Programs in Aid of the Poor

The revised and updated seventh edition of this standard work for students, scholars, and policymakers takes into account the broad changes in federal assistance programs since 1991. It reviews the steady erosion of entitlement programs to families with dependent children, single-parent households, youth, veterans, and the elderly. Most particularly, it looks at the impact of the 1996 welfare reform that dramatically reconfigured the aid landscape.

Following an examination of the characteristics of the American poor, the book analyzes four strategies of assistance programs: income maintenance programs directed mainly at the poor who are outside the work force; programs supplying goods and services; programs designed to prevent the spread of poverty to new generations; and programs to aid the working poor. The concluding chapter explores feasible approaches to the alleviation of poverty.

"A compact though detailed appraisal of U.S. government programs undertaken on behalf of the poor... a comfortable and fact-filled reference, generous in opinion and descriptive detail." -- American Political Science Review, reviewing a previous edition

Sar A. Levitan was research professor and director of the George Washington University Center for Social Policy Studies. Of his many books, sixteen have been published by Johns Hopkins including What's Happening to the American Family? (with Richard S. Belous and Frank Gallo); Working but Poor (with Isaac Shapiro); Productivity: Problems, Prospects, and Policies (with Diane Werneke); and Business Lobbies: The Public Good and the Bottom Line (with Martha C. Cooper). Garth L. Mangum is professor in the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City. Stephen L. Mangum is associate dean for academic programs in the Max M. Fisher College of Business at Ohio State University, Columbus.