Springer U.S. Social Welfare Reform: Policy Transitions from 1981 to the Present (International Series on Consumer Science)

This book examines pivotal changes in social welfare for low-income families in the United States between the advent of the Reagan administration, and the end of the G.W. Bush administration, as well as the rise of the Earned Income Tax Credit program. From the Back Cover Nearly half a century after Lyndon Johnson coined the phrase, America continues to fight the war on poverty, especially as such modern realities as the global economy, job outsourcing, and the recession contribute to the numbers of the unemployed and the working poor. As social welfare and reform efforts are debated in Congress and local agencies, facts regarding past programs are often elusive. U.S. Social Welfare Reform examines the evolution of major Federal cash assistance programs to low-income families, from the advent of the Reagan administration to the early Obama years. Written for the professional (but not requiring expertise in quantitative analysis to understand it), it details which programs succeeded, analyzes why others failed, and highlights the need for further reform in the context of today’s economic climate. This volume: Traces the changes from the Federal/state open entitlement AFDC program to the state-run, time-limited TANF initiative. Explores the development of the Earned Income Tax Credit program. Features two sets of National Longitudinal Survey data on EITC-eligible families. Includes original results of outcome studies of youth participating in job training and education programs. Evaluates the Obama administration’s social policy initiatives in meeting the challenges of the current recession. Revisits previously rejected policies that would benefit low-income working families. The uniqueness of its scope and presentation suits U.S. Social Welfare Reform to researchers in family relations, family sociology, economics of the family, and social policy, whether the task at hand is reviewing past events or charting a future course of action. About the Author Richard K. Caputo, Ph.D. has authored four books, including the two-volume Welfare and Freedom American Style on the role of the federal government in social welfare provisioning in the United States from 1941 through 1980. He served as editor of the book, Challenges of Aging on US Families: Policy and Practice Implications, in which he also has a chapter "Inheritance and intergenerational transmission of parental care." He is also the guest editor for the special issue of Families in Society on social justice, of Marriage & Family Review on challenges of aging on US families, and of the Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare on contemporary history of social policy. Dr. Caputo currently serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Family & Economic Issues, the Journal of Poverty, Families in Society, the Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare, and Marriage & Family Review. He has also published original research on several aspects of social welfare provisioning in the United States in these and other peer-reviewed journals.