Social Policy Commons^™

Review Of Modern Housing For America: Policy Struggles In The New Deal Era. Gail Radford. Reviewed By Robert Leighninger, Louisiana State University., Robert Leighninger

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Gail Radford, Modern Housing for America: Policy Struggles in the New Deal Era. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996. $ 45.00 hardcover, $ 17.95 papercover

New Communitarian Thought And The Future Of Social Policy, John Mcnutt

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Communitarian thought is an emerging force in American social policy in the 1990s. Communitarians see the breakdown of community and morality as the major problem of our society. They conclude that rampant individualism is the cause of this breakdown. Communitarians propose reforms that will limit rampant individualism and restore our communities and institutions. In these proposals are threats to social justice, as well as positive elements that social workers can endorse. This paper reviews and critiques the communitarian position and suggests ways that social workers can use this new force to advance the cause of social justice.

Time Series Analysis Of The Implementation Of Child Support Enforcement Policies In Federal Region V States, Susan Gaffney, Sumati Dubey

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This study examines the impact legislation, such as the Family Support Act of 1988, Child Support Recovery Act of 1992 and Ted Weiss Child Support Enforcement Act of 1992 had on child support enforcement in Federal Region V states (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin). These pieces of legislation authorize coercive means to force noncustodial parents to meet their child support obligations. Child support is the money noncustodial parents are obligated to pay for the support of their children on a monthly basis. Child support laws have been enacted to increase the number of noncustodial parents located, paternities established, …

Services Provided By A Homeless Intervention: Policy And Planning Implications, Carol T. Mowbray, Deborah Bybee

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Despite the acknowledged need for effective programs to serve persons who are homeless and mentally ill, few evaluations of these programs provide quantitative details on service provision. Such information can be useful to planners for replication and also for public policy concerning the need to mandate services most in demand. This report on a successful outreach intervention reports information on service amounts, duration, and types, as well as identifying predictors of service use. The overall amount of service provided to eligible participants varied substantially. While the median duration was only three months, repeat service episodes were common. For most clients, …

Review Of The Civil Rights Of Homeless People: Law, Social Policy And Social Work Practice. Madeleine R. Stoner. Reviewed By Larry W. Kreuger, University Of Missouri-Columbia., Larry W. Kreuger

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Madeline R. Stoner, The Civil Rights of Homeless People: Law, Social Policy, and Social Work Practice. New York: Aldine DrGruyter, 1995. $38.95 hardcover, $19.95 papercover.

Determinants Of The Timing Of Social Policy Adoption, Chulsoo Kim

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This study presents a macro-sociological analysis of welfare state development, particularly focusing on the timing of adoption of social legislation, by examining the dynamic relations between the historical constellation of social and political forces and the rationalities of three key social actors in the development of social policy. After a critical analysis of current theories, the variables are tested concerning the effects of different historical sequencing and the accompanying bargaining power of the social actors on the timing of social policy adoption in the western European countries from 1871 to 1976 using event-history analysis. Such variables as the level of …

Reconceptualizing Women's Work: A Focus On The Domestic And Eligibility Work Of Women On Welfare, Alice Abel Kemp, Pam Jenkins, Molly Biehl

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The types of work performed by women receiving public assistance are examined. Research on women's work often neglects the labor of poor women, reinforcing the view that women receiving welfare do not work. This perspective is challenged with focus group and interview data from welfare recipients in New Orleans, Louisiana. We conclude that within the restrictions of public assistance, poor women are engaging in three types of work: domestic work for their families, economic work for cash-both legal and illegal work, and eligibility work. Eligibility work is defined as the labor necessary to obtain and maintain public assistance.

Welfare To Work: What Are The Obstacles?, Maureen O. Marcenko, Jay Fagan

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

U.S. welfare reform initiatives are based on the assumption that the primary barriers to economic independence are individual deficits. However, the policy does not adequately account for situational and personal factors necessary for a successful transition from welfare to work. Without greater attention to these barriers, the policy is likely to fail or be implemented at high personal cost to recipients and their families. This paper uses a personin- environment social systems framework to examine the personal and family resources available to a group of women who were receiving AFDC and participating in an urban Head Start program. Structured interviews …

Demographic Differences Between Sheltered Homeless Families And Housed Poor Families: Implications For Policy And Practice, Alice K. Johnson, Kay Young Mcchesney, Cynthia J. Rocha, William H. Butterfield

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This study compares homeless families with a representative sample of low income family households in St. Louis city and county to determine how they differ on key demographic variables. The research addresses methodological problems in prior research by comparing the findings of this study's random sample to the findings of four previous comparison studies. Findings from this study's random comparison sample are presented. Homeless families are significantly younger, never married, female-headed families of color. Housed and homeless families are not significantly different in the number of children or in the educational level of the head of household but housed families …

Policy Implementation In Social Welfare: A Framework For Analysis, Valire Carr Copeland, Sandra Wexler

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

A review of the research on implementation of federal-state partnership programs indicates a need for more analyses of the post-legislative phase of social welfare policy. This paper addresses the importance of research on policy implementation in social welfare. It examines some critical tools in the policy implementation analysis process, presents a framework for analysis, and offers recommendations to stimulate interest in the study of the implementation process.

The Effects Of Utilitarianism On Performance Appraisal And Selected Output Measures In A Weberian Bureaucracy, Donald Wayne Wright

Dissertations

The research explored whether or not a relationship existed between the performance appraisal criteria used by the Social Security Administration and actual performance between 1984 and 1990. The issue was whether or not either of the diverse sets of performance appraisal criteria was more effective in improving performance than the other and whether or not base pay should be tied to the results of the performance appraisal system.

The methodology for this study was both quantitative and qualitative. The qualitative technique of content analysis was done on the sets of performance appraisal criteria to assess the extent to which each …

International Migrants Or Welfare Clients: The Selection Of A Master Status For Indochinese Refugees By American Voluntary Agencies, Jeremy Hein

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Government funding of nonprofit organizations is a dominant trend in American social welfare and it has greatly influenced the voluntary agencies resettling Indochinese refugees. Some agencies identify their clients as international migrants from the Third World, but others view them primarily as welfare recipients. These distinctive master statuses lead agencies to provide different services, thus affecting the refugees' initial adaptation to American society. Religiosity, period of creation, links to the welfare state, and international activities shape the selection of a master status for Indochinese refugees.

The Welfare Reservation: A Worst Case Scenario For A Federal Role In Homeless Assistance, Joseph M. Conforti

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The purpose of the little-known Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act of 1987 is stated as "... States, units of local government, and private voluntary organizations have been unable to meet the basic human needs of all the homeless and, in the absence of greater Federal Assistance, will be unable to protect the lives and safety of all the homeless in need of assistance: and the Federal Government has a clear responsibility and an existing capacity to fulfill a more effective and responsible role to meet the basic human needs and to engender respect for the human dignity of the …

Does Social Security Redistribute Income?: A Tax-Transfer Analysis, Namkee G. Choi

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Despite some forced-savings elements, social security is in reality a taxtransfer system based on pay-as-you-go financing. Using a tax-transfer approach, this paper analyzes the redistributive effects of social security by comparing the 1986 benefit distribution to the retired and disabled population, their dependents, and survivors with the 1986 payroll tax incidence of the working population. Findings indicate that a considerable degree of redistribution occurs from middle- and high-income tax payers to poor and near-poor beneficiaries. The paper also analyzes the demographic characteristics of taxpayers and beneficiaries to measure redistribution among different genders, marital status, age, and racial groups.

Conservative Welfare Reform Proposals And The Reality Of Subemployment, Robert Sheak, David D. Dabelko

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This article analyzes and critiques conservative welfare proposals and their assumptions. The concept of subemployment is introduced along with relevant data to identify the nature of the job problem in the U.S. since the early 1970s. Particular emphasis is placed upon the magnitude of employment difficulties during the 1980s. The article concludes that without a major job creation component, conservative welfare reforms intensify rather than ameliorate the subsistence living conditions of the poor.

Permanency Planning And The Child Abuse Prevention And Treatment Act: The Paradox Of Child Welfare Policy, Mary Ann Jimenez

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act of 1974 and the Adoptions Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980 have imposed conflicting mandates on the public child welfare system. CAPTA places the moral weight of the federal government behind professional intervention with troubled families, while the Adoptions Assistance Act was designed to protect the autonomy of families. As these policies currently stand, the goal of protection of vulnerable children is seriously undermined.

The New Christian Right, Social Policy And The Welfare State, James Midgley

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

While the campaigns of the New Christian Right on abortion, affirmative action, school prayer and other issues have been well documented, little is known about the movement's attitude towards state welfare programs. Identifying three distinctive sources of fundamentalist antipathy to the welfare state, this paper seeks to draw attention to interesting although unconventional ideas about social welfare that should be recognized and understood by scholars concerned with the study of social policy.

The Work Incentive Years In Current Perspective: What Have We Learned? Where Do We Go From Here?, Leonard Goodwin

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

A review of the rationale, results, and research findings from worktraining efforts for welfare recipients is presented. Focus is on the Work Incentive (WIN) Program from its inception in 1968 to its heydays in the 1970s and its decline during the Reagan era. The review provides a basis for examining the recent welfare legislation and recongizing the elements needed for real welfare reform.

Unemployment And Social Integration: A Review, Loring Jones

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

A review of the literature identifies the loss of work as a stressful life event that has been linked to a number of psychosocial ills. The paper examines the loss of social relationships, a major noneconomic cost of unemployment, as a major contributor to the development of those ills. Practice implications of this finding are identified.

Sexual Abuse At Charity House: A Case Study Of Social Policies In Action, Maureen Kelleher

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper explores Wiseman's theory of policy intervention using a case study of institutional abuse for illustration. Social policy intervention is an ongoing process. In this case, a single policy agenda, deinstitutionalization, was modified by a variety of stakeholders and compounded by a series of other child specific policy agenda including child abuse reporting procedures

The Impact Of Program Centralization On The Utilization Of Social Services: The Case Of The Ssi Program, Yossef Meller, Nancy Mudrick

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

When the Old Age Assistance (OAA), Aid to the Blind (AB), and Aid to the Permanently and Totally Disabled (APTD) caseloads were converted to SSI in 1974, only cash payments were transferred to the Social Security Administration; social services remained available through public welfare agencies. This paper assesses the extent to which the service utilization of low income aged and disabled persons changed with the social service delivery system changes associated with the implementation of SSI. We found that the proportion of persons receiving social services decreased slightly between the last year of the old programs and the first year …

The Effect Of Changes In The Federal Disability Programs On State And Local General Assistance Programs, Courtney Scherer Petersen, Eric R. Kingson

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Since early 1981, there has been a large-scale removal of persons from the SSI and Social Security disability programs as a result of the Social Security Disability Amendments of 1980. This article reports on the findings of a national survey designed to determine whether the removal of persons from the federal disability programs had an impact on state and local General Assistance programs and the extent to which older recipients of General Assistance are in need of long-term income assistance for health and other reasons.

Some states and jurisdictions have noticed an increase in applications as a result of federal …

Ideology And Opportunity In Social Work During The New Deal Years, Norma Kolko Phillips

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

As the country moved from a dominant ideology of voluntarism towards the welfare state during the New Deal years, conflicts and compromises occurred within the social work profession that required a definition of the role the profession would assume with relation to the public sector of social welfare. The nature of the relationship that evolved between social work and government, and the accommodations made by each during the New Deal years, and particularly around the passage of the Social Security Act of 1935, are examined.

Public Preferences Concerning Future Directions In Social Security, David L. Klemmack, Lucinda L. Roff

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Using data collected from a probability sample of 1030 adult Alabamians, this study segmented respondents among those favoring limited expansion, maintenance, and limited contraction of the social security retirement program. Those favoring some expansion in the system tended to be less well educated and affluent, and more likely to be retired, nonwhite, and to identify themselves as Democrats than did those favoring maintenance or some limited contraction of the system. The findings suggest the potential for cleavages among the population, based primarily on socioeconomic status, in ongoing discussions about the system's future.

The Social Security Controversy: Does The Solution Ignore The Problem?, Martin B. Tracy

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

In 1982 the income levels of 18 percent of women age 65 and over were below the poverty line compared to 7.6 percent of men in the same age group (Kutza, 1982). The reasons for a higher incidence of poverty among older women are often correctly attributed to the generally unfavorable position of women in the labor market. A less frequently discussed contributing factor is the programmatic deficiency of old-age pensions under social security.

Two fundamental aspects of old-age pensions have been particularly unresponsive to meeting the economic needs of older women. These are: 1) relating income protection to paid …

The Concept Of Employment In Social Welfare Programs: The Need For Change In Concept And Practice, D. Macarov

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Social welfare and social work practice are based upon and limited by concepts concerning the role of work in society. These include coverage, vestedness, administration, and the wage-stop. As human labor becomes quantitatively less important in the technological society, and as attitudes toward work change, the role of social work should become proactive -- leading toward necessary and desirable changes, including new meanings of the concept work and new methods of distributing income, rather than continuing to attempt to shore up an increasingly outmoded systems of values and structures.

In examining the content of the major social work textbooks published …

Constitutional Dilemma And Social Welfare Policy In Canada, Angela W. Djao

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The Canadian Constitution is usually interpreted as giving the provinces primary jurisdiction over social welfare. However, the federal government utilizing other powers provided in the constitution has expanded its role in legitimating the social order by promoting social integration and providing the disadvantaged groups with minimum social security. Thus social welfare is administered by both levels of government. Yet the fact that no mandatory obligations are imposed on either level of government has led to the development of social welfare policy in Canada in a fashion that resembles a crazy patchwork quilt. This is shown in a review of the …

Ideology In Social Welfare Policy Instruction: An Examination Of Required Readings, Paul Lyons

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

A national survey of required readings in social welfare policy courses indicates that a liberal, pro-welfare state ideology is predominant. Such an ideology rests on the concepts of modernization and industrialization within a structural-functionalist methodology. This predominant model of social welfare policy suggests the inevitability of the welfare state while effectively excluding serious consideration of both conservative and socialist alternatives.

Will A Private War On Poverty Succeed? The Case Of The St. Louis Provident Association, Robert H. Lauer, Jeanette C. Lauer

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

In view of the current emphasis on private approaches to social problem resolution, it is instructive to look at private efforts of the past. The St. Louis Provident Association was a private effort to deal with poverty. It was organized in 1860 to provide relief for the "needy and distressed." Data on the volunteer leaders of the association and on the people who were actually helped show a number of things about the 19th-century effort to deal with poverty. First, the volunteers were upwardly- mobile business and professional men who were concerned about the stability of their society. Second, the …

A Model For Forecasting Environmental Reaction To Policy Initiation, Ram A. Cna'an

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This research proposes and empirically tests a model for forecasting the possible reactions of other organizations to a policy initiation. This model is measuring the amount of reaction to change (A.R.C.) on three levels: relevant organizations, relevant functions, and overall environment. The model is presented in a general mode followed by a quasi-experimental case study. The results of this study are reported and implications, possible improvements and different uses are discussed.