The Welfare Debate

by Shaw, Greg M.

• ISBN13: 9780313338922
• ISBN10: 0313338922
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-09-01
• Publisher: GREENWOOD PUBLISHING GROUP

Summary

"Welfare politics" have now been part of American life for four centuries. Beyond a persistent general idea that Americans have a collective obligation to provide for the poorest among us, there has been little common ground on which to forge political and philosophical consensus. Are poor people poor because of their own shortcomings and moral failings, or because of systemic societal and economic obstacles? That is, does poverty have individual or structural causes? This book demonstrates why neither of these two polemical stances has been able to prevail permanently over the other and explores the public policy--and real-life--consequences of the stalemate. Author Greg M. Shaw pays special attention to the outcome of the 1996 act that was heralded as having "ended welfare as we know it."

Table of Contents

Illustrations	p. xi
Preface	p. xiii
Introduction	p. xv
The Early American Roots of Welfare	p. 1
Controlling the Poor in Nineteenth-Century America	p. 19
From Mothers' Pensions to a Troubled Aid to Dependent Children Program	p. 41
The Rise and Fall of the War on Poverty	p. 63
The 1970s and 1980s-Backlash and an Emerging Neoconservative Consensus	p. 93
The End of Welfare Entitlement	p. 117
A New World of Welfare	p. 137
Conclusions	p. 155
Time Line of Significant Developments in American Social Welfare Provision	p. 167
Annotated List of Further Readings	p. 171
Bibliography	p. 175
Index	p. 187
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