Synopses & Reviews
Particularly in the 1990s, social welfare programs have been cut back in a number of countries. Indeed, the phrases ending welfare as we know it or dismantling the welfare state have been used to describe this trend. In this analysis by well-recognized social welfare scholars, the nature and extent of changes in social welfare programs in key industrial or post-industrial countries is scrutinized.
Determining if and how social welfare and employment prospects have been cut back in the United States, Canada, Sweden, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Hungary, and Japan helps to identify the population groups hardest hit by cutback. In the United States, for example, poor, single-mother families have suffered major reductions in income support, while more powerful groups have avoided major losses. This cross-national study not only sheds light on general trends in social welfare but also provides clues to what constitutes successful reform and what has failed. This major comparative analysis will be of interest to scholars, students, policy makers, and professionals as well as the general public concerned with social welfare issues, full employment, poverty, and economic inequality.
Review
[p]rodigious and important.Monthly Labor Review
Review
The editors of Diminishing Welfare, Gertrude Schaffner and Marguerite G. Rosenthal, have assembled a fine array of comprehensive but accessible and interesting studies on the fate of the welfare state in nine nations, spanning three continents. This book will be an asset to intellectual and political debates on the future of the welfare state and an invaluable tool for courses in social policy, social work, political sociology, social inequality, and political science, among others. The introductory chapter, covering the stages of emergence, growth and crisis, and a concluding essay reviewing major themes, issues and theoretical perspective and providing a bibliography of key works in the social policy field makes this book particularly useful for both graduate and undergraduate students.Gregg M. Olsen Sociology University of Manitoba Canada author of The Politics of the Welfare State: Canada, Sweden and the United States
Review
Scrutinizes the nature and extent of changes in social welfare programmes in key industrial or postindustrial countries. Adopting a cross-national perspective, not only sheds light on general trends in social welfare but also provides explanations for the successes and failures of reform.International Socail Society Review
Review
[t]his is a fine collection of case studies by contributors, many of whom are recognized as experts in their areas. The case studies provide very useful summaries of developments in the individual countries and good starting points for students or researchers interested in more in-depth study. The concluding chapter provides not only a synthesis of the ideas, but also raises some important issues in welfare state development.American Journal of Sociology
Review
Diminishing Welfare is guaranteed a place in the literature on welfare state change and transformation.Politics,Social Movements and The State
Review
An indispensable resource for social policy researchers and teachers. It shows, in well-documented detail, how safety nets for the elderly, families, and children, are on a steady decline in much of the Western world.Leon Ginsberg Carolina Distinguished Professor College of Social Work University of South Carolina
Review
This systematic analysis of welfare state retrenchment will spur debates. This is an indispensable and comprehensive work. It sets the stage for 21st century model building to promote economic and social justice.Katharine Briar-Lawson School of Social Welfare State University of New York at Albany
Synopsis
In the 1980s and 1990s, social welfare programs had been cut back, and full employment policies had been abandoned in a number of countries. Indeed, the phrase "dismantling the welfare state" has been used to describe this trend. Well-recognized social welfare scholars and social scientists scrutinize the nature, extent, and consequences of changes in social welfare programs and labor markets in nine industrialized countries.
Synopsis
Compares the nature and extent of changes in social welfare programs and labor markets in nine industrialized countries.
About the Author
GERTRUDE SCHAFFNER GOLDBERG is Professor of Social Policy, Adelphi University School of Social Work, and was for a number of years the director of its Center for Social Policy. Professor Goldberg has published widely on issues of public assistance, the feminization of poverty, comparative social-welfare systems, and social administration. Among her earlier books is The Feminization of Poverty: Only in America? (Praeger, 1990) and Washington's New Poor Law: Welfare "Reform" and the Roads Not Taken: 1935 to the Present.MARGUERITE G. ROSENTHAL is Professor of Social Policy, School of Social Work, Salem State College. Her previously published works are on the Swedish welfare state, juvenile delinquency policy, and privatization.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Three Stages of Welfare Capitalism by Gertrude Schaffner Goldberg
More than Reluctant: The United States of America by Gertrude Schaffner Goldberg
Downloading the Welfare State, Canadian Style by Patricia M. Evans
Sweden: Temporary Detour or New Directions? by Helen Lachs Ginsburg and Marguerite G. Rosenthal
Diminishing Welfare: The Case of the United Kingdom by Jane Millar
The Triple Exceptionalism of the French Welfare State by Mark Kesselman
The Dismantling of Welfare in Germany by Gerhard Backer and Ute Klammer
Diminishing Welfare: The Italian Case by Enrica Morlicchio, Enrico Pugliese, and Elena Spinelli
Hungary: Retrenchment Amid Radical Restructuring by Phineas Baxandall
Is the Japanese-Style Welfare Society Sustainable? by Masami Nomura and Kimiko Kimoto
Diminishing Welfare: Convergence toward a Liberal Model? by Gertrude Schaffner Goldberg