Bold Relief (eBook)

Institutional Politics and the Origins of Modern American Social Policy

Edwin Amenta (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2021
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-0-691-22748-1 (ISBN)

Infos

According to conventional wisdom, American social policy has always been exceptional--exceptionally stingy and backwards. But Edwin Amenta reminds us here that sixty years ago the United States led the world in spending on social provision. He combines history and political theory to account for this surprising fact--and to explain why the country's leading role was short-lived. The orthodox view is that American social policy began in the 1930s as a two-track system of miserly "e;welfare"e; for the unemployed and generous "e;social security"e; for the elderly. However, Amenta shows that the New Deal was in fact a bold program of relief, committed to providing jobs and income support for the unemployed. Social security was, by comparison, a policy afterthought. By the late 1930s, he shows, the U.S. pledged more of its gross national product to relief programs than did any other major industrial country. Amenta develops and uses an institutional politics theory to explain how social policy expansion was driven by northern Democrats, state-based reformers, and political outsiders. And he shows that retrenchment in the 1940s was led by politicians from areas where beneficiaries of relief were barred from voting. He also considers why some programs were nationalized, why some states had far-reaching "e;little New Deals,"e; and why Britain--otherwise so similar to the United States--adopted more generous social programs. Bold Relief will transform our understanding of the roots of American social policy and of the institutional and political dynamics that will shape its future.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 9.3.2021
• Reihe/Serie: Princeton Studies in American Politics
• Reihe/Serie: Princeton Studies in American Politics: Historical, International, and Comparative Perspectives
• Zusatzinfo: 19 halftones, 7 charts, 19 tables
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Beruf / Finanzen / Recht / Wirtschaft ► Wirtschaft
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Kulturgeschichte
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Pädagogik ► Sozialpädagogik
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Politische Theorie
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Staat / Verwaltung
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
• Themenwelt: Wirtschaft ► Volkswirtschaftslehre ► Wirtschaftspolitik
• Schlagworte: African Americans • Agricultural Adjustment Administration • Amendment • American Federation of Labor • American Labor party • american legion • American Liberty League (ALL) • American Medical Association (AMA) • americans • Antidiscrimination Policies • Beveridge Report • Beveridge, William • Board of Trade, Britain • bonus army • Bureaucracy • bureaucrat • Burnham, Walter Dean • business organizations • California • Campaign finance • Capitalism • Civilian Conservation Corps • civil service • Civil War pensions • Coalitions • Cold War • Common sense • conservative democrat • Corporatism • Deficit Spending • Democracy • democratic national committee • Democratization • department of labor • disability insurance • Downey, Sheridan • economic and modernization theories • Economics • Economic Security • Elections • emergency management • Emergency Powers Act (1944) • Employment • End Poverty in California (EPIC) • Federal Emergency Relief Administration • Federalism • Fiscal conservatism • Fiscal Policy • foreign policy • form of programs • Funding • General Assistance • Government • government spending • Great Depression • Harry Hopkins • health insurance • health policy • House of Representatives • Inauguration • income • Income Tax • industrialisation • industrial worker • Institution • institutional and statist theories • insurance • Jowitt, Sir William • Keynesian Economics • Keynesianism • Labor history of the United States • Labour movement • left-center parties • left-wing politics • Legislation • Legislator • Legislature • Liberalism • Logrolling • majority • Massachusetts • minimum wage • Ministry of Labour, Britain • National Civic Federation • National Government (United Kingdom) • National Labor Relations Act • National policy • National Youth Administration • need-based programs • obstacle • Ohio • old-age pensions • outdoor relief • Party System • Patronage • Payment • Payroll • Payroll tax • Pension • Policy • policy experts • political agenda • political machine • Political Party • Political Science • Politician • Politics • progressivism • Provision (contracting) • Public Policy • Public works • Recession • Reconstruction Finance Corporation • Regime • Republican Party • right-wing politics • Rockefeller Foundation • Second New Deal • Social Insurance • Social Movement • Social Policy • Social Security Act • Southern Democrats • state actor • State Government • stipend • Subsidy • Suffrage • tariff • Tax • Tax Cut • Theda Skocpol • Trade Union • Unemployment • Unemployment benefits • United States House Committee on Ways and Means • Veto • Voting • wage • War pension • welfare • Welfare reform • Welfare State • What Happened • Workers' compensation • Works Progress Administration • World War II
• ISBN-10: 0-691-22748-9 / 0691227489
• ISBN-13: 978-0-691-22748-1 / 9780691227481