Synopses & Reviews
Dimensions in Social Welfare Policy provides students with the most comprehensive and widely-used theoretical and conceptual framework for analyzing the design of a wide range of social welfare policies. Highlights of the Sixth Edition
- Provides the most comprehensive and widely-used analytical frameworks for understanding the design of social welfare policy, enabling students to identify alternative choices and to understand the consequences of each alternative.
- NEW chapter broadens the scope of this text by applying the social policy framework to international policy trends (Chapter 9).
Reviewer responses
As an instructor, I find this text soundly organized and understandable. The text covers content in both depth and breadth and the content is appropriate for graduate level education. I particularly like the way the authors encourage critical thinking through the presentation of information without attempting to provide simplistic answers or solutions to social policy questions and problems.
Myrna D. Bocage, Simmons College
The conceptual framework gives students an organized, systematic approach to examining social welfare policies in-depth. Using this framework fosters students' ability to engage in conceptual and analytical thinking, including consideration of underlying values and assumptions regarding policy choices. Additionally, the framework provides tools that will be useful over time; that is, students will be able to use the four dimensions and related concepts throughout their careers to analyze modified or new policies.
Jan L. Hagan, University of Albany
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Synopsis
Encouraging readers to develop their own thoughts on social welfare policy and to explore policy alternatives, Dimensions of Social Welfare provides a unique framework for analyzing soical welfare policies . The Seventh Edition continues to include a broad overview of the most recent policy trends in the advanced welfare states related to eligibility, finance, delivery, and benefit designs.
Synopsis
Dimensions in Social Welfare Policy provides a comprehensive and widely-used framework for analyzing social welfare policies.
The text encourages readers to develop their own thoughts on social welfare policy and to explore policy alternatives. Theoretical points are illustrated with examples from a cross-section of program areas including income maintenance, child welfare, model cities, day care, community action, and mental health. The Seventh Edition continues to include a broad overview of the most recent policy trends in the advanced welfare states related to eligibility, finance, delivery, and benefit designs.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Preface
1 The Field of Social Welfare Policy
Institutional Perspectives on the Study of Social Welfare Policy
Evolving Institutions and the Welfare State
Analytic Perspectives on the Study of Social Welfare Policy
Political Perspectives on the Study of Social Welfare Policy
Individual and Community Approaches to Planning
Why Policy Analysis Is Relevant to Social work Praactice
Emerging Issues: Feminist Perspectives on Social Welfare
Notes
2 The Modern Welfare State
The Evolving Welfare State
Theories of Welfare Growth
Is America Exceptional?
Welfare Goals
Welfare Scope
Welfare Realms
Emerging Issues: The New Social Accounting
Notes
3 A Framework for Social Welfare Policy Analysis
Benefit Allocations in the Social Market and the Mixed Economy of Welfare
Elements of an Analytic Framework: Dimensions of Choice
An Example: The Transformation of Social Services
Application of the Framework
Distributive Justice in Public Assistance
Individual and Collective Values in Public Assistance
Theories, Assumptions, and Social Choice
Emerging Issues: The Search for Equity
Notes
4 The Basis of Social Allocations
Who Shall Benefit?
Universality and Selectivity in Income Maintenance
A Negative Income Tax for Workers: The earned Income Tax Credit
Child Support and Asset Building
Social Effectiveness and Cost Effectiveness
Another Perspective on Allocation: A Continuum of Choice
Allocative Principles and Institutional-Residual Conceptions of Social Welfare
Operationalizing the Allocative Principles
Eligibility Versus Access
Emerging Issues: Generational Equity
Notes
5 The Nature of Social Provision
Basic Forms: Cash Versus In-Kind
Alternative Forms: An Extension of Choice
Vouchers: Balancing Social Control and Consumer Choice
Substance of the Social Provision
Social Provisions as Reflections of Policy Values
Cash, Kind, and the Cycles of Public Assistance
Emerging Issues: Choice for Whom?
Notes
6 The Design of the Delivery System
Privatization and Commercialization in Service Delivery
Promoting Coherence and Accessibility: Service Delivery Strategies
Unsettled Questions
Controlling Costs: Services Rationing and Managed Care
Emerging Issues: Culturally Competent Service Delivery
Notes
7 The Mode of Finance: Sources of Funds
Sources of Funds
The Philanthropic Contribution
Contributory Schemes and Fee Charging
Public Financing: Not Entirely a Public Matter
Emerging Issues: Financing Social Security
Notes
8 The Mode of Finance: Systems of Transfer
Centralization, Decentralization, and Their Ideologies
How the Money Flows
How Transfers Are Conditioned
Devolving Public Welfare
Emerging Issues: Immigrants, Social Policy, and the States
Notes
9 Policy Dimensions: International Trends in the Twenty-First Century
Pressures for Change
Directions of Change
Implications of Change
Notes
Index