Welfare in America: How Social Science Fails the Poor
- ISBN-10
- 0299155935
- ISBN-13
- 9780299155933
- Category
- Political Science
- Pages
- 256
- Language
- English
- Published
- 1997-12-01
- Publisher
- Univ of Wisconsin Press
- Author
- William M. Epstein
Description
William M. Epstein charges that most current social welfare programs are not held to credible standards in their design or their results. Rather than spending less on such research and programs, however, Epstein suggests we should spend much more, and do the job right. The American public and policymakers need to rely on social science research for objective, credible information when trying to solve problems of employment, affordable housing, effective health care, and family integrity. But, Epstein contends, politicians treat welfare issues as ideological battlegrounds; they demand immediate results from questionable data and implement policies long before social researchers can complete their analyses. Social scientists often play into the political agenda, supporting poorly conceived programs and doing little to test and revise them. Analyzing Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) and the recent welfare reform act, Food Stamps, Medicaid, job training, social services, and other programs, Epstein systematically challenges the conservative’s vain hope that neglect is therapeutic for the poor, as well as the liberal’s conceit that a little bit of assistance is sufficient.
Get the book
Other editions
-
- 1996
- 582 pages
- Paperback
- Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Similar books
-
Moral Authority, Ideology, And The Future Of American Social Welfare
By Andrew W. DobelsteinJames Tully, A Discourse on Property: John Locke and His Adversaries (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982), p. 61. 27. Thomas Cook, Two Treatises on Government (New York: Hafner Publications, 1947), p. xxxix. 28.
-
Living on the Edge: The Realities of Welfare in America
By Mark R. RankBased on ten years of research, the book follows individuals and families as they apply for and live on public aid and eventually leave the system.
-
Poverty and Welfare in America: Examining the Facts
By David WagnerThis book closely examines controversial claims and beliefs surrounding poverty and anti-poverty programs in the United States.
-
Making Social Welfare Policy in America: Three Case Studies since 1950
By Edward D. BerkowitzWritten in an accessible style and using a minimum of academic jargon, this book illuminates how three of our most important social welfare programs have come into existence and how they have fared over time.
-
Support for the American Welfare State: The Views of Congress and the Public
By Fay Lomax Cook, Edith J. BarrettIn Surveying Subjective Phenomena, edited by Charles F. Turner and Elizabeth Martin, vol. 2, pp. 215-255. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. Social Security Bulletin. 1987a. Annual Statistical Supplement.
-
Wealth and Welfare States: Is America a Laggard or Leader?
By Lee Rainwater, Irwin Garfinkel, Timothy SmeedingThis book explores the role of the welfare state in the overall wealth and wellbeing of nations and in particular looks at the American welfare state in comparison with other developed nations in Europe and elsewhere.
-
The War on Welfare: Family, Poverty, and Politics in Modern America
By Marisa ChappellThe War on Welfare: Family, Poverty, and Politics in Modern America traces what Bill Clinton famously called "the end of welfare as we know it" to the grassroots of the War on Poverty thirty years earlier.
-
The Healing of America: Welfare Reform in the Cyber Economy
By James L. MorrisonThis book describes a welfare model that is quite innovative, imaginative, but also practical. It can be readily implemented in any country in the world, although the example used in this book is that of one country.
-
Welfare in the United States: A History with Documents, 1935–1996
By Jennifer Mittelstadt, Premilla Nadasen, Marisa ChappellRelated titles from Routledge Welfare Warriors The Welfare Rights Movement in the United States By Premilla Nadasen "Nadasen has written the definitive history of the welfare rights movement that, for a brief moment, turned welfare into ...
-
America's Misunderstood Welfare State: Persistent Myths, Enduring Realities
By Jerry L. Mashaw, Theodore R. Marmor, Philip HarveyThe authors convincingly rebuff the 20-year assault on the United States welfare state, launched by the left and the right.