Socail Policy Decisions

Social Policy Decisions

Kelli Allen

BSHS/355

July 4, 2016

Tobler

Social Policy Decisions

 “A policy, according to the Random House Dictionary (1978), is “a guiding principle or course of action adopted toward an objective or objectives.” The word social, according to the same dictionary, refers to “the life, welfare, and relations of human beings in a community.” Gil (1981) summed it up very well when he wrote that “social policies are a special type of policies, namely, policies which deliberately pertain to the quality of life and to the circumstances of living in society, and to intra-societal relationships among individuals, groups, and society as a whole” (Burger, 2011, p. 13). What is it then that makes a policy effective? Is there something that has to happen that is catastrophic that promotes change? Mothers Against Drunk Drivers is an organization that was born out of a social reform. How this program was born and the shape that it has taken in thirty years has shown the world what a social policy, in all of its glory, looks like. Here is a look at the beginning and a walk through history to see how a social policy was born and the changes that have taken place because of a harmful act and woman making a difference for all of the victim’s - then and now.

The Beginning

Cari Lightner, a little girl, walking alone to a church carnival, on a quiet road. Out of nowhere a car swerves out of control, driven by a repeat drunk driver striking and killing her. It is out of this tragedy, Candy Lightner, Cari’s mother, is compelled to champion her daughter and MADD is born. This organization would grow into one of the biggest non-profits in history and for thirty years will be the leader in changing laws and establishing social reform in all fifty states. What happened to the driver?

“When police arrested Clarence Busch, the driver who hit Cari, they found that he had a record of arrests for intoxication, and had in fact been arrested on another hit-and-run drunk-driving charge less than a week earlier. A policeman told Ms. Lightner that drunk driving cases are rarely prosecuted and that the man who killed her daughter would not spend a significant amount of time behind bars. “Furious, Lightner decided to take action against what she later called “the only socially accepted form of homicide.” MADD was the result. (Charged with vehicular homicide, Busch did eventually serve 21 months in jail.)” (History.com, n.d.).

The Focus is Change

According to History.com, (n.d.), “The year 1980 saw 27,000 alcohol related traffic fatalities – 2,500 occurred in the states of California alone. After founding MADD, Lightner began lobbying California’s governor, Jerry Brown, to set up a state task force to investigate drunk driving. Brown eventually agreed, making her the task force’s first member. In 1981, California passed a law imposing minimum fines of $375 for drunk drivers and mandatory imprisonment of up to four years for repeat offenders. President Ronald Reagan soon asked Lightner to serve on the National Commission on Drunk Driving, which recommended raising the minimum drinking age to 21 and revoking the licenses of those arrested for drunk driving. In July 1984, she stood next to Reagan as he signed a law reducing federal highway grants to any state that failed to raise its drinking age to 21, by the following year, all 50 states had tightened their drunk-driving laws.”