Disputes over government policies rage in a number of areas. From taxation to climate change, from public finance to risk regulation, and from health care to infrastructure planning, advocates debate how policies affect multiple dimensions of individual well-being, how these effects balance against each other, and how trade-offs between overall well-being and inequality should be resolved. How to measure and balance well-being gains and losses, is a vexed issue. Matthew D. Adler advances the debate by introducing the social welfare function (SWF) framework and demonstrating how it can be used as a powerful tool for evaluating governmental policies. The framework originates in welfare economics and in philosophical scholarship regarding individual well-being, ethics, and distributive justice. It has three core components: a well-being measure, which translates each of the possible policy outcomes into an array of interpersonally comparable well-being numbers, quantifying how well off each person in the population would be in that outcome; a rule for ranking outcomes thus described ; and an uncertainty module, which orders policies understood as probability distributions over outcomes. The SWF framework is a significant improvement compared to cost-benefit analysis (CBA), which quantifies policy impacts in dollars, is thereby biased towards the rich, and is insensitive to the distribution of these monetized impacts. The SWF framework, by contrast, uses an unbiased measure of well-being and allows the policymaker to consider both efficiency (total well-being) and equity (the distribution of well-being). Because the SWF framework is a fully generic methodology for policy assessment, Adler also discusses how it can be implemented to inform government policies. He illustrates it through a detailed case study of risk regulation, contrasting the implication of results of SWF and CBA. This book provides an accessible, yet rigorous overview of the SWF approach that can inform policy-makers and students.

In 1967, leaders of the Boston establishment decided to open the city's neighbourhoods by making mortgage funds available to blacks who wanted to build or buy houses there. But this goal was to be achieved by the "private understanding" that these mortgages would be available only in Boston's established Jewish neighbourhoods, such as Mattapan. This policy quickly wiped out the tightly knit Jewish areas in Dorchester and nearby Roxbury, once home to 90,000 Jews. Tragically, few of the new black residents of the area acquired adequate housing, security or education for their families, and the Jewish community was betrayed by its nominal leaders, at the cost of the destruction of historical neighbourhoods. In this book, the authors aim to provide insight into the reasons why this incident took place.

What factors contribute to family violence and how can they be identified early so that future violence can be prevented? Addressing these and related issues, the papers in this volume are a testimony to the rapid expansion of research, theory and practice in the family violence field.

Leading researchers and clinicians explore the roots of family violence, including both physical and sexual abuse, and examine assessment, treatment and prevention. Topics addressed include whether children or the elderly are at greater risk, and the role of substance abuse in family violence.

After a decade of Thatcherism, rising illegitimacy and the moral panic over child sexual abuse, the family is more of a political issue than ever. But is it 'the family' that is in crisis, or family ideology? In this revised edition of an important and controversial book, Diana Gittins adds to a broad range of historical, anthropological and feminist evidence, a new chapter on child sexual abuse.

By offering a comparative, institutional analysis of how state-supported pensions for the elderly developed in Britain, Canada and the United States, Anna Shola Orloff aims to make a contribution to understanding the growth of modern social welfare policies. It is not enough, Orloff demonstrates, to simply examine socioeconomic factors in the growth of the welfare state. She argues that welfare policies are also shaped by the political institutions and processes that are the legacy of state formation and expansion in particular nations. Orloff explains why, when and how poor relief was replaced by modern social insurance legislation and pensions for the elderly in the first three decades of the 20th century. She analyses the long-term social and political transformation that laid the basis for modern social politics: the spread of waged work, the development of new liberal ideologies and the expansion and transformation of state administrative capacities. Combining original historical research with the analysis of secondary sources, Orloff's work is an example of the use of comparative and historical methods in answering questions about macropolitical transformation, such as the origin of the welfare state. ""The Politics of Pensions"" outlines an original, interdisciplinary approach that should appeal to a wide variety of readers: political sociologists interested in the state, social workers and specialists in old age policy, and comparative researchers of all disciplines engaged in research on the welfare state.

"Hannah Kliger has provided an important service to historians... " Journal of American Ethnic History

..". Hannah Kliger has provided a valuable primary source for studying immigrant Jewry and has argued forcefully for the resiliency and adaptability of ethnic institutions as mechanisms for Jewish adaptation and survival." American Jewish Archives

Struggling to cope in a strange land, immigrants in the early years of this century gathered with compatriots from their old hometowns and with family for their social life and to form support systems. Here is an illuminating portrait of community life among Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, as seen by participants in landsmanshaftn (hometown associations) and family circles. Prepared in the 1930s through the WPA-sponsored Yiddish Writer s Group, this revealing document is published here for the first time."

"The best way of handling the question of how much to give the poor, politicians have discovered, is to avoid doing anything about it at all," note Paul Peterson and Mark Rom. The issue of the minimum people need in order to live decently is so difficult that Congress has left this crucial question to the states --even though the federal government foots three-fourths of the bill for about 15 million Americans who receive cash and food stamp benefits.

The states differ widely in their assessment of what a family needs to meet a reasonable standard of living, and the interstate differences in welfare benefits cannot be explained by variations in wage levels or costs of living. The states with higher welfare benefits act as magnets by attracting or retaining poor people. In the competition to avoid becoming welfare havens, states have cut welfare benefits in real dollars by more than one-third since 1970. The authors propose the establishment of a minimum federal welfare standard, which would both reduce the interstate variation in welfare benefits and stem their overall decline.

Peterson and Rom develop their argument in four steps. First they show how the politics of welfare magnets works in a case study of policymaking in Wisconsin. Second, they present their analysis of the overall magnet effect in American state politics, finding evidence that states with high welfare benefits experiencing disproportionate growth in their poverty rates make deeper welfare cuts. Third, they describe the process by which the current system came into being, identifying the reform efforts and political crises that have contributed to the centralization of welfare policy as well as the regional, partisan, and group interests that have resisted these changes. Finally, the authors propose a practical step that can go a long way toward achieving a national welfare standard; then assess it's cost, benefits, and political feasibility.

Examines the effects of rising social security costs and of measures adopted to deal with them, and discusses possible ways of coping with the shortfall of available money for the aging American population.

After the most serious economic crash since the 1930s and the slowest recovery on record, austerity rules. Spending on the welfare state did not cause the crisis, but deep cuts in welfare budgets has become the default policy response. The welfare state is seen as a burden on wealth creation which can no longer be afforded in an ever more competitive global economy. There are calls for it to be dismantled altogether. In this incisive book, leading political economist Andrew Gamble explains why western societies still need generous inclusive welfare states for all their citizens, and are rich enough to provide them. Welfare states can survive, he argues, but only if there is the political will to reform them and to fund them.

A look at how the New Deal fundamentally changed American life, and why it remains relevant today "A must-read for those who've read nothing about the New Deal before, those who've read everything about it, and anyone in between. With timeless prose and timely arguments, Why the New Deal Matters powerfully connects that era to our own."-Kevin M. Kruse, Princeton University The greatest peaceable expression of common purpose in U.S. history, the New Deal altered Americans' relationship with politics, economics, and one another in ways that continue to resonate today. No matter where you look in America, there is likely a building or bridge built through New Deal initiatives. If you have taken out a small business loan backed by the federal government or drawn unemployment insurance, you can thank the New Deal. While certainly flawed in many aspects-the New Deal was implemented by a Democratic Party still beholden to the segregationist South for its majorities in Congress and the Electoral College-the New Deal functioned as a bulwark of American democracy in hard times. This book looks at how this legacy, both for good and ill, informs the current debates around governmental responses to crises.

In his famous report of 1942, the economist and social reformer William Beveridgewrote that the war was a 'revolutionary moment in the world's history' and so a time 'forrevolutions, not for patching.' The Beveridge Report outlined the welfare state that Attlee'sgovernment would go on to implement after 1946, instituting, for the first time, a nationalsystem of benefits to protect all from 'cradle to the grave.' Since then the welfare system hasbeen patched, beset by muddled thinking and short-termism. The government spends overGBP171bn a year on welfare and yet, since the Beveridge Report, there has been no strategicreview of the system. Compare that to Defence which, with its comparatively small budgetof GBP35bn, is subject to a strategic review at least every decade. Reform of the welfare systemneed not mean dismantlement, but serious questions must be asked about how a welfarestate as we understand it remains sustainable into the 21st century.

This collection of twelve essays reviews the history of welfare in Britain over the past 150 years. It focuses on the ideas that have shaped the development of British social policy, and on the thinkers who have inspired and also contested the welfare state. It thereby constructs an intellectual history of British welfare since the concept first emerged at the end of the nineteenth century. The essays divide into four sections. The first considers the transition from laissez-faire to social liberalism from the 1870s, and the enduring impact of late-Victorian philosophical idealism on the development of the welfare state. It focuses on the moral philosophy of T. H. Green and his influence on key figures in the history of British social policy like William Beveridge, R. H. Tawney, and William Temple. The second section is devoted to the concept of 'planning' which was once, in the mid-twentieth century, at the heart of social policy and its implementation, but which has subsequently fallen out of favour. A third section examines the intellectual debate over the welfare state since its creation in the 1940s. Though a consensus seemed to have emerged during the Second World War over the desirability and scope of a welfare state extending 'from the cradle to the grave', libertarian and conservative critiques endured and re-emerged a generation later. A final section examines social policy and its implementation more recently, both at grass roots level in a study of community action in West London in the districts made infamous by the fire at Grenfell Tower in 2017, and at a systemic level where different models of welfare provision are shown to be in uneasy co-existence today. The collection is a tribute to Jose Harris, emeritus professor of history in the University of Oxford and a pioneer of the intellectual history of social policy. Taken together, these essays conduct the reader through the key phases and debates in the history of British welfare.

In this important new book, Bob Jessop offers a radical new interpretation of capitalist states and their likely future development. He focuses on the changing forms, functions, scales and effectiveness of economic and social policy that have emerged since the 1950s in advanced western capitalist states.

The postwar Keynesian welfare national state that developed in most advanced capitalist societies has long been regarded as being in crisis. Mounting tensions have been generated by technological change, globalization, and economic and political crises, and new social and political movements have also had a destabilizing impact. Jessop examines these factors in relation to the rise, consolidation and crisis of Atlantic Fordism and asks whether a new type of capitalist state that is currently emerging offers a solution. He notes that there are several difficulties still to be overcome before the new type of state is consolidated; in particular, he is critical of its neoliberal form and considers its main alternatives.

This book will have broad cross-disciplinary appeal. It will be read by sociologists, political scientists, institutional economists, geographers and students of social policy.

As the population ages and the health care system focuses on cost-containment, family caregivers have become the frontline providers of most long-term and chronic care. Patient care at home falls mainly on untrained and unprepared family members, who struggle to adjust to the new roles, responsibilities, and expenses. Because the culture of family caregivers-their values, priorities, and relationships to the patient-often differs markedly from that of professionals, the result can be conflict and misunderstanding. In The Cultures of Caregiving, Carol Levine and Thomas Murray bring together accomplished physicians, nurses, social workers, and policy experts to examine the differences and conflicts (and sometimes common ground) between family caregivers and health care professionals-and to suggest ways to improve the situation. Topics addressed include family caregivers and the health care system; cultural diversity and family caregiving; the changing relationship between nurses, home care aides, and families; long-term health care policy; images of family caregivers in film; and the ethical dimensions of professional and family responsibilities. The Cultures of Caregiving provides needed answers in the contemporary crisis of family caregiving for a readership of professionals and students in medical ethics, health policy, and such fields as primary care, geriatrics, oncology, nursing, and social work. Contributors: Donna Jean Appell, R.N., Project DOCC: Delivery of Chronic Care; Jeffrey Blustein, Ph.D., Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Barnard College; Judith Feder, Ph.D., Georgetown University; Gladys Gonzalaz-Ramos, M.S.W., Ph.D., New York University School of Social Work and NYU Medical School; David A. Gould, Ph.D., United Hospital Fund in New York City; Eileen Hanley, R.N., M.B.A., St. Vincent's Hospital Manhattan / Saint Vincent Catholic Medical Centers, New York City; Maggie Hoffman, Project DOCC: Delivery of Chronic Care; Alexis Kuerbis, C.S.W., Mount Sinai Medical Center; Carol Levine, M.A., United Hospital Fund, in New York City; Jerome K. Lowenstein, M.D., New York University Medical Center; Mathy Mezey, R.N., Ed.D., New York University; Thomas H. Murray, Ph.D., The Hastings Center, Garrison, New York; Judah L. Ronch, Ph.D., LifeSpan DevelopMental Systems; Sheila M. Rothman, Ph.D., Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health; Rick Surpin, Independence Care System.

During the 1990s the United States undertook the greatest social policy reform since the Social Security Act of 1935. In "Welfare Reform: Effects of a Decade of Change," Jeffrey Grogger and Lynn Karoly assemble evidence from numerous studies, including nearly three dozen social experiments, to assess how welfare reform has affected behavior. To broaden our understanding of this wide-ranging policy reform, the authors evaluate the evidence in relation to an economic model of behavior. The evidence they collect reveals the trade-offs that policymakers face in achieving the conflicting goals of promoting work, reducing dependency, and alleviating need among the poor. Finally, the authors identify numerous areas where important gaps remain in our understanding of the effects of welfare reform.

The book will be a crucial resource for policy economists, social policy specialists, other professionals concerned with welfare policy, and students.

"Both Hands Tied" studies the working poor in the United States, focusing in particular on the relation between welfare and low-wage earnings among working mothers. Grounded in the experience of thirty-three women living in Milwaukee and Racine, Wisconsin, it tells the story of their struggle to balance child care and wage-earning in poorly paying and often state-funded jobs with inflexible schedules--and the moments when these jobs failed them and they turned to the state for additional aid.

Jane L. Collins and Victoria Mayer here examine the situations of these women in light of the 1996 national Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act and other like-minded reforms--laws that ended the entitlement to welfare for those in need and provided an incentive for them to return to work. Arguing that this reform came at a time of gendered change in the labor force and profound shifts in the responsibilities of family, firms, and the state, "Both Hands Tied "provides a stark but poignant portrait of how welfare reform afflicted poor, single-parent families, ultimately eroding the participants' economic rights and affecting their ability to care for themselves and their children.

The first study to explore the origins of welfare in the context of local politics, this book examines the first public welfare policy created specifically for mother-only families. Chicago initiated the largest mothers' pension program in the United States in 1911. Evolving alongside movements for industrial justice and women's suffrage, the mothers' pension movement hoped to provide "justice for mothers" and protection from life's insecurities. However, local politics and public finance derailed the policy, and most women were required to earn. Widows were more likely to receive pensions than deserted women and unwed mothers. And African-American mothers were routinely excluded because they were proven breadwinners yet did not compete with white men for jobs. Ultimately, the once-uniform commitment to protect motherhood faltered on the criteria of individual support, and wage-earning became a major component of the policy.
This revealing study shows how assumptions about women's roles have historically shaped public policy and sheds new light on the ongoing controversy of welfare reform.

An Integrated Approach to Family Work for Psychosis is a manual for using cognitive behavioural approach to working with families of people with severe mental illness. The authors, all experienced clinicians, discuss the various core components of family work, including what constitutes family work, when it might be offered, and how and where it might be applied. As well as these core concerns, the authors also look at reframing challenges and overcoming common personal and external barriers to effective family work. Each chapter can be read individually or as part of the integrated manual. The central argument of the book is that family work must be individualised and it offers a clear approach to engaging and working with families to ensure that this happens, including guidance on how to link components of a service user's plan with their family's strengths and strategies for reducing stress. The book addressed both theory and practice, and concentrates on the experience of mental illness for the service user and their family, providing a focus for intervention. Exploring family work as an integrated psychosocial and educational support strategy, this manual will increase the confidence and competence of new family workers - mental health workers, social workers, psychiatrists, psychologists - and broaden the knowledge of those already working in the area.