Social indicators for social planning: The case of Israel

Social planning (SP) is viewed as an organizing framework for guiding government intervention in social life. Social indicators (SI) can provide the informational basis for formulating policies, preparing social plans and evaluating the impact of government activities. Both SP and SI are only two links in a desired sequence of organized social action. But given the present state of the art, the urgency of social problems and the opportunity cost of waiting for further theoretical development-initial efforts should be directed at developing SI for SP. Israel's experience is presented as an example of: (1) The ideological and operational background to specific types of intervention of the state. Within this framework the question arises whether vagueness on the subject of SP can be regarded as the cause of casual and negligent treatment of social problems by government. (2) Specific areas that have been neglected, or that have not been given adequate attention, because of the lack of SI to assist in acquiring an overall understanding of societal changes. These examples are used as a basis for suggesting some practical possibilities of developing SI and SP in Israel and elsewhere.