Social Work Commons^™

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 …

Long-Term Trends In Public Concerns In Two Societies, Rachel Kats

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Trends in public concerns from the early 1960's to the mid-1970's are compared for Israel and the United States, relating changes in concerns to historical and social change which occurred during the decade in both societies. The analysis is based on open-ended questions regarding views of either personal or nation's future -- hopes and fears for that future -- and a Self-Anchoring Rating Scale, by which the respondent evaluated personal and nation's situation in various time perspectives. The Israeli's future perspective became centered around peace and war, removing other issues to a secondary plane of concern. In contrast, the American …

Health And Social Welfare Needs Of The Elderly: A Preliminary Study, Baxter Wright, Bruce A. Thyer

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

In a period of shrinking fiscal resources it is especially important that budgetary decision-making processes be based upon empirical data relating to the actual health and social service needs of the elderly. The present study consisted of a comprehensive survey of the social service needs of a random sample of 75 normative elderly citizens drawn from a multi-ethnic population. The results provide a preliminary data-base for administrative and policy-making bodies to allocate scarce social service resources.

In an era of shrinking fiscal resources and drastic cuts in the provision of human services, funding decisions and budgetary allotments are often made …

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 Origins Of English Aging Policy: A Re-Examination Of The Cyclical Theory Of Social Relief, John B. Williamson, Kenneth J. Branco

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper examines the explanatory power of Piven and Cloward's cyclical theory of social relief through an exploration of policies in England from the twelfth through the nineteenth century. While there is evidence of a cyclical trend between restrictive and liberal policies in this period, we find that those shifts cannot consistently be explained by social turmoil. There is also evidence of a long-term trend toward a more restrictive aging policy which is unaccounted for by cyclical theory. This trend can be better explained by a more basic set of ideas uncerlying cyclical theory, i.e., the needs of a capitalist …

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 …

Slicing The Pie: Classes And The Distributive Effects Of Post-Wwii U.S.Governmental Fiscal Policies, Joel A. Devine

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Time series analysis of the relative class income distributional consequences of postwar U.S. fiscal practices reveals that governmental revenue policies have had a procapital bias while state expenditures have tended to favor labor. The net impact of these processes has served to leave the marketgenerated income distribution largely intact, despite the historically unprecedented growth of the public sector during this period. Finally, in light of these findings, the distributive impact of the current administration's fiscal program are considered.

Critical Criminology, Traditional Crime, And Public Policy, Ronald C. Kramer

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Critical criminologists have often ignored the serious problem of traditional or common street crime. As a result, crime prevention policy has been forfeited to the political right or to those who advocate ineffective liberal reforms. This paper argues that critical criminology can make a contribution to the formulation of public policy concerning traditional crime. Recent theoretical developments within the criitical perspective on crime, as.well as a variety of supporting data, are reviewed and specific policy recommendations to reduce traditional crime are offered. These progressive recommendations constitute an important alternative to the individualistic approaches (liberal or conservative) which now dominate crime …

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 …

Afdc, Food Stamp, And Medicaid Utilization: A Research Note, Mark R. Rank, Paul R. Voss

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

During the past 20 years, social welfare programs have been expanding both in terms of federal and state expenditures, and in terms of numbers of recipients. Among the programs involved in this expansion were Aid to Families with Dependent Children, Food Stamps, and Medicaid. However, knowledge of the sheer numbers of people and dollars involved provides at best an incomplete picture of these social welfare programs. The researcher, policy planner, and government administrator must also have an understanding of who is at risk of utilizing welfare in the general population. Such knowledge may provide insight into the present and future …

The Politics Of Mental Health After Care, Steve Rose

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Essential to the development of a positive practice in mental health after-care is a precise formulation of clients' needs. Clarity about a statement of needs provides added information about anticipated obstacles to meeting those needs, both at the client and systemic levels. To accomplish this preliminary task, it becomes necessary to create what we refer to as a "problem definitional" level of theory. Problem defining theory mediates between more global theory, which establishes a larger context for understanding the broad policy issues and direct implications,* and the articulation of practice theory.

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 …

Work-Related Perceptions Of Social Workers Versus Administrators: More Grist For The "Is Social Work A Profession?" Mill, Robert A. Snyder, Jane M. Ridolphi

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The work-related perceptions of 683 employees of a federally funded public assistance agency were examined by occupational classification. The results show that persons employed as social workers report distinctively different patterns of attitudes and values than do those employed as administrators. These distinctions were most dramatic for the younger members of each group. The overall results fail to refute previous predictions of an evolving anc critical duality in the field of social work.

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.

Case Law And Social Welfare: A Framework For Analysis, Jan L. Hagen

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper illustrates an approach for analyzing case law within the framework of social welfare programs and policies. Drawing on a framework first developed by Burns and later expanded by Gilbert and Specht, selected court decisions related to income maintenance are categorized on the basis of four parameters: basis of social allocation, the nature of social provisions, the structure of the delivery system, and the method of financing. Unlike the legal framework typically used to analyze court decisions, an assessment of court decisions along the parameters of social welfare policies and programs highlights the court's role and its importance in …

Social Welfare And Family Support: The Nigerian Experience, Christopher P. Ekpe

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The African family has been the basic structure that performed the functions of a social system even before contact with European and other white cultures. These included not only the organization of behavior and economy, the preservation of culture, the realization of political goals, the control and integration of the members but also the provision services classified today as social welfare.

However, sweeping changes have been taking place in the African family and these have seriously affected its function as a social system. The roles of men and women, religion, education, in short, the African culture itself has been experiencing …

Welfare Spending In The American States: A Comparative Perspective, W. Joseph Heffernan

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The federal-state system of welfare is the result of a compromise between the desire for national standards and the opportunity for each state to have its own adaptation. As a compromise, there is a constant tension in the system. During the 1970's, there was a pressure toward federalization, but the states have preserved their diversity. The Reagan Administration has clearly indicated a desire to "return" greater freedom to the states to chart their own course. The purpose of this paper is to identify variations among the states in such a way as to identify those states with consistently "high" or …

Policy Traditions In American State Politics, Robert L. Savage

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

An examination of the states across a wide range of policy innovations during three historical periods reveals policy traditions having distinctive geographic limits roughly conforming to major regions commonly recognized in American politics. Only two of these traditions, the "Southern Parochial" and the "Northeastern Bureaucratic," persist across time and even these have been weakened. This provides some evidence that while multilinear evolution along regional lines will continue to contribute to differences in policy values among the American states in the foreseeable future, sociocultural integration is the stronger dynamic in American political development, especially since about 1930.

Legislative Evaluation Of Social Welfare Programs: The Process And Consequences, Patricia K. Freeman, William Lyons

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Program review has increased substantially in recent years. There has been concern that the upsurge in policy evaluation would be detrimental to social welfare programs, where data is often unavailable, little agreement exists concerning specific goals and documenting success is often virtually impossible. In this analysis we compared the program evaluation of social welfare programs with non-social welfare programs. The review process differed substantially as did the recommendation made as a result of the review. Social welfare programs faced more criticisms than non-social welfare programs. However, the criticisms were less serious. Changes prior to the publication of the evaluation report …

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 …

The Service Orientations Of Social Service Administrators: Towards A Normative Model, Walter Lamendola, Patricia Yancey Martin

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The service orientations of 28 administrators of social service agencies are examined as part of a normative model of service delivery. Six service issues are identified, and their interrelationship is described and examined. The service orientation issues include: effectiveness, efficiency, responsiveness to constituency interests, agency autonomy, community involvement, and services integration. In part, the results show that, as a group, the executives rank effectiveness (or the setting and achievement of programmatic goals) as of greatest concern. Community involvement and responsiveness follow in importance. Efficiency ranks fourth and autonomy, fifth. Services integration is of least concern. Service orientation is examined in …

Defeminizing Social Policy, David Stoesz

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Social policy initiatives by the evangelical right and neoconservative movements are reversing liberal programs that have benefited women. This represents an attempt to defeminize social policy. Essential to this transformation are theoretical interpretations of economics and sociology which, combined with religious conservatism, portend the restoration of patriarchal culture. The ideology guiding the defeminizing of social policy is so pervasive as to suggest that regaining ground lost will be exceedingly difficult for those promoting social services for women.

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.

An Australian Test Of Economic And Political Models Of Welfare State Expenditures: 1945 - 1979, Gordon W. Ternowetsky, Maurreen P. Clissold

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper tests 'political' and 'economic' models of welfare expenditure with post-World War II Australian data. The major antecedents of welfare spending for the overall time period (1945-1979) appeared to be economic growth as mediated by the age of the population and program incrementalism. It was shown, however, that this view misleads rather than clarifies the influence of different factors during specific periods within the overall time series. A periodization of welfare spending was found to be more useful. The periodization analysis showed that the influence of politics on welfare spending is important. Right political strength was found to have …

Comparing Employed And Unemployed Welfare Recipients: A Discriminant Analysis, Becky L. Glass

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Based on data from the 1973 Minnesota AFDC Characteristic Study, 348 female AFDC recipients were classified according to whether they were employed or unemployed. T-tests and a discriminant analysis were performed to determine which of several demographic and economic variables distinguished the employed group from the unemployed group. The best discriminators were found to be those related to economic condition, such as value of personal and real property, liquid assets, and monthly income. Little difference was found between employed and unemployed women on the demographic variables. The implications of these findings for the argument that personal motivation or individual differences …

Aging And The Milieu Of Social Policy, Roger A. Lohmann, Nancy Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

One facet of the new conservatism, which is drawing so much interest but not much information currently is the proposal for converting a large number of social service programs (including the Administration on Aging) into a single community block grant program. Even without the Reagan Administration and its new conservatism, however, the case for substantial--if less dramatic--changes in the network of services and programs which benefit the aged has been growing for some time. In this chapter, wel review some of the broader implications of current social policies for the aged, and some of the criticisms raised among gerontologists, concentrating …

Reindustrialization And The Future Of Social Welfare, Steve Burghardt, Michael Fabricant

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

"Reindustrialization" is a term of economic complexity and great, if confused, social implications to most human service workers. Human services workers can only challenge the plans envisioned by most reindustrialists if certain arguments and assumptions are understood. This article will lay out the reindustrialists plans and assumptions. It will also develop some of the reasons why such ideas, as they are now formulated, cannot work -- in terms based on common experiences highly familiar to every human service worker.

Welfare Legislation And American Poverty Traps: Ironies And Characteristics, Theresa Villanueva, Richard J. Caston

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

We argue that legislative attempts to establish bureaucratic programs to eradicate American poverty will invariably result in ironic inconsistencies that will doom such programs to only limited or partial success. As an illustration, we examine the ironic history of the AFDC program as it has been legislated to deal with American poverty. Three sociological accounts for the ironies of welfare programming are then drawn together. One account suggests that undue concern over the work ethic has overridden more direct concern for the deprecating living conditions of the Door. A second account suggests that poverty is so functionally beneficial to a …

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.