Chapter 1. Social policy and the American Welfare State

1. SWK521
FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIAL WELFARE
POLICY

2. Learning Objectives
 Definitions of social welfare policy
 Relationship between social welfare policy and social
problems
 Values and ideologies that drive social welfare in the U.S.
 Conservatism vs. liberalism
 Economic justification and consequences

3. Definitions
 What is Social Welfare Policy?
 The regulation of the provision of benefits to people who
require assist ance in meeting their basic life needs, such as
for employment, income, food, health care, and relationships

4. Definitions
 What are Social Services?
 Programs designed to increase human capital by ameliorating
problems in psychosocial functioning, providing necessary goods
and services outside normal market mechanisms, and providing
cash supplements for the lack of market income
 Basic idea is to redistribute resources from those who have more
(taxpayers) to those who are disadvantaged

5. Definitions
 What five different types of agencies provide social services?
 Public or government agencies
 Non-profit agencies
 For-profit agencies
 Mutual help or self-help agencies
 Religious Organizations

6. Definitions
 Public/government agencies are:
 Established by law or legislation
 Funded by taxpayers
 Provide cash, non-cash as well as in-kind benefits
 In-kind benefits: Noncash goods or services provided by the
government that function as proxy for cash
 Ex. Food stamps, housing vouchers or medical care

7. Definitions
 Non-profit agencies:
 Funded by donations, grants, endowments, other non-profits
 Governed by a board of trustees or directors
 For-profit agencies:
 Charge a fee-for-service for services provided
 Users pay out of pocket or use Medicaid, health insurance or other forms of
payment

8. Definitions
 Mutual-help groups:
 Funded by its members; run like grassroots, low expenses
 Led by those who have suffered or live through same/similar
experiences
 Religious organizations:
 Provide outreach services; run by a church
 Do not require consumers to belong to same religion affiliation

9. Definitions
 Mutual-help groups:
 Funded by its members; run like grassroots, low expenses
 Led by those who have suffered or live through same/similar
experiences
 Religious organizations:
 Provide outreach services; run by a church
 Do not require consumers to belong to same religion affiliation

10. Social Problems & Social Welfare
Policy
 Capitalism
 Is an economic system in which most of production, manufacturing
and distribution of goods and services takes place under private
functions
 How does capitalism interact with social welfare?
 Supply and demand leads to bankruptcy and other economic shifts
 Changing economy means jobs created in one sector and lost in others

11. Social Problems & Social Welfare
Policy
 Capitalism
 Unemployed workers seek out unemployment insurance
 Under paid/under employed workers seek out supplemental benefits
(e.g., SNAP, Medicaid, housing vouchers and Section 8, etc.)
 Social welfare that supplements wages keep consumer prices low
 Help stabilize prices and help in economic growth

12. Social Work and Social Policy
 Inadequate funding normally has damaging effects on social
services:
 Under staffing and over stretched staff; higher caseloads
 Under paid staff, under qualified or cutting staff altogether
 Unavailability of resources within the agency

13. Social Work and Welfare Policy
 Social policies determine how social work is performed.
 What sort aspects of social policies direct social work?

14. Social Work and Welfare Policy
 Social policies determine how social work is performed.
 What sort aspects of social policies direct social work?
 Funding
 Support
 Implementation
 Need

15. Social Work and Welfare Policy
 What directs policymaking?
 Personal values (by extension political values)
 Ideology
 Customs and tradition
 Money
 Demand? Need?
 Assumptions based on research?

16. Social Work and Welfare Policy
 Ideology
 Is a set of socially sanctioned assumptions, usually unexamined, explaining how the world
works and encompassing a society’s general methods for addressing social problems
 What is it?
 How the world works
 What has value
 What is worth living for and dying for
 What is good
 What is true
 What is right

17. Political Economy & Welfare
 Welfare can be viewed from the political view and an economical view
 Keynesian economics
 John Maynard Keynes
 An economic school that proposes government intervention in the economy through such
activities as social welfare programs to stimulate and regulate economic growth
 Liberal economics in which the government must interfere in order to stabilize the economy

18. Political Economy & Welfare
 Free-Market economics (Friedrich Hayek)
 Markets are organic and should be left alone; any interference will be an obstacle to
efficiency
 Conservative view
 Government welfare programs erode work ethic. Need compels people to work.
 Tax payer money that goes to welfare does not go to govt investment in private sector
 Supply-side Economics. A school of political economy that proposes reductions in social
programs so that tax dollars can be reinvested in the private sector to capitalize economic
growth
 “Trickle-down Economics”
 Historically shown not to work, but continually preferred by conservative administrations.
 Why don’t they work?

19. Political Economy & Welfare
 Both Keynesian and economic conservatives believe that capitalism is compatible with
public good. (p. 11). Socialism disagrees.
 Democratic Socialism.
 Believe that social welfare is needed to combat the problems caused by capitalism. Individual good
versus the common good. Seeks sweeping institutional change.
 Social welfare should be structural and can only be accomplished by redistributing resources

20. Political Continuum & Welfare
 Liberalism (Leftist Movement)
 View government as a way to bring social justice to those held back by racism, discrimination,
sexism, etc. as well as poverty
 FDR’s New Deal credited with promoting the common good -- provided non-means tested
welfare and healthcare programs
 Social Security Act of 1935 – taxed the wealthy and uses that revenue to secure programs for the
poor. Expanded to include more middle class programs like Medicare, FHA mortgage loans,
federally insured student loans, etc.

21. Political Continuum & Welfare
 Neoliberalism – transformation from liberal system and move Democratic Party closer to
center than left
 Called for personal responsibility, work requirements, cutting expending on welfare
programs (ex. TANF limited benefits and requirements; child support enforcement, etc.)
 More tolerant of big corporations and opposed to economic protections
 Argued for free-trade and de-regulation of large corporations and service providers,
and a hands-off approach to social problems
 Pro investing in human capital such as vocational training, education and research; Anti
excessive unproductive spending on welfare programs and prices supports
 Presidents Clinton and Obama are viewed as Neoliberals

22. Political Continuum & Welfare
 Conservatives – in general, anti-union and pro-corporation, oppose regulations by the
government, want lower taxes and less social spending, advocate for local and state
government involvement (in lieu of federal government), oppose civil rights legislation, are
pro-gun and gun lobby.
 Tradition conservatives – tend to be strict constitutionalists, strongly believe in the
separation of church and state
 Cultural conservatives – tend to push a strongly religious agenda; are pro-life, anti-
contraception and anti-LGBT rights.

23. Political Continuum & Welfare
 Neoconservatives – An ideology that recognizes the need for social welfare but creates
social programs that are compatible with requirements of the market economy and
traditional values
 Meaning they want the private sector to manage and bare the cost of the needs met by social
welfare
 Blame the government for releasing others of the responsibility for caring for those in need and
creating the dependency of recipients
 Believed that unemployment is good for the economy because policies that seek income equality
damage the economy and limit individual freedom
 Short-lived ideology soon replaced by cultural conservatives

24. Political Continuum & Welfare
 Cultural conservatives –
 Similarly to traditional conservatives, clamor for a hands-off governmental attitude towards
regulation of the markets.
 Unlike traditional conservatives, want high level governmental regulation of social programs
 Believe that Christians values should be upheld in governmental regulations, including abortion,
gay rights, health care, and contraceptives.
 Biggest victory is the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996
(PRWORA)
 Required recipients of programs like TANF to work, attend parenting classes, and agreed to stay drug and
alcohol free
 Other programs favored the father remaining in the home or even promoted marriage

25. Political Continuum & Welfare
 Libertarians –
 Believe government growth comes at the expense of personal freedoms
 Government should only be involved when it comes to protection, meaning police forces
domestically and military forces to protect against outside influences
 Highly critical of taxation in any form since it means both government involvement and growth
 They believe in decriminalization of narcotics and government should stay out of personal decision
making
 Green Party
 Believes in “green” politics or those that revolve around the environment
 Non-violent resolution of conflict (anti-war); battle social injustice and participatory democracy (let
the people decide)
 In the political spectrum, Green Party is to the left of Democrats