The Welfare Debate (Historical Guides to Controversial Issues in America)

Shaw, Greg M.

ISBN 10: 0313338922 / ISBN 13: 9780313338922

Published by Greenwood, 2007

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Welfare Debate (Historical Guides to Controversial Issues in America)
• Publisher: Greenwood
• Publication Date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0313338922
• ISBN 13: 9780313338922
• Binding: hardcover
• Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

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 ending welfare as we know it.

Historically, people on all sides of the welfare issue have hated welfare―but for different reasons. Like our forebears, we have constantly disagreed about where to strike the balance between meeting the basic needs of the very poor and creating dependency, or undermining individual initiative. The shift in 1996 from New Deal welfare entitlement to workfare mirrored the national mood and ascendant political ideology, as had welfare policy throughout American history. The special contribution of this book is to show how evolving understandings of four key issues―markets, motherhood, race, and federalism―have shaped public perceptions in this contentious debate. A rich historical narrative is here complemented by a sophisticated analytical understanding of the forces at work behind attempts to solve the welfare dilemma.

How should we evaluate the current welfare-to-work model? Is a precipitous decline in state welfare caseloads sufficient evidence of success? Success, this book finds, has many measures, and ending welfare as an entitlement program has not ended arguments about how best to protect children from the ravages of poverty or how to address the plight of the most vulnerable among us.

About the Author

Greg M. Shaw is professor of political science at Illinois Wesleyan University. He also supports the university's public health program. Since completing a PhD at Columbia University he has written and taught mainly in areas related to American social policy, with a particular focus on health care policy. He also holds a master's degree in public health from Boston University. His published work has appeared in various journals, including Political Research Quarterly, Public Opinion Quarterly, and Political Science Quarterly, among others. He has served as a section editor at Public Opinion Quarterly. He has authored four books, including The Dysfunctional Politics of the Affordable Care Act in 2017 and Medicare and Medicaid: A Reference Handbook in 2021. He has twice been selected by students at Illinois Wesleyan as professor of the year.