This article takes as its starting point a classification designed by another author, of the principal tendencies present in the international literature that discusses "social policy". When one studies this classification, it is possible to analyse some of its elements, sharpen the meaning of others and even add tendencies that seem to have been desconsidered in the original text. Finally, it is possible to distinguish between of thought that tend to be more normative and/ or descriptive, and others characterized by more analytical or interpretative preoccupations. In the next moment an effort is made to study in a more detailed form the following theoretical approaches to the theme in question: the structuralist approach to marxism, elitism, pluralism and the contemporary non-structuralist marxist approaches. The article ends with indications of how to develop the discussion presented.