The recent devolution to the states of responsibilities previously held by the federal government -- a key goal of the deficit-reduction, smaller-government agenda of the 1990s -- has far-reaching implications for state budgets. At the moment, a strong economy has put most states into a strong enough fiscal condition to shoulder such burdens as welfare reform and public investment. But beneath the current surpluses are structural problems that are unlikely to withstand the next economic downturn; as a result, any essential public needs will be left unmet. This book deal with three major areas of concern: first, the effect of moving large numbers of welfare recipients into labor markets; second, the planned federal reforms in the health care field that will shift costs to the state and local sector; and third, trends in federal aid. A basic finding of these essays is that state economies can accommodate these challenges generally speaking, but the effect of recent welfare reform presents a problem too long-range to be adequately assessed in the near-term.

Presenting up-to-date empirical research on the subject of young people, housing and social policy in contemporary Britain, this book considers the issue of young people's early housing histories in the context of a range of government policy initiatives aimed at the group. It offers a critique of aspects of social policy that specifically address the housing of young people. Topics covered include:
*young people leaving care
*young people in the parental home
*youth homelessness
*housing services for young people
*students in the private rented sector
*young owner occupiers
*housing benefit for the under 25s
*young single parent families
*young people and housing in rural areas
*social housing.

Presenting up-to-date empirical research on the subject of young people, housing and social policy in contemporary Britain, this book considers the issue of young people's early housing histories in the context of a range of government policy initiatives aimed at the group. It offers a critique of aspects of social policy that specifically address the housing of young people. Topics covered include:
*young people leaving care
*young people in the parental home
*youth homelessness
*housing services for young people
*students in the private rented sector
*young owner occupiers
*housing benefit for the under 25s
*young single parent families
*young people and housing in rural areas
*social housing.

Transformations of the Welfare State gives a new twist to the longstanding debate on the impact of economic globalization on the welfare state. The authors focus on several small, advanced OECD economies in order to assess whether (and how) the welfare state will be able to compete under conditions of an increasingly integrated world economy.
Small states can be seen as an 'early warning system' for general trends, because of their dependence on world markets and vulnerability to competitive pressures. The book's theoretical part innovatively integrates the literature on the political economy of small states with more recent research on the impact of globalization on social policy to generate a set of ideal-typical policy scenarios. In the main body of the book, the authors systematically test these scenarios against the experience of four countries: Austria, Denmark, New Zealand, and Switzerland.
The comparative, in-depth analysis of reform trajectories since the 1970s in four key policy areas; pensions, labor market policy, health care, and family policy provides, according to the authors, substantial evidence of a new convergence in welfare state patterns. They go on to argue that this amounts to a fundamental transformation of the welfare state from the old Keynesian welfare state positioned 'against the market' to a new set of supply-side policies 'with' and 'for' the market. Yet one of the big lessons to be learned from this timely study is that the transformation does not match the doomsday scenario predicted by neo-classical economists in the 1990s. There is no evidence of a 'race to the bottom' of social expenditure and standards of social protection, nor of a convergence towards a 'liberal' social policy model. Looking to the possible future of the welfare state in an era newly marked by profound uncertainty, the authors sound an optimistic note for states of any size.

This text presents a critique of contemporary housing policy with a philisophical analysis of the role of the state and the capabilities of individuals. Offering a detailed examination of the role of the state as controller and funder of housing, the author argues that the state is not capable of planning and controlling a sustainable housing policy. The book opens with a discussion of libertian prinicples which place individuals and their action as the focus of social action. These principles are then used to develop a critique of the housing finance literature and the view that housing is a merit good which should be provided by the government. Housing need is seen being instrumental to choice and thus individual households are seen as being capable of determining their own needs. This leads into a detailed consideration of the nature, purpose and effects of housing subsidies. The book ends with a discussion of how the principals of voluntarism and localism might be used to achieve a housing system based on individual autonomy.

Imagining Welfare Futures explores possible futures of welfare by considering different types of relationship between the public and the state through which social welfare may be organized beyond the millennium. By drawing on contemporary debates about the 'citizen', 'the community' and 'the consumer', the book explores what each of these imaginary figures might mean for the next generation of welfare users.

Forensic psychiatry is the discipline which distinguishes the 'mad' from the 'bad', but are its values inherently racist? Why are individuals from non-Western backgrounds over-represented statistically in those diagnosed with schizophrenia and other serious illnesses? The authors argue that the values on which psychiatry is based are firmly rooted in ethnocentric Western culture, with profound implications for individual diagnosis and systems of care.
Through detailed exploration of the history of psychiatry, current clinical issues and present public policy, this powerful book traces the growth of a system in which non-conformity to the prevailing cultural norms risks alienation and diagnosis of mental disorder.

This important research literature review discusses some of the most prominent literature in the field of individual choice and economic welfare. It analyses material exploring how economics as a scientific enterprise may inform political decision-making. The premise is explored paradigmatically through different interpretations including utility-individualism in the context of welfare economics, preference-individualism in social choice theory, and choice-individualism in constitutional economics. The review covers the foundational literature as well as contemporary pieces, which have sparked further discussion in the field. This review will be valuable to researchers and scholars alike as well as to all those gravitating towards this fascinating topic.

Post-Industrial Socialism provides critical analysis of recent developments in leftist political thought. Adrian Little charts new directions in the economy and the effects they have had on traditional models of social welfare and orthodox approaches to social policy.
In demonstrating the limitations of the welfare state and the associated concept of citizenship, this book suggests that we need to renew socialist welfare theory through the evaluation of universal welfare provision and a policy of breaking the link between work and income.

The growth in part-time employment has been one of the most striking features in industrialized economies over the past forty years. This work discusses the controversial debates surrounding the subject - is part-time work better than unemployment or is social welfare a disincentive to taking up part-time work, is this kind of work becoming an increasingly normal part of most people's working lives, or does it remain a female ghetto of low pay, low pensions and low labour standards. The book presents a systematically comparative analysis of the common and divergent patterns in the use of part-time work in Europe, America and the Pacific Rim. It brings together sociologists and economists in this wide-ranging and comprehensive survey, tackling such areas as gender issues, ethnic questions and the differences between certain national economies.

The growth in part-time employment has been one of the most striking features in industrialized economies over the past forty years. Part-Time Prospects presents for the first time a systematically comparative analysis of the common and divergent patterns in the use of part-time work in Europe, America and the Pacific Rim. It brings together sociologists and economists in this wide-ranging and comprehensive survey. It tackles such areas as gender issues, ethnic questions and the differences between certain national economies including low pay, pensions and labour standards.

The Economics of Welfare occupies a privileged position in economics. It contributed to the professionalization of economics, a goal aggressively and effectively pursued by Pigou's predecessor and teacher Alfred Marshall. The Economics of Welfare also may be credited with establishing welfare economics, by systematically analyzing market departures and their potential remedies. In writing The Economics of Welfare, Pigou built a bridge between the old and the new economics at Cambridge and in Britain. Much of the book remains relevant for contemporary economics. The list of his analyses that continues to play an important role in economics is impressive. Some of the more important include: public goods and externalities, welfare criteria, index number problems, price discrimination, the theory of the firm, the structure of relief programs for the poor, and public finance. Pigou's discussion of the institutional structure governing labor-market operations in his Wealth and Welfare prompted Schumpeter to call the work "the greatest venture in labor economics ever undertaken by a man who was primarily a theorist." The Economics of Welfare established welfare economics as a field of study. The first part analyzes the relationship between the national dividend and economic and total welfare. Parts II and III link the size of the dividend to the allocation of resources in the economy and the institutional structure governing labor-market operations. Part IV explores the relationship between the national dividend and its distribution. In her new introduction, Nahid Aslanbeigui discusses the life of Pigou and the history of The Economics of Welfare. She also discusses Pigou's theories as expressed in this volume and some of the criticisms those theories have met as well as the impact of those criticisms. The Economics of Welfare is a classic that repays careful study.

Singapore's successful public housing programme is a source of political legitimacy for the ruling People's Action Party. Beng-Huat Chua accounts for the success of public housing in Singapore and draws out lessons for other nations. Housing in Singapore, he explains in this incisive analysis, is seen neither as a consumer good (as in the US) nor as a social right (as in the social democracies of Europe). The author goes on to look at the ways in which Singapore's planners have dealt with the problems of creating communities in a modern urban environment. He concludes that the success of the public housing programme has done much for Singapore.

What happens when you include the family in the delivery of primary care? Do patients rehabilitate faster? How are prevention, treatment, and diagnosis affected? In Family Health Care, an interdisciplinary group of scholars addresses these questions and provides insight into the awakening interest in family-oriented care. This timely volume shows how recent changes in family life challenge traditional approaches to family-oriented care, examines models for training physicians to "think family," presents exemplars of family-oriented care, and provides models for intervention in applying family practice. The contributors also furnish an overview of research on family health care and discuss future directions in the methodology of family-oriented health care. Family Health Care is destined to become an indispensable resource for teachers and academics in family medicine and nursing, as well as specialists working in the field including social workers, psychologists, family therapists, and family/health care researchers. "It is a valuable book because it makes both theory and practice very accessible even to the reader who may not previously have considered these issues in any depth." --Health and Social Care "This text is well referenced with a helpful index. It provides a concise overview of relevant family systems theory, methodology, and approaches toward family therapy and research. The dialogue is thought provoking and, at times, controversial. . . . This book contributes importantly to one of the most critical issues in family medicine affecting our conceptual foundation, our self-perception, and our future."

Should the public play a greater role within the financial system? Decisions about money are a part of our everyday lives. Supporters promote financial inclusion as a way of helping people navigate decisions about money. However, critics fear these policies promote the financialisation of the welfare state and turn citizens into consumers. Presenting a nuanced, critical analysis of financial inclusion, Rajiv Prabhakar brings together the supportive and critical literatures which have, until now, developed in parallel. Addressing key issues including the poverty premium, financial capability and housing, this essential dialogue advances crucial public, academic and policy debates and proposes alternative paths forward.

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How can we best analyse contemporary welfare state change? And how can we explain and understand the politics of it? This book contributes to these questions both empirically and theoretically by concentrating on one of the least likely cases for welfare state transformation in Europe. It analyzes in detail how and why institutional change has taken Germany's welfare state from a conservative towards a new work-first regime. Christof Schiller introduces a novel analytical framework to make sense of the politics of welfare state transformation by providing the missing link: the capacity of the core executive over time. Examining the policy making process in labour market policy in the period between 1980 and 2010, he identifies three different policy making episodes and analyses their interaction with developments and changes in such policy areas as pension policy, family policy, labour law, tax policy and social assistance. The book advances existing efforts aimed at conceptualizing and measuring welfare state change by proposing a clear-cut conceptualization of social policy regime change and introduces a comprehensive analysis of the transformation of the welfare-work nexus between 1980 and 2010 in Germany. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of social policy, comparative welfare state reform, welfare politics, government, governance, public policy, German politics, European politics, political economy, sociology and history.

Modernizing the Korean Welfare State analyzes recent developments in social and public policy in South Korea. Its focus is the new approach to Korea's system of social protection, known as the productive welfare paradigm. This volume brings together an international group of scholars to examine the new paradigm and associated policy developments. In the first part, contributors examine the significance of the productive welfare paradigm and recent policy developments within a broader comparative and international perspective. They question the commitment to welfare in the paradigm, viewing it largely as an example of a global trend towards the "enabling state" in which social welfare serves largely economic goals. Other contributors situate the new paradigm in relation to globalization and its implications for national strategies of social protection developed in earlier times. The new departure in Korea is compared to European welfare state development, and contributors find it a bold attempt to fashion a comprehensive welfare state based on social rights. In the second part, contributors focus on specific issues and policy areas. These include the degree to which Korea has been following a "pro-poor" growth policy. They evaluate developments in the area of unemployment and work injury insurance. They review the progress of policies in the area of social insurance and assistance, and the American system of income support for low income earners and its lessons for Korean policymakers. Other contributors review the public pensions system in Korea, and environmental protection policies are discussed and the impact of those policies on the poor and people of color, who are disproportionately exposed to environmental hazards.

Southern European welfare states - in common with their northern counterparts - are under stress. They have become the object of studies exploring the southern "type" or "model" of welfare. This collection provides a series of both comparative and specific country analyses.

The modern welfare state is indeed one of the greatest achievements of the post-war 20th century. With its key aims of eradicating the five giant social ills of Want, Ignorance, Disease, Squalor and Idleness, it aimed to providing a minimum standard of living, with all people of working age paying a weekly contribution; in return, benefits would be paid to anyone who was sick, unemployed, retired or widowed. The modern welfare state, therefore, is about maintaining a delicate equilibrium between dependent social groups on the one hand and the active working classes on the other. In the case of old-age security, this balance is being achieved (or not) by the so-called Generation Contract. This social pact is more of an implicit, unwritten and unspecified social contract. This ground-breaking book demonstrates how countries are addressing population-ageing challenges in depth, using the case study of Austria to gain the required complexity and differentiation in a comparative European framework of empirical evidence. This is a broad social science study in political economy and sociology, not an economic analysis. Though focusing on pensions, it centres on the (im)balance between work and non-work, issues of health, work ability, employability, and benefit receipt from old-age security to disability allowance. It will be required reading for all sociologists and social policy experts and academics working within this area.

Murray presents an argument for a system of social insurance that replaces welfare with a Guaranteed Adequate Income. The book reviews the current public assistance programs, including SSI, AFDC, Unemployment Compensation, and Food Stamps, summarizing the positive aspects and inadequacies of each plan; it also evaluates other plans that have been proposed. A rationale and cost analysis of GAI concludes the book. Written in a non-technical and comprehensible style, the plan is designed to be politically non-partisan and appeal to both liberals and conservatives.

A fully revised and rewritten second edition of a book which is now regarded as a classic. Takes full advantage of new research and places strong emphasis on voluntary action and the role of women in the shaping of social policy. It retains the excellent historical perspective that makes it unique among its competitors, comparing recent policy changes to pre-1950 welfare policy.

This is a third edition of a successful textbook that provides a contemporary account of how social services in the UK are paid for. The new edition brings the textbook up-to-date with its fast-moving subject area, explaining the finance of human services - health care, education, housing, social security a nd social care-through a review of the economic literature. It also gives an account of how the cash to pay for the services actually reaches schools, hospitals and social service departments, right from the start of the process, examining how government raises taxes, through to allocation of the funds. Both comprehensive and expertly written, this textbook will continue to feature as key reading for a variety of Social and Policy related courses.

Housing Policy in Europe provides a comprehensive introduction to the economic, political and social issues of housing across the continent.
The changing policy and practice of housing in fifteen countries from across Northern, Western, Southern and Central Europe are described, analyzed and compared.
The book explains why different systems of tenure are dominant in different groups of countries, and the extent to which housing policies within these countries conform to different welfare systems.
It reveals how owner-occupation has taken over from social housing as the chosen system of tenure and how this reflects a political and economic shift, from social democracy or communism to neo-liberalism across Europe.

Housing Policy in Europe provides a comprehensive introduction to the economic, political and social issues of housing across the continent.
The changing policy and practice of housing in fifteen countries from across Northern, Western, Southern and Central Europe are described, analyzed and compared.
The book explains why different systems of tenure are dominant in different groups of countries, and the extent to which housing policies within these countries conform to different welfare systems.
It reveals how owner-occupation has taken over from social housing as the chosen system of tenure and how this reflects a political and economic shift, from social democracy or communism to neo-liberalism across Europe.