This book explores the role of the welfare state in the overall wealth and wellbeing of nations and in particular looks at the American welfare state in comparison with other developed nations in Europe and elsewhere. It is widely believed that the welfare state undermines productivity and economic growth, that the United States has an unusually small welfare state, and that it is, and always has been, a welfare state laggard. This book shows that all rich nations, including the United States, have large welfare states because the socialized programs that comprise the welfare state-public education and health and social insurance-enhance the productivity of capitalism. In public education, the most productive part of the welfare state, for most of the 19th and 20th centuries, the United States was a leader. Though few would argue that public education is not part of the welfare state, most previous cross national analyses of welfare states have omitted education. Including education has profound consequences, undergirding the case for the productivity of welfare state programs and the explanation for why all rich nations have large welfare states, and identifying US welfare state leadership. From 1968 through 2006, the United States swung right politically and lost its lead in education and opportunity, failed to adopt universal health insurance and experienced the most rapid explosion of health care costs and economic inequality in the rich world. The American welfare state faces large challenges. Restoring its historical lead in education is the most important but requires investing large sums in education, beginning with universal pre-school and in complementary programs that aid children's development. The American health insurance system is by far the most costly in the rich world, yet fails to insure one sixth of its population, produces below average results, crowds out useful investments in children, and is the least equitably financed. Achieving universal coverage will increase costs. Only complete government financing is likely to restrain long term costs. In memory of Robert J. Lampman Colleague, Co-author, Friend and Mentor

During the past decade, the appropriate role of government in society has been subjected to a sweeping reevaluation throughout the world. An important element in this ongoing debate has been a reappraisal of the form and magnitude of public social welfare policy. The essays that make up this volume examine a variety of aspects of this topic as it applies to family policy in the United States, including both the political debate over who should be served and how programs should be funded, and the intellectual questions surrounding the nature of social organization and its role within the state. Divided into three major subject areas, the work reexamines basic elements of current policy debate surrounding family life. The first section explores fundamental features of family policy, considering whether there is a conflict of interest between adults and children in fashioning social policy, and outlining the parameters of a feminist family policy. The second section examines the linkage between ideology and action. Among the topics covered are the link between state political culture and family policy, latchkey children, treatment of the nation's elderly and its link to a mythical past, abortion, and family policy in the People's Republic of China. The final section analyzes a number of specific policies, including AFDC program cutbacks, the decline in family planning resources, nonfamily-based care, and joint custody arrangements, and attempts to trace their impact. A concluding chapter examines the future of family policy. This work will be a valuable resource for both students and professionals in the fields of public policy studies and sociology, as well as an important addition to public and academic libraries.

The Covid-19 pandemic has tragically exposed how today's welfare state cannot properly protect its citizens. Despite the valiant efforts of public sector workers, from under-resourced hospitals to a shortage of housing and affordable social care, the pandemic has shown how decades of neglect has caused hundreds to die. In this bold new book, leading policy analyst Ursula Huws shows how we can create a welfare state that is fair, affordable, and offers security for all. Huws focuses on some of the key issues of our time - the gig economy, universal, free healthcare, and social care, to criticize the current state of welfare provision. Drawing on a lifetime of research on these topics, she clearly explains why we need to radically rethink how it could change. With positivity and rigor, she proposes new and original policy ideas, including critical discussions of Universal Basic Income and new legislation for universal workers' rights. She also outlines a 'digital welfare state' for the 21st century. This would involve a repurposing of online platform technologies under public control to modernize and expand public services, and improve accessibility.

Contents:
Introduction Johnston Birchall 1. Housing policy and the disabling of local authorities Peter Malpass 2. Housing associations: a move to centre stage Mike Langstaff 3. Building societies: builders or financiers? Douglas Smallwood 4. The social and economic consequences of the growth of home ownership Stuart Lowe 5. Private rented housing and the impact of deregulation A.D.H. Crook 6. The 1987 housing policy: an enduring reform? D.A. Coleman 7. Issues of race and gender facing housing policy Norman Ginsburg and Sophie Watson 8. Council tenants: sovereign consumers or pawns in the game? Johnston Birchall Conclusion Johnston Birchall

Democracy, Capitalism, and the Welfare State investigates political thought under the conditions of the postwar welfare state, focusing on the Federal Republic of Germany (1949-1989). The volume argues that the welfare state informed and altered basic questions of democracy and its relationship to capitalism. These questions were especially important for West Germany, given its recent experience with the collapse of capitalism, the disintegration of democracy, and National Socialist dictatorship after 1930. Three central issues emerged. First, the development of a nearly all-embracing set of social services and payments recast the problem of how social groups and interests related to the state, as state agencies and affected groups generated their own clientele, their own advocacy groups, and their own expert information. Second, the welfare state blurred the line between state and society that is constitutive of basic rights and the classic world of liberal freedom; rights became claims on the state, and social groups became integral parts of state administration. Third, the welfare state potentially reshaped the individual citizen, who became wrapped up with mandatory social insurance systems, provisioning of money and services related to social needs, and the regulation of everyday life. Peter C. Caldwell describes how West German experts sought to make sense of this vast array of state programs, expenditures, and bureaucracies aimed at solving social problems. Coming from backgrounds in politics, economics, law, social policy, sociology, and philosophy, they sought to conceptualize their state, which was now social (one German word for the welfare state is indeed Sozialstaat), and their society, which was permeated by state policies.

The rapid political changes in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union have had repercussions for many elements of the socialist system. Housing provision, always an important part of the socialist agenda, has undergone extensive changes. These have solved some problems but given rise to others. The studies in "The Reform of Housing in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union" highlight the various aspects of housing reform, including such issues as rehabilitation, private initiatives, housing quality, welfare requirements and home ownership. While in some countries policy-makers have adhered to the older methods of housing provision, in others the number of massive state-run projects has declined in favour of smaller privately-funded enterprises. The latest changes reflect the socio-economic restructuring of the countries in general and thus housing can be seen as a spearhead for reforms throughout the system. The contributors are active researchers in the former Eastern Bloc who analyze the latest reforms and academics from Western Europe who supply a context of broader housing issues. This book should be of interest to undergraduates and academics in Soviet studies, urban studies, social

The 'Golden Age' of the welfare state in Europe was characterised by a strengthening of social rights as citizens became increasingly protected through the collective provision of income security and social services. The oil crisis, inflation and high unemployment of the 1970s largely saw the end of welfare expansion with critical voices claiming the welfare state had created an unbalanced focus on the social rights of individuals, above their responsibilities as citizens. During the 1980s many western countries developed contractual modes of thinking and regulation within welfare policy. Contractualism has proved a significant organising principle for public reforms in general, and for social policy reforms in particular as it embraces both a way of justifying certain welfare policies and of constructing specific socio-legal policy instruments. Engaging with both the critique of the welfare state and the subsequent policy responses, expert contributors in this book examine contractualism as a discourse, comprising principles and justifying ideas, and as a legal and social practice. Covering the international debate on conditionality they discuss European experiences with active social citizenship ideas and contractualism providing individual case studies and comparisons from a wide range of European countries.

This is a case study of the shifting boundary between family and state in Britain from the mid 1970s to 1990. The book describes a variety of family centres and shows how they have responded to the crises in child welfare and social work. The book also considers the issues of gender in policy.

Provides a comprehensive, up-to-date description and analysis of the housing and neighborhood problems facing residents of the nation's largest city, and the policies that have been developed to solve these problems.

This comprehensive volume brings to light little known implications of legal, economic, and custodial factors following a divorce. The Consequences of Divorce goes beyond the past decade's extensive focus on emotional and social adjustment outcomes to explore in-depth the post-divorce legal, economic, and custodial variables that impact the entire family. This important volume examines the economic conditions of both marriage partners after the divorce, the effect of legislative models on child support payment, child custody patterns and their impact on the family, and intervention strategies that take such custody problems into account. Teachers, counselors, researchers, and attorneys will be better prepared to offer support to family members after a divorce with the understanding of the economic and custodial conflicts that they will gain from this new book.The authoritative contributors examine statistics that show a marked decline in the economic well-being of women and children, which lead to questions of standards of adequacy for child support awards and an exploration of a new child support scheme from Australia. Different child custody arrangements are analyzed according to their consequences for each family member, providing valuable information for treating divorced families. Specific topics of interest include decreased parental involvement for fathers after a divorce, siblings separated by divorce, mothers without custody, and children's own viewpoints of custody arrangements. This informative book will lead to increased services to divorced families by expanding professionals'awareness of critical economic and legal issues that affect each member of the family.

This work proposes a new approach to welfare: a social policy that goes beyond simple income maintenance to foster individual initiative and self-sufficiency. It argues for an asset-based policy that would create a system of saving incentives through individual development accounts (IDAs) for specific purposes, such as college education, homeownership, self-employment and retirement security. In this way, low-income Americans could gain the same opportunities that middle- and upper-income citizens have to plan ahead, set aside savings and invest in a more secure future.

Housing studies have often neglected important areas of debate that affect other social sciences. While there are an increasing number of studies that focus on specific areas such as over-crowding and home-ownership, the development of broader housing concepts has been slow. Jim Kemeny looks at the nature of housing research and focuses on various key debates in social theory and their relation to housing. Looking in particular at three main areas - political science, social change and welfare - he provides a critique of the current methods of theory. Case studies are presented to illustrate the application of various theories, covering areas such as privatism, collectivism, urban planning, hegemony, ideology and myth.

This book contains the proceeding of the conferences on Disasters and the Small Dwelling, held at Oxford in September 1990. The 26 papers cover recent experiences of post-disaster shelter and housing provision, review what has been achieved, what needs disseminating and implementing, and assesses what needs further development. The volume thus defines an international agenda to achieve safer low-income dwellings in the course of the 1990s, designated International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction by the UN. It will be essential reading for anyone - whether governmental or non-governmental agency officials, academic researchers, representatives of private industry or consultants - whose work involves analysis, shelter, mitigation and reconstruction programmes for low-income dwellings in disaster-prone areas.

When a family's problems become so severe that traditional community resources are unable to help them effectively, caseworkers are usually advised to place children outside the home. Family preservation services such as Homebuilders are designed to give caseworkers and families another option: services that are more intensive, accessible, flexible, and goal-oriented than conventional supports. Instead of relieving family pressure by removing a child, the approach described here adds resources to alleviate pressure and to facilitate the development of a nurturing environment for children within the context of the family. Whereas crisis intervention attempts to resolve immediate problems their approach enables the family to function better after the crisis than before. In addition to their obvious social benefits, family preservation services are cost effective. Straightforward and practice-oriented, "Keeping Families Together" profiles the kinds of families that are assisted by prevention services such as this, tracing the salient features of its innovative approach to crisis intervention, its organizational features, and its knowledge and research base. Rich in actual examples drawn from family practice, this book will be of great interest to beginning students as well as practitioners in family and children's services. The book is also intended for those who are considering beginning their own Family Preservation Services to evaluate whether or not the approach will be a good fit for them, to become aware of some of the complexities of program design and training so that they can make informed decisions. When the book first appeared, "Contemporary Psychology" said that it "speaks for itself as a wonderful description of how to be of help to families in crisis." "Jill Kinney" is executive director of Home, Safe, a private Seattle, Washington nonprofit corporation begun in 1992 to develop and implement innovative approaches to helping families throughout the United States. "David Haapala" co-founded the Homebuilders program with Jill Kinney, and has provided consultation to such diverse groups as Universal Studios, Hollywood, California; Ute Indian Nation, Ute Mountain, Towaoc, Colorado; and Community Services of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia. "Charlotte Booth" is executive director of Homebuilders and executive director of the Institute for Family Development.

Housing should provide a safe and healthy environment for its inhabitants. Many technical, social, planning and policy factors relating to housing may affect physical and mental health and social wellbeing. These factors can be expressed in terms of basic human requirements which can, accordingly, be incorporated into housing standards, policies and goals of attainment relevant to an individual country's needs, resources and priorities. No universal interpretation of health housing is possible, but typical requirments, as outlined in this volume, can form the necessary basis. The objective of this book is to encourage administrations to formulate a sound housing policy to solve basic health-related housing problems and to meet WHO's objective of "healthful housing" for all by the year 2000.

This text aims to review the issues raised by the state provision of social benefits in cash and in kind and to examine the principles on which their provision may be deemed to rest. The contributors examine the purpose of this area of public activity of 60% of public expenditure in Britain. What are these elaborate social services meant to achieve? By what criteria are they to be judged? By what authority have the objectives been adopted and the criteria applied? The answers to questions such as these will obviously reflect both differences in basic value judgements and differences in appraising the facts of any social situation. The editors compile many viewpoints on the topic.

The methodology of housing and planning in the developing world has largely been adapted from practice in post-industrial countries. This book aims to show how methods of analysis can be best suited to the local context. It meets the need to bring together methods of analysis from several disciplines which can be applied to housing - each method presented and illustrated with a case study to show how it can be used to inform housing policy in a wide range of countries in all parts of the developing world. The methods presented range from intuitive to highly structured and from those dealing with the house and neighbourhood level to those which analyze city or country-wide issues. Unlike other books in the field, this concentrates on the methods of analysis rather than the housing policies and programmes, and argues that expediency should not be the only factor in determining such policies. This book should be of interest to students and professionals in the fields of development studies, housing studies and human geography.

Young and Homeless in Hollywood examines the social and spacial dynamics that contributed to the construction of a new social imaginary--"homeless youth"--in the United States during a period of accelerated modernization from the mid 1970s to the 1990s. Susan Ruddick draws from a range of theoretical frameworks and empirical treatments that deal with the relationship between placemaking and the politics of social identity.

Housing has been a key battleground in the fight against racial discrimination. This publication examines the law in relation to issues of housing and race in both the private and the public sector. It places these issues in the broader context of the development of anti-discrimination legislation, outlines the current legislation and examines its impact in relation to owner occupation, public housing, housing association tenancies and private lets. Throughout, the book emphasizes the practical impact of the various legislative programmes, and discusses the responses of the principal institutions, from government departments to the Commission for Racial Equality and Community Relations Councils. It contrasts developments in the USA, from which legislation is largely derived, and argues a case for a new approach to enforcement.

This work proposes a new approach to welfare: a social policy that goes beyond simple income maintenance to foster individual initiative and self-sufficiency. It argues for an asset-based policy that would create a system of saving incentives through individual development accounts (IDAs) for specific purposes, such as college education, homeownership, self-employment and retirement security. In this way, low-income Americans could gain the same opportunities that middle- and upper-income citizens have to plan ahead, set aside savings and invest in a more secure future.

This book provides a comprehensive analysis of Scandinavia as a regional international society, including the Nordic Peace and the rise of the Scandinavian welfare state. Schouenborg aims to take the next big step in the theoretical development of the English School of International Relations - particularly the structural version introduced by Barry Buzan. He analyses the formation of a Scandinavian regional international society over a 200-year period and develops the concepts of 'primary institutions' and 'binding forces' as an analytical framework. In doing so, he not only offers one of the first systematic applications of English School structural theory, but also sheds a new comparative light on the distinctiveness of Scandinavian international relations, and provides a novel intervention in the debates about the emergence of the so-called Nordic Peace. In the first part of the book Schouenborg explains the core concepts and discusses how one may distinguish a regional international society from the broader global international society in which it is embedded. In the second part he provides an in-depth study of the Scandinavian case, focussing on the periods 1815 to 1919; 1919 to 1989; and 1989 to 2010. The Scandinavian International Society will be of interest to students and scholars of international relations theory, Scandinavian international relations and history, and researchers engaged in comparative welfare state studies.

Southern Europe has been hit hard by the global economic crisis and, as such, their welfare states have come under acute strain. Unmet need has sharply increased while significant welfare reforms and deep social spending cuts have been prominent in the crisis management solutions implemented by governments, labouring under EU constraints and the strict rescue-deal requirements for Greece and Portugal. This volume provides a systematic comparative appraisal of welfare-state reform trajectories across Southern Europe prior to and during the crisis, and traces the impact of austerity policies and wider recession upon income inequality and poverty. It brings together a number of cross-country studies on major social policy areas, raising crucial questions. What policy choices are driving reforms as Southern European economies work their way out of fiscal difficulty? Can the crisis provoke the improvement of institutional capabilities and recalibration of social? Or, instead, does structural adjustment indicate a significant policy turn towards the erosion of social rights? The contributions critically approach these issues and bring evidence to bear upon whether Southern European welfare capitalisms are becoming more dissimilar. This book was originally published as a special issue of South European Society & Politics.

First Published in 1965. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

First published in 1988. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Written by experts, Sustainable Housing brings new perspectives on residential sustainability, using case studies of latest practice. This book is based upon the 'Housing and Sustainability' conference at the RIBA in 1998, which intended to guide action into the next century, setting down key principles, providing important new technical information and setting UK practices in a European context.