'Evaluate the significance of ideology in the Human Services.'
             Although it may be tempting to lay the foundation of the human services with the publication of the Beveridge Report in 1942, many of the ideologies embodied within these services have their roots in the work of social reformers in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. I will identify significant historical developments during these periods and approach the above statement by illustrating how different ideologies influence change within the human services. Such ideologies include those of the left and right wing politicians, liberal theorists and Fabian academics. Also, those of special interest groups such as Feminists, Anti-Racists, Gay and Lesbian activists and Environmentalists. I will evaluate the significance of ideology, and show how as a coherent set of ideas, together with the impact of war combined to lend legitimacy to the idea of widespread and formalised state action across a wide range of social and economic activities. Such was the affect of this new state activity that the notion of a welfare consensus, a broad acceptance of the role of the state in many areas of public and private life, developed in the post-war decades. I will conclude with a critical perspective of these ideologies, revisiting the historical developments and how they still influence today's human services.
             According to Johnson, P. (2000) ideology can be defined as "a comprehensive and coherent set of basic beliefs about political, economic, social and cultural affairs that is held in common by a sizable group of people within a society." A similar definition is offered by Giddens, A. (1997) who defines ideology as "a system of shared ideas serving to justify the interest of dominant groups in society." Such interrelated ideas and teachings purport both to explain how political, economic, social and cultural institutions really do work and also to ...