The paper responds to current socio-economic development and the situation in public finances. It aims to explain why it is worthwhile to study social policy based on expert knowledge about social systems and to compare different approaches. From this, it then derives the possibilities of a rational social policy design for a particular country and time. Methodologically, the paper is based on defining the relationship of social policy to related disciplines, reflecting on contemporary problems in terms of theoretical principles of social policy, evaluating the role of the state in social policy and exploring the logic of individual social policy measures. The results include an assessment of the importance of social policy and directions for its future application in a wider range of social policy subjects.