The Dynamics Of Social Welfare Policy

The first edition of The Dynamics of Social Welfare Policy reinvented the standard social welfare policy text to speak to students in a vital new way. This second edition builds on its strengths, with a more accessible graphic design and a thorough update of the effects of recent political and legislative changes on social welfare programs. The book begins by discussing how social problems are constructed. After an analysis of social welfare policy, its purposes, and functions, a unique policy model bolsters the text's overarching progressive narrative. Through this model, students learn how five key social forces-ideology, politics, history, economics, and social movements-interact both to create and to change the social welfare system. By applying this model to five critical social welfare policy issues-income security, employment, housing, health, and food-the text demonstrates to students that every kind of social work practice embodies a social welfare policy. The model is also telling in identifying the triggers of social change and the effects of race, class, and gender. By applying the policy model to the latest developments in social welfare, the chapter-long case studies in this second edition equip students with knowledge about social welfare policy and the tools for comparative analysis. With this knowledge, students begin to understand that both the whole and the parts of the social welfare system affect what they actually do as social workers. Once they grasp this concept, they'll understand why it is so important to learn social welfare policy. The Dynamics of Social Welfare Policy 2E captures the fluidity and change inherent in social policy like no other textbook. Its approach remains the most invigorating, forward-thinking one available. Highlights from this edition include: * Revised data in text, charts, and graphs show how government policies are proving the points made throughout the chapters *Exhaustive statistics are included about every major social program's budget, benefits, and participants *Underlying policy model has been updated in response to the evolving political environment *Content and writing style are appropriate to both bachelor's- and master's-level programs *More graphics and attractive new two-color interior design make debates easier to grasp and the book easier to navigate Visit www.oup.com/us/dynamics for access to the instructor's manual and test bank.

"We live in a changing world. Globalization, the rise of the Information Economy and the Global Environmental crisis are profound forces that affect all areas of human existence and are particularly important in the lives of the poor, the powerless and the dispossessed. This book prepares social workers to practice within the policy framework that is framed by these huge macro forces. Many previous books address policy issues from the lenses of earlier times. Forces like industrialization and early ideologies are far less relevant than the once were. The change nature of the economy and the workforce are key drivers of change in the social welfare policy system. This book provides a new perspective that is relevant to current issues. This new edition features the latest in social welfare policy scholarship. Completely updated, it stands at the cutting edge of this viral and important field"--

This third edition deploys its distinctive model of how policies develop to include an analysis of the social policy initiatives of the Obama administration. With more graphics, updated charts, and sidebars to highlight main points, this book explains the evolution of US social policy.

Intended for use by both social welfare students and public policy scholars, Social Wlefare: policy and Analysis gives a clear and understandable explanation of the methods and proccesses of policy analysis, then applies those methods to current American welfare proigrams. The description of welfare programs provides a basic introduction to the field and the explainations of how the programs have developefd make them more understandable to sical welfare students. The book examines more than thrity-five different programs, using three odels of policy analysis. Professor Dobelstein desrcibes what problems the policies were designed to solve and evaluates their effectivenesss through policy analysis.

Bringing together top scholars in the field, Universality and Social Policy in Canada provides an overview of the universality principle in social welfare. The contributors survey the many contested meanings of universality in relation to specific social programs, the field of social policy, and the modern welfare state. The book argues that while universality is a core value undergirding certain areas of state intervention--most notably health care and education--the contributory principle of social insurance and the selectivity principle of income assistance are also highly significant precepts in practice.

American social welfare policy has produced a health system with skyrocketing costs, a disability insurance program that consigns many otherwise productive people to lives of inactivity, and a welfare program that attracts wide criticism. Making Social Welfare Policy in America explains how this happened by examining the historical development of three key programs—Social Security Disability Insurance, Medicare, and Temporary Aid to Needy Families. Edward D. Berkowitz traces the developments that led to each program’s creation. Policy makers often find it difficult to dislodge a program’s administrative structure, even as political, economic, and cultural circumstances change. Faced with this situation, they therefore solve contemporary problems with outdated programs and must improvise politically acceptable solutions. The results vary according to the political popularity of the program and the changes in the conventional wisdom. Some programs, such as Social Security Disability Insurance, remain in place over time. Policy makers have added new parts to Medicare to reflect modern developments. Congress has abolished Aid to Families of Dependent Children and replaced with a new program intended to encourage work among adult welfare recipients raising young children. Written in an accessible style and using a minimum of academic jargon, this book illuminates how three of our most important social welfare programs have come into existence and how they have fared over time.