What is 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; government sponsorship of Birth Control and abortion such as the People's Republic of China's One child policy or bans on abortion and birth control; bans on associations and organizations; forced sterilizationprograms; 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/or sexual orientation. This criticism also arises from the use of social interventionism by authoritarian or totalitariangovernments such as in the Soviet Union, Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany.