The Politics of Social Policy in the United States
Edited by Margaret Weir, Ann Shola Orloff and Theda Skocpol

Paper | 1988 | $61.00 / £41.95
480 pp.

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This volume places the welfare debates of the 1980s in the context of past patterns of U.S. policy, such as the Social Security Act of 1935, the failure of efforts in the 1940s to extend national social benefits and economic planning, and the backlashes against "big government" that followed reforms of the 1960s and early 1970s. Historical analysis reveals that certain social policies have flourished in the United States: those that have appealed simultaneously to middle-class and lower-income people, while not involving direct bureaucratic interventions into local communities. The editors suggest how new family and employment policies, devised along these lines, might revitalize broad political coalitions and further basic national values.

The contributors are Edwin Amenta, Robert Aponte, Mary Jo Bane, Kenneth Finegold, John Myles, Kathryn Neckerman, Gary Orfield, Ann Shola Orloff, Jill Quadagno, Theda Skocpol, Helene Slessarev, Beth Stevens, Margaret Weir, and William Julius Wilson.

Review:

"Social democratic critiques of the American welfare state abound . . . {and this book] is one of the best works in this genre. It is solidly researched and written with calm authority."--Public Interest

Another Princeton book by Margaret Weir:

• Politics and Jobs: The Boundaries of Employment Policy in the United States.

Other Princeton books by Theda Skocpol:

• Social Policy in the United States: Future Possibilities in Historical Perspective.
• The Transformation of American Politics: Activist Government and the Rise of Conservatism.
• What a Mighty Power We Can Be: African American Fraternal Groups and the Struggle for Racial Equality.

Series:

• Studies from the Project on the Federal Social Role

Subject Areas:

• American History
• Political Science and International Relations

Shopping Cart:

For customers in the U.S., Canada, Latin America, Asia, and Australia
Paper: $61.00 ISBN13: 978-0-691-02841-5

For customers in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and India
Paper: £41.95 ISBN13: 978-0-691-02841-5

Prices subject to change without notice

File created: 6/4/2009

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