What is Social Policy?

by Beland, Daniel

• ISBN13: 9780745645841
• ISBN10: 0745645844
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-09-14
• Publisher: Polity

Summary

From housing, pensions and family benefits, to health care, unemployment insurance and social assistance, the welfare state is a key aspect of our lives. But social programs are contested political realities that we can't hope to understand without locating them within the "big picture."This book provides a concise political and sociological introduction to social policy, helping readers to grasp the nature of social programs and the political struggles surrounding them. It takes a broad comparative and historical viewpoint on the United States, using an international perspective to contextualize American social policy within the developed world. Provocative and engaging, it offers insight into a wide range of social policy issues such as: welfare regimes, welfare state development, the politics of retrenchment and restructuring; ethnic, racial, and gender inequalities; changing family and economic relations; the role of private social benefits; the potential impact of globalization; and debates about the future of the welfare state.What is Social Policy? will be stimulating reading for upper-level students of sociology, political science, public policy, and social work.

Author Biography

Daniel Bland is Canada Research Chair in Public policy at the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy (University of Saskatchewan campus)

Table of Contents

List of Tables	p. vi
Preface & Acknowledgements	p. vii
Introduction	p. 1
Social Policy and the Welfare State	p. 9
The United States in International Context	p. 44
Welfare State Development	p. 66
Retrenchment and Restructuring	p. 93
Looming Challenges	p. 120
Conclusion	p. 151
Notes	p. 157
References	p. 161
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