American Social Policy Mid-term

Question 1

What is Social Policy?

Answer 1

Governmental policies that affect the income and life chances of individuals and groups.

Healthcare, Education, Civil Rights, Wage Regulation, Tax Policy, Manpower Policy
(What we describe as social policy is arbitrary)

Question 2

Macro-societal theories (Theories)

Answer 2

what people should do for others

Question 3

Macro-societal theories: (Theories)

Answer 3

what people should do for others, Political Institutions: powers of congress, president, supreme court, etc., Micro-incentives of politicians, policy inheritances

Question 4

Poverty line (Social Policy Process)

Answer 4

Originally it was calculated using these steps: starting with the cost of a nutritionally adequate diet, multiplying this by 3 (⅓ of the income was spent on food), and adjusting for family size, family headed household, number of children. In 1969 the calculation was adjusted by inflation. NOW it is just adjusted for family size and inflation. Basically, the minimum to survive

Question 5

Social insurance (Social Policy Process)

Answer 5

people’s right to a benefit linked to their work status/relationship to labor market–very popular in US.
Work value is a necessary and qualifying condition to get benefits.

Social insurance is a concept where the government intervenes in the insurance market to ensure that a group of individuals are insured or protected against the risk of any emergencies that lead to financial problems.

Question 6

Discretionary (Social Policy Process)

Answer 6

govt makes decision on funding specific programs; congress allocates money to program. ex. Head Start; A certain amount of money goes to the program. If the money runs out, there is a waiting list.

Question 7

First “Big Bang”

Answer 7

New Deal after the great depression and the Social Security Act (ex. Cash transfer program to widows)

Question 8

Second “Big Bang”

Answer 8

Place during the 60’s under president Kennedy and carried out major big society programs (Medicare and Medicaid).

Question 9

Logic of industrialization (Garlington)

Answer 9

movement of people from farms to factory jobs; relying on family members became obsolete b/c they moved away, they lacked a social safety net. Therefore, it was more difficult to deal with disabling accidents, unemployment. This led to the Great Depression.

Question 10

Special Characteristics of the American State that led to certain types of policies. (State Centered Theories)

Answer 10

Responsibility is fragmented and weak bureaucracy leads to fragmentation and incrementalism.
state autonomy, political capacity, and political inheritance - for state centered theories

Question 11

Policy inheritances / Policy feedback

Answer 11

Policy makers almost never go back to scratch in considering new approaches to problems. Also it would be highly costly.

Question 12

Political unrest

Answer 12

Government responds to working class grievances when unrest threatens their grip on power.

Question 13

Social division

Answer 13

Class divisions with a weak union/labor movement and racial differences prevented solidarity that is important to the welfare state.

Question 14

Micro-theories of politicians’ motivations.

Answer 14

Politicians are motivated only by re-election.

Question 15

State Structures (Value Perspective)

Answer 15

US constitutional provisions express individualism. The structure of elections, both local and national, also emphasizes individual rights; This new system emphasized a decentralized government to prevent a return to the parliamentary structure of the pre-
revolutionary America where the government could regulate the lives of individuals

Question 16

Protestantism (Value Perspective)

Answer 16

Protecting the state and the churches from undue influence on each other reinforces the founding ideology of the USA by protecting individuals’ freedom and autonomy.

Protestant ethic, in sociological theory, the value attached to hard work, thrift, and efficiency in one’s worldly calling, which, especially in the Calvinist view, were deemed signs of an individual’s election, or eternal salvation

Question 17

Economic dynamics (Value Perspective)

Answer 17

This individualistic explanation for economic success shaped the USA’s relationship with industrialization as well as the trajectory of workers’ organizations – both contributions to the development of welfare policy

Question 18

Logic of industrialization (Nonvalues-oriented theories)

Answer 18

Welfare policy origins link directly to the timeline of industrialization in Western liberal democracies.

This group of theories focuses on how a country historically made the economic transition to a more industrial society and how that country addressed the social consequences of these changes. Example below.

In the USA, for example, the early 1900s saw the development of policy targeting the aging population: “performing something of a regulatory function by instituting programs to provide for those necessarily (and appropriately) forced from the productive economy”.

Question 19

State Centered (Nonvalues-oriented theories)

Answer 19

Cross-national (relating to two or more nations) variation of policy implementation is due to state autonomy, political capacity, and coherence and dispersion of power, and political inheritances.

A state’s action capacity regarding social policy under a specific political organization determines its state autonomy.

State political capacity includes three main elements: “formal boundaries of legitimate government intervention, government’s fiscal ability, and professionalism and expertise of legislators and public administrators.

Question 20

Political class struggle (Nonvalues-oriented theories)

Answer 20

The USA lacks both an expansive welfare state and a history of left-wing/ working-class political organizing.

Esping-Andersen (1990) wrote: “the history of political class coalitions is the most decisive cause of welfare-state variation” (p.1).

Question 21

The Federal Relief Administration (FERA) 1933

Answer 21

For the first time the federal government assumed responsibility for relief and appropriated substantial funds to carry out that responsibility.

Relief grants were not directed to traditional categories of unemployment–such as widows or orphans–but all needy unemployed persons and/or their dependents.

Question 22

Social Security Act of 1935 (New Deal)

Answer 22

1. ) Old age insurance (Social Security) - earnings related to benefits
2. ) Old age assistance (OAA) - cash payments to certain individuals in the state, regardless of earnings

Question 23

New Deal Major Accomplishments

Answer 23

Unemployment Insurance; Minimum Wage Legislation; Families with Dependent Children–income transfer to poor families w/dependents; social security act of 1935

Question 24

Families with Dependent Children

Answer 24

(Aid to Dependent Children - ADC 1933 or 1934)- first cash welfare program

Question 25

Great Society

Answer 25

Health programs (Medicare, Medicaid); Income transfer programs for female headed households; Supplemental Security Income program (replaced OAA); In-Kind program expansion (food stamp act 1964); War on Poverty

Question 26

Convergence Theory

Answer 26

states that due to structural forces in economies many countries will show signs of convergence in policies over time. However, this ignores the role of human intervention.

Question 27

Esping-Anderson Model (based on Distinct Regime Theory)

Answer 27

Static model that argues that there are three different states: Liberal, Corporatist, and Social Democratic

Question 28

Liberal State (spectrum of intervention)

Answer 28

Minimal State Intervention

Question 29

Corporatist State intervention (spectrum of intervention)

Answer 29

Medium State Intervention

Question 30

Social Democratic intervention (spectrum of intervention)

Answer 30

Maximum State Intervention

Question 31

3 dimensions are critical in placing countries in regimes:

Answer 31

1) Individual-state-market relations
2) Social Stratification
3) Social rights

Question 32

Individual-state-market relations

Answer 32

the degree to which individuals or families can uphold an acceptable standard of living independently of market participation.

Question 33

Social Stratification

Answer 33

how citizens are treated based on their relationship to the labor market. (Social class status)

Are there opportunities for class solidarity? Cross-class alliances?

Question 34

Social rights

Answer 34

does the state provide public services (e.g. pensions) as a matter of right.

Question 35

Public Choice Model

Answer 35

argues that actors involved are motivated by narrow self interests (e.g. politicians). This leads to spending that is out of control.

Question 36

Gilbert’s “Theory of the Enabling State”

Answer 36

an explanation of a greater shift for all states where there is public support for private responsibility. These include social provisions transferred through work incentives, tax benefits, or purchase of service contracts.

Question 37

4 Forces moving world toward enabling state

Answer 37

1) Immense Fiscal Pressures
2) Globalization of Economy
3) Changing Ideas and Normative Views
4) Changing Views and confidence in private sector to cure social ills

Question 38

Bad Draws

Answer 38

people who were dealt a bad hand at birth or later and who have suffered misfortune as a result.

Question 39

bad bets

Answer 39

individuals who derive little benefit from a social program; people who are unlikely to derive much benefit from a programmatic intervention on their behalf relative to either the resources that they would consume or the benefits that better bets would derive from the same resources.

Question 40

bad apples

Answer 40

individuals whose participation imposes significant costs on other participants; most bad apples are chronic, serious disrupters of the programs in which they participate; their behavior reduces the degree to which good apple participants benefit from a program.

Question 41

Well-targeted redistributionists

Answer 41

Citizens who want to maintain and expand social programs designed to promote the well-being of deserving bad draws

Question 42

Behaviorally linked programs (targeted program)

Answer 42

include those programs that supplement the resources available to particular groups among the poor, but tie these resource supplements to particular behaviors. (Includes many of the in-kind programs like Food Stamps, Section 8 Housing Vouchers, or Medicaid.)

Question 43

Targeted service programs

Answer 43

include those programs that provide specific services for particular groups among the poor, with the goal of either changing the environment or changing the behavior of the poor.

Question 44

Advantages of Targeted Programs

Answer 44

1. respond to the suspicion that high poverty rates are linked to the behavior of the poor by imposing greater constraints on who is helped and how they are helped.
2. Relatively small cost
3. Easier to evaluate than broad based programs
4. Have natural constituencies that care about the goods and services they provide (e.g., Head Start)

Question 45

Disadvantages of Targeted Programs

Answer 45

1. ) Cost more per participant
2. ) Effective operation of these programs requires first rate management
3. ) produce relatively modest long-term effects for their participants

Question 46

Timing of US Welfare Programs

Answer 46

1) late initiation of major social programs relative to other western industrial countries.
2) concentration of policy development - new deal and great society (2 big bangs).
3) Incremental changes.
4) retrenchment in the 1980s w/ Reagan

Question 47

Substance of US Welfare Programs

Answer 47

1) low expenditures; 2) focus on pensions; 3) absence of universal healthcare; 4) heavy reliance of social insurance programs; 5) heavy reliance on tax breaks; 6) significant reliance on states

Question 48

Equity

Answer 48

1) Incredibly high levels of income inequality in the US; 2) high levels of poverty, especially among parents w/children

Question 49

National Values/Ideology Theory

Answer 49

stresses that US programs reflect specific American cultural values
-individualism, liberty, distrust of government. (American Creed)

Question 50

Weaknesses of the logic of industrialization

Answer 50

rapid industrialization; lags from industrialization to first social policy development; program emergence in new deal

Question 51

Problems with great society programs

Answer 51

failed to properly deal w/ poverty; threatened local leaders; gradual withdrawal from Johnson b/c Vietnam war required more money.

Question 52

2 Types of problems for policy analysis

Answer 52

1) design; 2) political

Question 53

6 design problems for policy analysis

Answer 53

1) disagreement over specific causes; 2) causes of problem can be interrelated or multiple; 3) unintended targets can be excluded w/o excluding those in need of program; 4) minimize perverse incentives; 5) consider how they interact with other programs; 6) program objectives may bump into other valued goals

Question 54

3 political problems for policy analysis

Answer 54

1) political incentives are high, we forget to study the real issues; 2) program objectives and workability must be compromised to meet financial constraints; 3) problems seem costly and are abandoned by politicians

Question 55

Case: Geography of Poverty (Moving to Opportunity)

Answer 55

1) creating social program especially difficult when goals are ambiguous; 2) programs help but they can also hurt people; 3) changing human behavior is difficult no matter how good the program.

Question 56

Comparative social policy: Social Spending

Answer 56

cash benefits direct in-kind benefits, targeted toward low-income families or elderly

Question 57

Comparative social policy: pension spending

Answer 57

all cash expenditures on old age or survivor benefits

Question 58

Social Stratification

Answer 58

how citizens are treated in a society based on their relationships to labor market; class integration

Question 59

social rights

Answer 59

does the state provide public services, like pensions, as a matter of right

Question 60

Liberal Countries

Answer 60

US, Australia, Canada; only caters to low-income working class; not a strong labor movement; fails to assert dominance and benefits for working class; passively encouraging market; benefits are linked to employment status

Question 61

Corporatist State

Answer 61

France, Germany; state plays primary role, private sector plays lower; not as much inequality as liberal; mixture of government services and market-based solutions.

Question 62

Social Democratic

Answer 62

Denmark, Sweden; benefits offered to the highest equality; employment and equalarian principles; lower-class inequality; pay as you go system; minimum level of provisions to the unemployed who didn’t participate in system

Question 63

Criticisms of Esping-Andersen’s Model

Answer 63

no room for movement between categories; no negative features on social democratic states

Question 64

Gilbert’s model of enabling state

Answer 64

not a static typology - explanation of greater shift of all industrial countries; designed to enable people to work and enable voluntary (private) sector to provide rather than government

Question 65

4 influences of enabling state

Answer 65

1) immense fiscal pressures; 2) globalization of economy; 3) changing ideas and normative views; 4) changing views and confidence in private sector to cure social ills

Question 66

Case: Centrelink (Transformation of the Welfare State)

Answer 66

1) welfare states are resistant to change even in the face of massive upheaval; 2) changes are incremental in nature such as small movement to public or private provisions

Question 67

7 sociodemographic changes

Answer 67

1) boomer generation entered workforce; 2) women entered workforce in large #s; 3) decline in job security, drop in manufacturing jobs, rise in service jobs; 4) increased in older people in population; 5) rise in nonmarital births among whites & blacks; 6) increasing trends of jobs moving out of northern cities; 7) growth of black middle class.

Question 68

Political realignment

Answer 68

emergence of new, stable party electoral majorities that relegate opponent to obscurity for sustained amount of time. Democratic New Deal Coalition or Reagan election

Question 69

What caused breakdown?

Answer 69

race - white resentment & values - cultural wars

Question 70

5 legacies of Reagan Admin

Answer 70

1) retrenchment of social policy spending in first 3 years of administration then stalemate; 2) expansion in certain programs that promoted conservative values; 3) devolution to the states & work requirements; 4) very little of removing completely; 5) major overhauls in policy was unlikely

Question 71

Murray - 1984 Losing Ground

Answer 71

1) trends in the improvement in black poverty rate stopped as means-tested programs started; 2) major difference in labor force & poverty between younger, older blacks, and older whites; 3) trend in relevant earnings; 4) teenage pregnancy & non-marital births

Question 72

Murray - 2006/revised in 2016 In our Hands

Answer 72

1) government programs are too costly; 2) bureaucracy creates inefficiency & society that isn’t virtuous

Question 73

Murray’s 5 solutions

Answer 73

1) passport and bank account for everyone; 2) annual $10,000 grant to every American 21+; 3) pay for thorough income tax; 4) dismantle programs that provide benefits for select people; 5) transportation, postal service, not pure libertarian–can stay in government

Question 74

Arguments against Murray

Answer 74

1) human behavior is guided by other things, not just economic; 2) entitlement programs do more than give money to people (Medicare research funds research); 3) ahistorical view - non profits do much of the work

Question 75

Case: Role Responsibility

Answer 75

1) values drive the creation of public policy; 2) depending on a variety of circumstances values can change

Question 76

Universalism

Answer 76

welfare benefits available to everyone as a matter of social right

Question 77

Targeting

Answer 77

benefits distributed on the basis of need

Question 78

Targeting Benefits

Answer 78

1) efficiency & low-cost -not spending money on people who do not need them; 2) quality - only serves a small number of people do not dilute quality; 3) public support - smaller the budget, more affordable

Question 79

Universal Benefits

Answer 79

1) efficiency & low cost - many benefit, targeted programs do not reach intended audience; 2) quality - programs for poor tend to be poor quality; 3) public support - cost more, but receive support by richer clientele

Question 80

Case: NY Center for Economic Opportunity & Targeted Programs

Answer 80

1) Know your clientele (customers), know the population you want to serve; 2) recognize the tradeoffs between universal & targeted programs

Question 81

3 periods of federalism

Answer 81

1) dual, 2) cooperative, 3) new federalism

Question 82

Dual Federalism

Answer 82

state autonomy at developing programs; emphasis on state rights; beginning of country (ratification of constitution) to great depression; State and Federal governments are working separately

Question 83

Cooperative federalism

Answer 83

began at great depression to 1970s; federal government expanded in size; started many programs; grants given to states for specific purposes (categorical grants); powers and policy assignments that are shared between state and national governments. This includes shared costs, federal guidelines, and shared administration.

Question 84

New federalism

Answer 84

started under Nixon; general revenue sharing; no strings attached funding (block grants)

Question 85

4 issues common to federalism

Answer 85

1) tensions btw diversity & uniformity; 2) tensions btw local control & fragmentation; 3) tension between local autonomy & need for coordination; 4) tension between financial autonomy & fiscal control

Question 86

2 types of federalism

Answer 86

1) fiscal; 2) regulatory

Question 87

Fiscal Federalism

Answer 87

federal grant making system, injection of federal money into states to promote national ends; categorical grants; block grants

Question 88

Regulatory Federalism

Answer 88

federal government beats states & localities into submissions; linked to grant process

Question 89

4 types of regulatory federalism

Answer 89

1) cross-cutting requirement–buying state compliance through grants; 2) crossover sanction; 3) partial preemption; 4) direct orders/mandates (compelling state compliance through mandated action)

Question 90

Case Social services in Hartford

Answer 90

1)flip-side to social service provision - tax & budgeting issues for providing services in locality; 2) city, state, & national policies all influence social service provision

Question 91

Case: Hunger in America (Historical Development of the U.S. Welfare State)

Answer 91

1) acknowledge difficulty in measuring social problems; 2) acknowledge difficulty in target audience; 3) mismatch between past goals - creates conflict in program

Question 92

universal (entitlement) v. selective (means-tested)

Answer 92

• given to everyone by broad characteristics ;

- testing of one’s financial status (programs that considered person income);