Social Policy Commons^™

Early Social Security Retirement For Minorities Demographic And Philosophical Fallacies, Nathan Zirl, John Hedderson

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This article examines some of the problems and proposed solutions associated with the retirement of minority members, particularly early retirement within the Social Security System. We also discuss the failure of the Reagan administration's 1981 attempts to change social security benefits.

Services Aren't Goods: Post-Industrial Principles For Policy Design, Howell S. Baum

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

As the United States moves from an industrial society to a post-industrial society, fewer people are engaged in the production of goods, and a majority now produce services. The processes of designing and producing goods and services are radically different. This differences calls for innovation in both the structure of the work setting and the policies which govern work in the society as a whole. The article examines differences between goods and services and proposes a new model for designing and producing services, as well as new principles for social policy for service production. The model and principles are illustrated …

The Reagan Election And Mandate: Their Fiscal Policy Implications For The Welfare State, James Fendrich, Douglas St. Angelo

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper has three main thrusts. The first searches the Reagan campaign, the 1980 Republican Platform, the election and survey results to determine whether or not Reagan can creditably lay claim to a mandate for his social policies. The second thrust investigates the 1982 Reagan spending and taxing programs. Our purpose here is to ascertain if those policies denote major new directions in U.S. social policy. Our third purpose involves an assessment of the Reagan fiscal policies upon the U.S. economy.

This study concludes: (1) Reagan can claim a mandate for much of his social policies, (2) the Reagan fiscal …

The Influence Of Bureaucratic Factors On Welfare Policy Implementation, Gerard S. Gryski, Charles L. Usher

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The authors argue that previous welfare policy research has suffered from its neglect of bureaucratic factors, as well as a tendency to exclude policy-making arenas above and below the state level. Using several measures of organizational structure, administrative professionalism, and within-state need, they attempt to relate these variables to within-state variations in welfare policy implementation. While certain socio-economic conditions were found to be significant determinants of this variation, of greater importance are characteristics of state welfare bureaucracies such as the degree of administrative centralization and the level of professionalism of administrative staff. Their research suggests the need for further refinement …

The Impact Of Consumerism On Health Care Change: Alternatives For The Future?, Allen W. Imershein, Eugenia T. Miller

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The quest for consumer participation in the management of health care delivery may have experienced its first signs of success, but the implications of that success are as yet unclear. The establishment of consumer majorities on the newly developed health systems agency (HSA) boards was seen as an important milestone in the development of the consumer movement in America over the last ten years. The initial wave of optimism over the Great Society programs that in part gave birth to the consumer movement has long since vanished, but some of the organizational results of those attempts at innovation have become …

Leadership In Environmental Quality Organizations, Stephen A. Cannell

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Day Care: A Spectrum Of Issues And Policy Options, William Roth

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Currently, debates about the merits of one form or another of day care frequently miss some significant issues and hence some of the important policy options may be ruled out or in for the wrong reasons. Here, child day care is layed on a spectrum one end of which offers maximum market freedom in the form of income redistribution, a negative income tax, children's allowance, or other transfer assistance, to be spent on the market if so desired for day care services, and on the other end of the spectrum a system of comprehensive child day care centers. In between …

Toward The Democratization Of The Social Policy Process, L. K. Northwood

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the nature of social policies and the public policymaking process. It is demonstrated that public social policies tend to accrue an aura or ideology of benevolence that is only partially warranted, and that may be quite misleading to policy analysts and citizenry. The major thrust of the paper is to consider the social policy process as a strategy for public decision-making. As such, properly organized, it can provide an alternative and complementary strategy to electoral politics and protest movements. To be effective as a strategy, three major barriers must be overcome: …

The Soco-Legal History Of Child Abuse And Neglect: An Analysis Of The Policy Of Children's Rights, Diana M. Richett, James R. Hudson

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The focus of this paper is on the two major axes that have influenced the course of child welfare policy. One upholds corporal punishment as the predominant method of child rearing, that is, "Spare the rod, spoil the child." The other defines the status of the child as property of "loving" parents. Because of these two conceptions, the authors maintain that reliance on parental benevolence or the "benevolent intrusion" of the state will not suffice to protect the child's best interests. On the contrary, the examination of the socio-legal history of child abuse and neglect highlights the authors' warning that …

Social Services In The Iron Cage, James Latimore

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Interview and documentary data from a study of a voluntary job placement agency revealed that counselors were effectively weeding out the hard-to-place clients. These clients were the target population of the agency and its funded programs. The clients who were weeded out tended to be younger, with less education and less work experience. Weeding out was accomplished by discouraging unrealistic clients, and by not retrieving clients who were insufficiently motivated to keep in touch with the counselor. This marked a change in the counselors' practice compared with an earlier period, and appeared to be in conflict with the agency's mission, …

Planning For A National Social Policy For The Family, John T. Pardeck

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The American family performs two important functions for family members - providing physical care and socialization, and meeting psychological needs. Current family trends suggest that the American family may be having difficulty in carrying out these basic functions. Since the United States lacks a comprehensive family policy, it is argued that a national social policy should be created to better support the American family. A social policy is presented which would assist the American family in performing its basic functions. A suggested strategy for implementation of this family social policy has also been developed.

Social Choice And Policy Formulation: Problems And Considerations In The Construction Of The Public Interest, Irv Berkowitz

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The need for and adoption of certain social policies for the nation are frequently rationalized by their advocates as being in the public interest. Often, though, the interest of the many merely disguises the special interests and wants of the few. It is obvious that the social choices made in the policy process only rarely benefit the interests of all without being adversely consequential to some. This paper argues that the problem of social choice in the conflictual process of policy making is as much a conceptual dilemma as a practical political or economic one. A major source of this …

The Social Policy Of Denial: Unemployment In Israel, Harris Chaiklin

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

When reality does not match the dream nations tend to suffer. In Israel unemployment compromises social democratic ideals. The country oscillates between bombast and despair. Official data is not trusted. Those who leave Russia on Israeli visas and do not come are "dropouts." Those who leave Israel for other countries are "yordim." Those who go to work every day when there is nothing to do are draining the nation with "hidden unemployment." These are terms of derision. Some of the difficulty with unemployment data and understanding Israeli response to the problem may be for security reasons. Israelis have lived in …

Policy Analysis And Older People: A Conceptual Framework, John E. Tropman, Jane Mcclure

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The policy sciences, says Harold Lasswell, require "clarification of goals, analysis of conditions, project of future developments, and invention, evaluation, and selection of alternatives."1 This rocess is imbued with values and often these values lie unrecognized.3 Both personal values of the individual analyst and social values of the Society can be and often are involved. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate four policy problems involved in analyses concerning the elderly, and to suggest some additional considerations which would bring these problems into the open and aid in specification and focusing of policy research in this area. While only …

Discourse Management: Key To Policy Development, Joseph R. Steiner

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Skills in discourse management are necessary in order for democratic policy development groups to be productive. These skills, like other skills, are developed by practicing their utilization. A general cognitive framework, however, can assist one in this development. This paper develops and then describes the use of such a general framework.

The Individual And The Society: A Needed Reexamination Of Social Legislation And Policy, Ralph Segalman

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The pervasive and often destructive effect of Ill-planned social policy (or the lack of effective social policy) is evident In terms of Increasing societal dysfunctionality and lowered quality of life for most people. Almost all social Interventions involve a variety of rights In conflict. Actions by the government to support or protect any one group must necessarily be at the expense of others. In the defense of the rights of individuals and groups the social objectives and social effects of such interventions have been generally Ignored. The problems of design of social policy derive from one-sided or parochial views of …

Government Spending And Welfare Employment, Martin D. Lowenthal

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

One of the persistent issues which welfare policy makers and analysts confront in western industrial nations, particularly in the United States, is the appropriate relationship between public assistance payments and employment. There is a great deal of debate over whether welfare recipients should work or be required to take jobs and whether the government should emphasize training or placement services or create jobs directly. Relatively little concern and attention have been given to the 'roblem of the number of jobs that are actually available in the private sector for recipients who want to work. Although the federal government will plan …

Social Policy And War, Paul Adams

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

In view of the considerable disparity in the effect of World War II on national social policy, it is not surprising that British and American writers have viewed the relationship of war and social policy so differently. While these differences in part reflect the serious neglect of the importance of World War II for American social policy developments, they also reflect real variations of historical experience. I have attempted to develop a framework within which both national experiences can be understood. The framework takes account both of the nature of the war and the demands it makes upon the state …

Phenomenological Social Science And Holistic Social Policy, Thomas D. Watts

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The reliability of positivistic social science knowledge poses seminal problems for social policy. Needed is more sound phenomenological and qualitative research within the conspectus of the twin theoretical movements of ethnomethodology and the Frankfurt School, towards the goal of a more holistic social science knowledge base as well as a more holistic social policy.

Discourse Management: Key To Policy Development, Joseph R. Steiner

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Skills in discourse management are necessary in order for democratic policy development groups to be productive. These skills, like other skills, are developed by practicing their utilization. A general cognitive frnework, however, can assist one in this development. This paper develops and then describes the use of such a general framework.

Crime Victims And Public Social Policy, Joe Hudson, Burt Galaway

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The administration of criminal law has traditionally Ignored the role of the victim and focused on the criminal offender. Increasingly, however, social policy and programs are beginning to take Into consideration the situation of the crime victim. Programs designed to focus on offender restitution to crime victims are being developed and Implemented at various stages of the criminal Justice system. At the same time, programs of state compensation to crime victims are being Implemented in an Increasing number of jurisdictions.

Social Policies And Social Development - A Humanistic-Egalitarian Perspective, David G. Gil

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This essay explores the relationship of social policies and of policy-relevant societal values to social development. Its thesis is that the scope, direction, and quality of the social development process are largely shaped by the social policies and the dominant value positions of societies.

Alternative Methods Of Providing Services For The Elderly In Independent And Semi-Independent Living Arrangements, Elizabeth Huttman

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The purpose of this report is to relate some advantages and disadvantages of using the community based services versus the development based services; a number of examples from our case studies will be given and data from our surveys of the elderly residents and of managers will be examined.

Residential Alienation, Home Ownership And The Limits Of Shelter Policy, Peter Marcuse

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

There is greater public confusion over housing policy today than there has been in any comparable period in the last thirty years. The Nixon-Ford administration's wholesale program terminations and budget slashes only cloak the problem temporarily. Everyone agrees that the ostrich ought to get his head out of the sand, but few agree where he should go once he doel so. Housing allowances, at this point, seem to many the best answei; at least they haven't been proven wanting yet. But others disagree, and certainly there is reason to be wary.

Anti-Poverty Policies And Evaluation: A Critique Of The Pluralist Conception Of Politics And Evaluation, Robert D. Herman

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Excerpt from the full-text article:

The beginnings of U.S. federal evaluation research can, in descriptive historical terms, be located in McNamara's Department of Defense and the later requirement that all federal government agencies adopt a Planning, Programming, Budgeting System. While the formal PPB system was discontinued in 1971, the analytical or policy evaluation activities it required, still live on, especially in agencies dealing with human resource development and/or social welfare programs (Schick, 1973, Wholey, et al, 1970). Given the recent advocacy of increasing and improving federal evaluation efforts, I think it important to examine some of the assumptions and consequences …

Relief Vs. Rehabilitation: Conflicting Goals Within The American Social Welfare System, Matthew Silberman

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

There are two distinct orientations within the American social welfare system. The first orientation is a bureaucratic one in which heteronomous agencies are committed to a set of externally imposed regulations designed to provide relief to individuals who require some form of assistance in order to survive (Blau, 1965; Friedlander, 1968: 258-284; Wilensky and Lebeaux, 1965:233-282). Assistance usually takes the form of monetary grants. The second orientation is professional in character (Meyer, 1959). In many agencies, priority is given to the provision of the rehabilitative services to which professionally trained social workers are committed in principle and to which nonprofessionals, …

Representatives In Government - A Role For Social Planning Councils , Alan Cohen

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Excerpt from the full-text article:

I have referred to a key problem of how to make individual and group concerns known to the decision makers without ignoring the weakly organized and unorganized-and without putting both the legislators and administrators in the position of merely ratifying bargaining negotiated between these interest groups. I have suggested non-governmental Social Planning Councils have a potentially significant role to play in the changing need for representativeness for the myriad of strong, weak and unorganized groups and individuals.

This role recognizes the feedback benefits resulting from the proposition that people learn to participate by participating, and …

Factors Leading To Client Degradation In Welfare And Public Housing, Elizabeth D. Huttman

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Excerpt from the full-text article:

Degradation and humiliation are the consequences of using many social services In our society. Added to this is classification as a non-normal or a failure because one turns to a government source for help. The person is stigmatized for use and the agency is negatively labeled by both non-users and users.

While these public opinions stem partly from a long-held philosophy regarding the role of social services and the nature of the poor, these attitudes are reinforced and strengthened by specific policies and practices in the administration and structuring of the programs. Comparisons between services …

Adolescent Pregnancy And Poverty: Implications For Social Policy, Clara L. Johnson

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Excerpt from the full-text document:

Adolescent pregnancy, per se, has been devoted little consideration by clinical observers and empirical researchers. For the most part, such pregnancies have received attention only insofar as they have occurred without the moral and legal sanctions of matrimony. This concern with illegitimacy has had the effect of blinding theorists and researchers to a whole segment of the adolescent pregnant population--the married teenager. Further, the adverse effects of adolescent pregnancy have been shrouded by moral precepts.

From existing evidence there appears to be no doubt that the married teenage girl is an integral part of the …