The Welfare State Nobody Knows Debunking Myths about U.S. Social Policy

The Welfare State Nobody Knows challenges a number of myths and half-truths about U.S. social policy. The American welfare state is supposed to be a pale imitation of "true" welfare states in Europe and Canada. Christopher Howard argues that the American welfare state is in fact larger, mo...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Howard, Christopher
Format: eBook
Language:English
Published: Princeton, New Jersey ; Oxford Princeton University Press 2021, ©2007
Subjects:
Online Access:
Collection: DeGruyter MPG Collection - Collection details see MPG.ReNa
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505 0 |a I: Basic tour -- She's so unusual -- Tracks of my tiers -- Twice in a lifetime -- II: New horizons -- Ogres, onions, and layers (or, how Republicans built the American welfare state) -- Programs for the poor are not always poor programs -- Shaq is still pretty tall: public support for the American welfare state -- The world according to AARP -- III: Checkpoints and roadblocks -- The American states: laboratories of Democracy or cryogenic chambers? -- Race still matters -- Change versus progress 
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520 3 |a The Welfare State Nobody Knows challenges a number of myths and half-truths about U.S. social policy. The American welfare state is supposed to be a pale imitation of "true" welfare states in Europe and Canada. Christopher Howard argues that the American welfare state is in fact larger, more popular, and more dynamic than commonly believed. Nevertheless, poverty and inequality remain high, and this book helps explain why so much effort accomplishes so little. One important reason is that the United States is adept at creating social programs that benefit the middle and upper-middle classes, but less successful in creating programs for those who need the most help. This book is unusually broad in scope, analyzing the politics of social programs that are well known (such as Social Security and welfare) and less well known but still important (such as workers' compensation, home mortgage interest deduction, and the Americans with Disabilities Act). Although it emphasizes developments in recent decades, the book ranges across the entire twentieth century to identify patterns of policymaking. Methodologically, it weaves together quantitative and qualitative approaches in order to answer fundamental questions about the politics of U.S. social policy. Ambitious and timely, The Welfare State Nobody Knows asks us to rethink the influence of political parties, interest groups, public opinion, federalism, policy design, and race on the American welfare state.