one can have in fact an emancipatory education, which contributes to a project of human emancipation.

Final considerations

Knowing the genesis of social policy allows us to analyze the situation of poverty. For several centuries, the Poor Laws represented punitive actions for those who had physical working conditions but did not (for a variety of reasons).

Although there are social policies to combat poverty, there are many limitations, as the condition of poor, beggar, wanderer, indigent is socially accepted, especially by capitalist society, which blames the subject for his economic condition and disregards the need for public spending for poverty, assistance from these people.

The Laws of the Poor until the eighteenth century were far more punitive than actually welfare-oriented, but in considering current social policies, keeping the poor population alienated can be the same or more cruel punishment than those done to nonworkers.

A social policy for the population must seek proximity to the issues of social assistance, but also of law, health, food, housing, social security, in an intersectoral design that allows all rights to be respected and respected.

Social policies cannot be at the mercy of the ruling class. Its contours should not be of a policy that is placed vertically on the working class. Social policies are caught in controversy, revealing their theoretical and non-practical character, triggering their ineffectiveness. Compensatory policies, which only act in emergencies but do not aim to solve social problems, should also be avoided.

The ruling class does not need compensatory policies or the modern Poor Law. There is a need for respect for the rights already conquered and the development of the class and this presupposes the overcoming of alienation.

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11NOTE: The authors Paola Andressa Scortegagna and Rita de Cássia da Silva Oliveira were responsible for the conception, analysis and interpretation of the data; writing and critical revision of the manuscript content and approval of the final version to be published.

Received: October 27, 2017; Accepted: April 03, 2018

Paola Andressa Scortegagna: Assistant Teacher B of the Department of Pedagogy and Permanent Teacher of the Graduate Program - Master Education at UEPG. ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1243-1989 E-mail: paola_scortegagna@hotmail.com

Rita de Cássia da Silva Oliveira: Associate Teacher C of the Department of Education UEPG and Permanent Teacher of the Graduate Program - Master and Ph.D Education at UEPG. Coordinator of the Open University for Third Age UEPG. ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9382-7573 E-mail: soliveira13@uol.com.br

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