Tethered Citizens
Tethered Citizens

Author: Sheldon Richman

Publisher: The Future of Freedom Foundation

Published: 2001-01-01

Total Pages: 171

ISBN-13: 1890687081

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“How tethered are you?” That’s what Sheldon Richman starts out asking in this indispensable book laying bare “the theory and practice of the welfare state.” Chances are Richman’s answer will widen the eyes even of those who think they’re familiar with the welfare state’s milestones, such as the New Deal. The author digs deeper, unearthing not just milestones but also the very foundation stones of the welfare state. And he shows how deeply welfare-state thinking has penetrated American society. This book exposes the dangers that Americans face with the prospect of socialized medicine. Bringing together the thoughts of twelve eminent advocates of the free-market philosophy, The Dangers of Socialized Medicine explains in an easily readable, well-reasoned way how government policies have caused America’s health-care crisis and why a complete separation of health care and the state is the only real, long-term solution. This book prescribes the tough medicine that Americans need to take to achieve a healthy, prosperous, and free society. What distinguishes Richman’s account of the welfare state is his own consistent adherence to a philosophy of reason and individual rights. He doesn’t compromise — and he sees clearly how others who would defend freedom have compromised, and fatally. The author doesn’t confine himself to attacking welfarism; he also demonstrates the virtue and power of individualism, property, and competition. Richman shows that economic competition is nothing more or less than peaceful cooperation in a climate of freedom.

Power and Welfare
Power and Welfare

Author: Nanna Mik-Meyer

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 178

ISBN-13: 0415534429

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When the state punishes criminals or removes children at risk, its power is immediately apparent. However, power is also at stake when the state seeks to educate, advise, or empower citizens, and this book encourages reflection on the exercise of professional power in these less coercive encounters.

The People’s Welfare
The People’s Welfare

Author: William J. Novak

Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press

Published: 2000-11-09

Total Pages: 409

ISBN-13: 0807863653

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Much of today's political rhetoric decries the welfare state and our maze of government regulations. Critics hark back to a time before the state intervened so directly in citizens' lives. In The People's Welfare, William Novak refutes this vision of a stateless past by documenting America's long history of government regulation in the areas of public safety, political economy, public property, morality, and public health. Challenging the myth of American individualism, Novak recovers a distinctive nineteenth-century commitment to shared obligations and public duties in a well-regulated society. Novak explores the by-laws, ordinances, statutes, and common law restrictions that regulated almost every aspect of America's society and economy, including fire regulations, inspection and licensing rules, fair marketplace laws, the moral policing of prostitution and drunkenness, and health and sanitary codes. Based on a reading of more than one thousand court cases in addition to the leading legal and political texts of the nineteenth century, The People's Welfare demonstrates the deep roots of regulation in America and offers a startling reinterpretation of the history of American governance.

Welfare, Inequality and Social Citizenship
Welfare, Inequality and Social Citizenship

Author: Daniel Edmiston

Publisher: Policy Press

Published: 2020-02-12

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 144735558X

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Exploring the lived realities of both poverty and prosperity in the UK, this book examines the material and symbolic significance of welfare austerity and its implications for social citizenship and inequality. The book offers a rare and vivid insight into the everyday lives, attitudes and behaviours of the rich as well as the poor, demonstrating how those marginalised and validated by the existing welfare system make sense of the prevailing socio-political settlement and their own position within it. Through the testimonies of both affluent and deprived citizens, the book problematises dominant policy thinking surrounding the functions and limits of welfare, examining the civic attitudes and engagements of the rich and the poor, to demonstrate how welfare austerity and rising structural inequalities secure and maintain institutional legitimacy. The book offers a timely contribution to academic and policy debates pertaining to citizenship, welfare reform and inequality.

Democracy and the Welfare State
Democracy and the Welfare State

Author: Amy Gutmann

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2020-09-01

Total Pages: 302

ISBN-13: 0691217955

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The essays in this volume explore the moral foundations and the political prospects of the welfare state in the United States. Among the questions addressed are the following: Has public support for the welfare state faded? Can a democratic state provide welfare without producing dependency on welfare? Is a capitalist (or socialist) economy consistent with the preservation of equal liberty and equal opportunity for all citizens? Why and in what ways does the welfare state discriminate against women? Can we justify limiting immigration for the sake of safeguarding the welfare of Americans? How can elementary and secondary education be distributed consistently with democratic values? The volume confronts powerful criticisms that have been leveled against the welfare state by conservatives, liberals, and radicals and suggests reforms in welfare state programs that might meet these criticisms. The contributors are Joseph H. Carens, Jon Elster, Robert K. Fullinwider, Amy Gutmann, Jennifer L. Hochschild, Stanley Kelley, Jr., Richard Krouse, Michael McPherson, J. Donald Moon, Carole Pateman, Dennis Thompson, and Michael Walzer.

Author:

Publisher:

Published:

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 087154668X

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How Policies Make Citizens
How Policies Make Citizens

Author: Andrea Louise Campbell

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2005-02-13

Total Pages: 250

ISBN-13: 0691122504

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Some groups participate in politics more than others. Why? And does it matter for policy outcomes? In this richly detailed and fluidly written book, Andrea Campbell argues that democratic participation and public policy powerfully reinforce each other. Through a case study of senior citizens in the United States and their political activity around Social Security, she shows how highly participatory groups get their policy preferences fulfilled, and how public policy itself helps create political inequality. Using a wealth of unique survey and historical data, Campbell shows how the development of Social Security helped transform seniors from the most beleaguered to the most politically active age group. Thus empowered, seniors actively defend their programs from proposed threats, shaping policy outcomes. The participatory effects are strongest for low-income seniors, who are most dependent on Social Security. The program thus reduces political inequality within the senior population--a laudable effect--while increasing inequality between seniors and younger citizens. A brief look across policies shows that program effects are not always positive. Welfare recipients are even less participatory than their modest socioeconomic backgrounds would imply, because of the demeaning and disenfranchising process of proving eligibility. Campbell concludes that program design profoundly shapes the nature of democratic citizenship. And proposed policies--such as Social Security privatization--must be evaluated for both their economic and political effects, because the very quality of democratic government is influenced by the kinds of policies it chooses.

Race, Money, and the American Welfare State
Race, Money, and the American Welfare State

Author: Michael E. Brown

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2018-10-18

Total Pages: 406

ISBN-13: 1501722352

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The American welfare state is often blamed for exacerbating social problems confronting African Americans while failing to improve their economic lot. Michael K. Brown contends that our welfare system has in fact denied them the social provision it gives white citizens while stigmatizing them as recipients of government benefits for low income citizens. In his provocative history of America's "safety net" from its origins in the New Deal through much of its dismantling in the 1990s, Brown explains how the forces of fiscal conservatism and racism combined to shape a welfare state in which blacks are disproportionately excluded from mainstream programs.Brown describes how business and middle class opposition to taxes and spending limited the scope of the Social Security Act and work relief programs of the 1930s and the Great Society in the 1960s. These decisions produced a welfare state that relies heavily on privately provided health and pension programs and cash benefits for the poor. In a society characterized by pervasive racial discrimination, this outcome, Michael Brown makes clear, has led to a racially stratified welfare system: by denying African Americans work, whites limited their access to private benefits as well as to social security and other forms of social insurance, making welfare their "main occupation." In his conclusion, Brown addresses the implications of his argument for both conservative and liberal critiques of the Great Society and for policies designed to remedy inner-city poverty.

The Politics of Non-state Social Welfare
The Politics of Non-state Social Welfare

Author: Melani Cammett

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2014-06-25

Total Pages: 319

ISBN-13: 0801470323

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Across the world, welfare states are under challenge—or were never developed extensively in the first place—while non-state actors increasingly provide public goods and basic welfare. In many parts of the Middle East and South Asia, sectarian organizations and political parties supply basic services to ordinary people more extensively and effectively than governments. In sub-Saharan Africa, families struggle to pay hospital fees, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) launch welfare programs as states cut subsidies and social programs. Likewise, in parts of Latin America, international and domestic NGOs and, increasingly, private firms are key suppliers of social welfare in both urban and rural communities. Even in the United States, where the welfare state is far more developed, secular NGOs and faith-based organizations are critical components of social safety nets. Despite official entitlements to public welfare, citizens in Russia face increasing out-of-pocket expenses as they are effectively compelled to seek social services through the private market In The Politics of Non-State Social Welfare, a multidisciplinary group of contributors use survey data analysis, spatial analysis, in-depth interviews, and ethnographic and archival research to explore the fundamental transformation of the relationship between states and citizens. The book highlights the political consequences of the non-state provision of social welfare, including the ramifications for equitable and sustainable access to social services, accountability for citizens, and state capacity. The authors do not assume that non-state providers will surpass the performance of weak, inefficient, or sometimes corrupt states but instead offer a systematic analysis of a wide spectrum of non-state actors in a variety of contexts around the world, including sectarian political parties, faith-based organizations, community-based organizations, family networks, informal brokers, and private firms.