Bold Relief

Institutional Politics and the Origins of Modern American Social Policy
Erscheinungsjahr 2000
ISBN: 978-0-691-05068-3
Verlag: Princeton University Press

Buch, Englisch, 320 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 591 g

Reihe: Princeton Studies in American Politics: Historical, International, and Comparative Perspectives

According to conventional wisdom, American social policy has always been exceptional--exceptionally stingy and backwards. But Edwin Amenta reminds us here that sixty years ago the United States led the world in spending on social provision. He combines history and political theory to account for this surprising fact--and to explain why the country's leading role was short-lived.The orthodox view is that American social policy began in the 1930s as a two-track system of miserly "welfare" for the unemployed and generous "social security" for the elderly. However, Amenta shows that the New Deal was in fact a bold program of relief, committed to providing jobs and income support for the unemployed. Social security was, by comparison, a policy afterthought. By the late 1930s, he shows, the U.S. pledged more of its gross national product to relief programs than did any other major industrial country.Amenta develops and uses an institutional politics theory to explain how social policy expansion was driven by northern Democrats, state-based reformers, and political outsiders. And he shows that retrenchment in the 1940s was led by politicians from areas where beneficiaries of relief were barred from voting. He also considers why some programs were nationalized, why some states had far-reaching "little New Deals," and why Britain--otherwise so similar to the United States--adopted more generous social programs. Bold Relief will transform our understanding of the roots of American social policy and of the institutional and political dynamics that will shape its future.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Amenta, Edwin

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Sozialphilosophie, Politische Philosophie
• Geowissenschaften Umweltwissenschaften Umweltpolitik, Umweltprotokoll
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Regierungspolitik Umwelt- und Gesundheitspolitik
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Theorie, Politische Philosophie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of IllustrationsList of Tables and FiguresPrefaceIntroduction: Paradoxes of American Social Policy3Ch. 1An Institutional Politics Theory of Social Policy18Ch. 2An Indifferent Commitment to Modern Social Policy, 1880-193454Ch. 3America's First Welfare Reform, 1935-193680Ch. 4Consolidating the Work and Relief Policy, 1937-1939122Ch. 5Some Little New Deals Are Littler than Others162Ch. 6Redefining the New Deal, 1940-1950191Ch. 7A Welfare State for Britain231Conclusion250Afterword270Notes273Initials of Organizations and Programs331Sources of Illustrations333Index335