Sw 220 Midterm

Front 1

Compare how individualists and collectivists would allocate social benefits: cash, vouchers, in-kind benefits, etc?

If they had to choose between providing benefits in the form of vouchers or services, which would individualists most prefer and which would collectivists most prefer? Why?

Back 1

- Individualist : cash, conservative, free market
- Collectivist: in-kind, liberal, unregulated market = inequalities

Individualists are pro cash. Politically they are conservative and believe in small government. By providing cash benefits it allows for increased freedom of the public with limited government oversight. Individualists believe that in-kind benefits undermine personal responsibility. Supported by classic theorists: maximum choice (higher satisfaction). Removes stigma attached to in-kind provision. In-kind benefits are produced most efficiently at the lowest cost but eliminate choice and utilize the largest amount of social control. Count on private organizations and religious agencies to care for them. Provides most efficient means of reducing income poverty. Converting all public assistance to the poor to cash would eradicate poverty (or at least the official measure). Saves $ on administration. Assumes that market is responsive to consumer demand.

Collectivist or community base policy is pro in-kind benefits. This is the philosophy of liberals and progressives. They believe that socio-economic barriers reduce opportunity and that the unregulated market leads to inequalities. Collectivists believe that services and in-kind benefits allow for the redistribution of basic social goods. Collectivists prefer services over vouchers. Prefer the same benefits for all, equity is thereby insured and the welfare state can thrive. Studies in educational vouchers have found that when individuals are given vouchers, they overwhelmingly attend the school that is in the closest proximity to their home. The study also found that vouchers do not improve innovation. School performance in the voucher study also did not improve. Schools that would win the competitive struggle would be those invested most heavily in advertising and PR and lease heavily in academic content

Vouchers are the second best option for both individualists and collectivists. Meeting point between cash and in-kind. Improve competitions which results in lower prices as well as higher quality in services, and innovation. Offer a balance of consumer choice and social control (i.e food stamps). Vouchers for services place purchasing power in the hands of the indiv. Recognize an individual's autonomy. Housing vouchers decrease stigmatization.

Front 2

What are the three basic principles of the English Poor Law of 1601?

Back 2

1. Worthy poor- local responsibilities of parish to support; indoor (almshouse, poor house), outdoor (food, clothing)
2. Children- training, creating productive citizens through apprenticeships.
3. Able bodied poor- Providing employment, house of correction, prison

Front 3

Describe the parallels between the Spleenhamland Act of 1795 and the modern EITC. What is an example of modern legislation that helps to eliminate the worst consequences of Spleenhamland?

Back 3

- Speenhamland -supplemental earning = decline in wages and work ethic
- EITC= cash refund based on low income
- Modern safeguards = Minimum wage, working requirements

Speenhamland designed to supplement peoples earnings for all who’s income fell bellow the “poverty level.” The government would provide a “relief allowance” to raise their income up to the minimum cost of living. Consequences were that employers lowered wages and people stopped working as hard/much.

EITC gives people a cash refund if their income falls below a designated level, very similarly to Speenhamland although the mechanism of providing cash is different (through the tax code).

Minimum wage is legislation that combats the worst consequences of Speenhamland b/c prevents employers from lowering wages to an unlivable wage. Also, you can only receive EITC if you are earning and declaring income.

Front 4

The 1662 Law of Settlement and the Spleenhamland Act of 1975 were designed to address two issues that continue to plague modern day policy makers. Briefly describe these issues.

Back 4

- Law of Settlement: prevent migration to more services, modern day CA
- Speenhamland: cash subsidies for low income, modern day EITC w/ min wage.

1662 LOS addressed the issue of migration to areas that provided higher benefits. The LOS restricted movt from one parish to another. These issues of migration are evident in today’s CA politics. Counties like SF question whether an increase in services would mean more people moving to the city, when people already go there for that reason. Example: high rates of homelessness in SF could be contributed to the large amount of homeless services.

Speenhamland established a minimum standard of adequacy. Workers who did not make a certain amount of money were given money by the local parish to make up for the difference. EITC is the modern day version of this government subsidy in the form of a tax refund. Through the tax system, the government gives money to workers who do not make enough money based on their W2. The families can receive up to $4000. Both policies deal with the “working poor”. These programs leave out the unemployed poor and those working poor who don’t make enough to file taxes.

Front 5

Compare EITC and the housing mortgage interest deduction in terms of the socioeconomic groups that gained the most from these benefits.

Back 5

- EITC: working poor
- Mortaged deduction: upperclass

EITC is designated for low-middle income wage workers, ie the working poor. The earning ceiling in 2009 was ~40K. This excludes the lowest poor (those with no income).

Housing mortgage interest deduction is designed for the middle to upper classes. It is a tax break for home owners, implying those above poverty level. This policy is designed to serve the upper classes and exclude the poor. Overall tax expenditures are regressive. One calculation estimates that at least half of their total benefit goes to the richest 5th of the population. It results in fewer funds for tax bases so it puts SW programs at higher risk for losing funding support.

Front 6

What are the six questions that form the basic framework for analyzing social policies in Dimensions?

Back 6

1. What are the bases of social allocations? (who will benefit)
2. What type of social provisions will be allocated? (What do they get? Cash, in-kind?)
3. What are the strategies for the delivery of these provisions?
4. What are the ways to finance these provisions?
5. What are the social values that support these social allocations
6. What are the theories and assumptions that underlie these programs?

Front 7

What is social welfare policy according to the analytic framework in Dimensions of Social Welfare Policy?

Back 7

- Exists outside the market place
- Based on need, not greed (individual incentive)
- Redistribution of resources

“ A benefit allocation mechanism functioning outside the economic marketplace.” Welfare controls the operations of goods and services to provide a result that the market would not produce itself. Social welfare policy allocates goods and services based on financial need, dependency, altruistic sentiments, social obligations, charitable motives, and wish for communal security. Public assistance programs represent an effort to alter the distribution of resources in society. The economic market (capitalism) provides goods and transfer of allocations is increasingly joined to individual responsibilities.

Allocations operate on a transfer system of direct transfers (food stamps), indirect transfers (taxes) and regulatory transfers (rent control) rather than on an exchange system that operates in an economic market.

Front 8

What did Durkheim mean when arguing that “mechanical solidarity” was the basis for social cohesion in pre-industrial society?

Back 8

- Commonalities of labor
- similarities in life – same values
- industrialization = division of labor
- shift towards organic connections

Durkheim believed that pre-industrial society social cohesion was formed around labor. Mechanical solidarity refers to the homogeneous norms and values that resulted from people having the same life. This was a direct result of being part of a common work force. The social cohesion, a sense of solidarity, was based on these common norms and values. Operates in traditional and small scale societies. Cohesion and integration comes from the homogeneity of individuals. People feel connected through similar work, educational, and religious training.

Industrialization created a division of labor (more types of work) and interdependence among community members. The break down of social cohesion due to industrialization, according to Durkheim, resulted in new forms of social cohesion that were more organic. A civic organization would be an example of a place for community that was more organic.

Front 9

What was in-door relief? How would it compare to modern forms of public assistance (i.e. SSI/AFDC/TANF)?

Back 9

- Indoor = caring for people in institutions (almhouses, retirement homes, mental institutions)
- Outdoor = perpetuation of poverty (job training, friendly visiters)
- TANF= Welfare to work
- SSI= Disability

Indoor relief would have both a therapeutic and economic effect to help bring people out of poverty. Out-door relief, especially public relief, in the early 19th century was seen to aggravate poverty. An end to outdoor relief was seen as an end to pauperism.

Modern day public assistance is a form of relief that carries stipulations of employment. These welfare to work criteria address the fear of dependence on programs and the perpetuation of poverty. SSI is a cash program that is provided to the public sector that can not contribute labor to the market place. AFDC provided cash grants w/o anything in return. AFDC became TANF in 1996 and with it came “workfare” criteria. TANF has a lifetime limit of 5 years, and a 2 year consecutive limit without employment. These provisions address the fears of outdoor relief that in the early 19th century prompted a movement towards indoor relief.

Front 10

How did AFDC benefits express concern for equity in relation to the principle of “less eligibility?” Describe the new concern for equity that emerged in the 90’s

How did federal funding of public assistance change when the AFDC program was replaced by TANF? How did this policy reform impact guaranteed entitlement to public assistance?

Traditional concerns for equity in AFDC involved the principle of “less eligibility.” When AFDC was changed to TANF, a new concern for equity was introduced. How did AFDC benefits express concern for equity in relation to the principle of less eligibility? What new concern for equity emerged in the 1990s and how was it expressed in TANF requirements?

Back 10

- Equity = redistribution, not equal distribution
- AFDC= WIN
- TANF- Welfare to work
- Occupation of motherhood--> Working mothers become norm

AFDC incorporated doctrine of "less eligibility" through the 1967 Social Security amendments that established the WIN (work-incentive) program. This provided training and employment to appropriate individuals including welfare mothers with children. AFDC required recipients to work, to look for employment or to receive job training (WIN). At this time motherhood was considered an occupation and therefore welfare mothers were subsidized to stay home and care for their children.

In the 90’s the idea of equity changed from supporting mothers who “worked” at home as mothers, to expecting welfare mothers to seek paid employment in the labor market. This shift came as working mothers became the norm. It became hard to justify why mothers should be “paid” to stay home with their children. In 1996 AFDC was replaced by TANF and with it came major changes to the public assistance program that reflected the “workfare” ideals of equity. Time limitations of 5 years total in a lifetime, and a max of 2 years consecutive without work, were imposed.

AFDC operated under the principle of entitlement. This meant that states MUST provide assistance to anyone eligible under the law. States COULD require recipients to participate in work, education, training, etc, but it was not a federal requirement. Under TANF, no family or child is entitled to assistance. There are very specific requirements. Much more strict: fixed annual funding, benefits vary among states, family cap.

Front 11

Describe “third party” purchase of service arrangements. What are the potential challenges with such arrangements?

Explain how performance contracting is used in third-party purchase of services and why there are concerns that this approach might encourage “creaming”

Third-party purchases of service arrangement in social welfare do not create normal market incentives because the relationship among buyers, sellers and consumers is different than that found in regular market transactions. Explain this statement.

The concern about the privatization of social services is that it will promote a process of preferential selection. Explain

Back 11

- Government contracted private agency
- Market economy motivations
- Creaming= preferential selection
- Economic motive vs. need
- Powerless consumers

Third party purchase of service arrangements is when the government hires a private agency (for-profit or nonprofit) to manage social services for welfare recipients. The third party exists in the market and therefore is not motivated by client needs. The third party is motivated by cost, profit, efficiency and performance contract (evaluation based on the outcome of clients). This could lead to “creaming” which means preferential selection of clients based on how easy they are to serve or how successful they will be, not based on their need. While the third party agency acts as if in the economic market, normal market incentives are not created because the consumers do not have a say in the services they receive. They are not able to demand better cost or quality by taking their business elsewhere as they would in the economic market. Because the government decides who will provide the services, the consumer has little power. Lack “proxy shopping” where paying consumers send market signals to the government. Moving from the “welfare state” to the “contract state” or “nonprofit federalism.”

Front 12

How is the official poverty line measured according to the formula developed in the mid 1960s by the Social Security Administration? How does this calculation of poverty line treat the cash value of in-kind benfits and earned tax credits and the cost of income taxes and work related expenses.

Back 12

- Food x 3
- Does not include in-kind value
- Poverty line is relative : include below, include above

The poverty line of the 60s was created by taking the minimum amount of money necessary to sustain a nutrition diet and multiplying that by three. Chose factor of 3 because Household Food Consumption showed that families of three or more persons spent about one third of their after-tax money income on food in 1955. The value is then adjusted for family size and inflation. This calculation does not take into consideration in-kind benefits, earned tax credits, income taxes or work related expenses. Critics have argued that excluding the cash value of these benefits inflates the poverty statistics. The poverty line is a relative measure. Those who are below the line are relative to those above it. If we take into consideration the cash value of in-kind benefits and the like when creating the poverty line, those benefits would also have to be figured into the income of those above the poverty line.

Front 13

Government intervention in the free market of a capitalist society is often justified under the conditions in which the allocation of goods and services has “neighborhood effects” (or involves externalities). Explain and give an example of this condition.

Back 13

- Public goods/externalities
- No control over who benefits
- Cost does not reflect the number of users
- Ex: streets, parks

The neighborhood effect, also called externalities or public goods. This public good can not be controlled by the market because you can not control who benefits. The cost of the good is relatively the same regardless of who uses it. Examples of this are parks, local streets. These items are best funded when everyone pays for them in the form of taxes.

Front 14

How does Galbraith’s argument about the “dependence effect” and Buchanan’s theories of “public choice” answer the question of whether in general public spending is too high or too low? Explain why.

Back 14

Galbraith: not high enough
- wasteful spending on production “needs”
Buchanan : too high
- Public has no say in allocation of public dollars
- Politicians and public interest groups

Galbraith believes that the general public is not spending enough on social welfare because the majority of our spending goes to “needs” that are contrived. Market creates “dependence effect”. Consumer wants are created by advertising. Instead of paying money for road construction, people pay money for new cars. Solution = raise taxes. The dependence effect states that production creates the wants it seeks to satisfy; this creates waste and more public demands that are not being met. Buy less for yourself, and spend more on social welfare. Galbraith proposed curbing the consumption of certain products through greater use of consumption taxes.

Buchanan believes that public spending is too high due to the public choice theory. This states that the public spending doesn’t go where it needs to, but rather it is at the whim of politicians who don’t say no to spending because their personal cost of saying no to public interest groups is too high. This leads to public dollars being wasted.

Front 15

Explain how “diagnostic differentiation” compensation and means-testing each provide a different basis for determining eligibility for social welfare?

Back 15

- Diagnostic differentiation : prof judgement of special needs
- Means-testing: economic need

Diagnostic differentiation determines eligibility based on professional judgment of technical diagnostic criteria and individual allocations of need. Means-testing determines eligibility based on evidence regarding an individual’s inability to purchase goods and/or services. Individual allocations that are based on economic need.

Front 16

Compare General Assistance and SSI in terms of who they serve and the sources of their funding.

Back 16

- Poor individuals
- SSI: federal, mitigating circomstances of poverty
- GA: State, able-bodied poor

Both forms of assistance provide cash to individuals based on means-testing. SSI is federally finance and administer. It provides cash assistance to those who are poor based on mitigating circumstances such as the elderly, blind, and disabled.

GA is state funded that provides assistance the “able bodied” poor who do not qualify for federal assistance. Though able-bodied adults without children are most often associated with GA, they are the least likely to be eligible for this assistance (only 13 states provided GA to this population in 1998). Most states limit GA to severely poor, though eligibility benefit schedules vary across states and sometimes counties. Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) related changes to immigrant eligibility led 19 of 35 states to restrict access to immigrants. NY and Washington explicitly enabled immigrants no longer eligible for federal benefits to qualify for GA. GA varies greatly from state to state, and does not exist in all states. GA programs are cash and in-kind assistance programs designed to meet short term or ongoing needs of low-income persons ineligible for (or awaiting approval for) federally funded assistance (TANF: SSI).

Front 17

Numerical equality and proportional equality (i.e. equity) are two concepts that inform efforts to achieve a just distribution of resources in society. If you were designing an old age pension benefit, how would the cash value of this benefit be determined according to each of these concepts?

Compare and contrast numerical and proportional equality. Which one best represents the capitalist ethos?

Back 17

-Numerical: equal
-Proportional: equity
-Capitalism: merit = proportional

Numerical equality is equal distribution to all regardless of status, income or classification. Ex: hiring quotas, fair housing legislation.

Proportional equality (equity) implies the same treatment of similar persons according to their merit. People's deservedness should be based on their contributions to society, modiffied only by special considerations for those whose inability to contribute is clearly not their faults. Proportional equality represents the capitalist ethos because of the belief that people should get benefits if they contribute or deserve it.

Front 18

Is the payroll tax that finances social security generally considered progressive or regressive. Give 2 reasons why?

What is the difference btwn progressive and regressive taxes? How would you characterize payroll tax used to finance social security?

Social security taxes are regressive at the point of collection and progressive at the point of allocation. Explain why?

Back 18

-Progressive – proportional to income
-Regressive – equal payments
-Payroll – progressive

PROGRESSIVE: tax is proportional to a person’s income, proportionally higher for the wealthy than for the poor (ie income tax). Tax is levied in accordance with ability to pay. REGRESSIVE: Everyone pays the same amount regardless of income (ie sales tax) . PAYROLL TAX is progressive in that those earning and contributing the smallest amount receive proportionally more benefits than those earning and contributing more.

Social Security is regressive at collection because all people making under $100,000 pay 6.2%. This disproportionately effects the poor as they are already struggling and the impact of 6.2% will feel greater. SS is progressive at the point of allocation because the lower income people have, the higher % of their formerly montly wages will be given back to them

Front 19

How does “proxy shopping” introduce the discipline of market competition into purchase-of-service contracts between governement contractors and for profit providers of service?

Back 19

- Proxy shoping – attract paying customers
- Combats unresponsiveness private services to the market
- Regulates cost and quality

Purchase of Service makes use of the market choices of unsubsidized clients to assure high quality for the needy. Funding agencies reimburse suppliers directly for services delivered to the needy. Good for situations in which vouchers are ineffective because beneficiaries uninformed, or because choice of legal guardians are unreliable. Based on principle of free choice and paternalism.

One of the problems that results from for-profit companies providing social welfare services through third-party purchase-of-service contracts is that these arrangements are unresponsive to normal market signals. "Proxy shopping" is at effort to mitigate this problem. This method involves contracting only with providers who are able to attract paying customers, the logic being that if certain clientele are willing to pay for services then cost and quality will be regulated and therefore competitive with the market. However, often not enough suppliers to form a competitive market; transaction cost are high.

Front 20

What did the research findings suggest about the impact of the Seattle and Denver Income Maintenance Experiments (SIME/DIME) on the incentive to work and family stability?

Back 20

- Found that guaranteed income = decline in work
- Guaranteed income = increase in divorce
- EITC requires work

SIME/DIME - largest and most carefully controlled income maintenance experiment in history. Research indicated that compared to the control group, families receiving the guaranteed-income grant, worked significantly fewer hours per year. It is estimated that national implementation of a similar scheme would result in a minimum of 29% reduction in the work effort of low-income workers. SIME/DIME also showed that those families who received the guaranteed income were twice as likely as the control group to dissolve in divorce.

The EITC is a tax refund that 1/3 of the poor get when they file taxes. This only benefits the ""Working"" poor and only if they make enough to file taxes. People can receive up to $4000 back. Consequently it gives people the incentive to work enough to get this benefit."

Front 21

What is the difference between “elite philanthropy” and “bourgeois philanthropy” identified by Karger and Stoez?

Back 21

-Bourgeois: modest, specific goals
-Elite: grander expectations, big money

Bourgeois Philanthropy pursues relatively modest goals. An example is The United Way, a nationwide foundation that funds smaller community non-profit organizations. Many of these agencies are members of the United Way network and focus on specific tasks.

Elite Philanthropy refers to extremely wealthy individuals foundations that have much "grander expectations." The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has pledged over 1 billion dollars to stopping the spread of Malaria, TB and AIDs as well funding other large scale development efforts in poorer countries. Ted Turner donated 1 billion to the United Nations.

Both Bourgeois and Elite foundations have come under scrutiny regarding the nature of their donations and their altruistic intentions.

Front 22

Describe four allocative principles for determining conditions of eligibility for social provisions.

Back 22

1. Attributed need – group; a specific group that society is in agreement of need (ex: elderly, AIDS)
2. Compensations – group; normative agreement based on service (social and economic contributions) to society (ex: veterans). Also groups that have been historically wronged by government such as internment camp survivors.
3. Diagnostic differentiation – individual; conditional on professional judgments where special goods and services may be needed. Based on technical diagnostic criteria and individual allocations of need. (ex: special needs children, disabled)
4. Means tested – conditional on evidence regarding an individual’s inability to purchase goods and/or services. Individual allocations that are based on economic need.

Front 23

Efforts to design welfare policies that advance distributive justice must come to grips with three values. Briefly describe.

Back 23

1. Equality - the value prescribes that benefits should be allocated so as to equalize the distribution of resources and opportunities. To all an equal share. This does not ensure equal results for everyone.
- example : fair housing legislation – demands that people, whatever their group, receive the same treatment in their quest of shelter.

3. Equity –There is a proportional quality to notions of fair treatment. Get back what you give. Peoples deservedness should be based on their contributions to society, modified only due to inability to contribute when not of their own making.
- based on the doctrine of “less eligibility” = aid should not elevate the conditions of recipients above those of the poorest workers.

3. Adequacy – the desirability of providing a decent standard of physical and spiritual well-being, quite apart from concerns for whether benefit allocations are equal or differentiated according to merit. Vary according to time and circumstance. (Today Poverty Line)

Front 24

What was the Aramony Scandal about? How did it impact social philanthropy?

Back 24

- Corruption and fraud of public money
- Suspicion transferred to other organizations affiliated/ or similar

In 1992 United Way CEO William Aramony was found to be supplementing his $400K salary (plus benefits) with perks paid for by United Way funds. In 1995, Aramony and two associates were found guilty of multiple counts of conspiracy, fraud, and filing false tax returns. He was sentenced to seven years in federal prison, and was fined $522,000.

Many organizations affiliated with United Way stopped paying dues to the national body. This drew attention to improprieties within philanthropic community and fostered distrust of philanthropic organization. Donations to the United Way fell. Some nonprofits failed to receive funds because of public mistrust of United way. In sum, contributors doubted United Way and were reluctant to donate -financially affected United Way and the smaller NPOs it served.

Front 25

T.H. Marshall’s theory interpreted the emergence of social welfare in terms of the history evolution of the meaning of citizenship. Explain.

Back 25

- Bound by rights
- Traditions bonds broke down --> common ground of citizenship

What makes an American? Post-industrial citizens are bound connected by their common civic, political, and social rights. These rights create a sense of cohesion, social solidarity and belonging. The traditional group bonds of the pre-inudustrial society were based on status by birth. With industrialization the came greater geographic and social mobility, making space for new structures of social cohesion. Evolutionarily, civil rights came first (trial by jury), followed by political rights (voting) and then social rights (education, social welfare). According to Marshall, citizenship was the new social cohesion. Social welfare provisions gave people a stake in the system.

Front 26

What is the contemporary Marxest view of the welfare state and the capitalist society?

How is the emergence of social welfare programs and welfare state interpreted from a Marxist perspective?

Back 26

-Equality
-social welfare promotes capitalism
-SW pacifies the working class

The Marxist belief was that equality should trump everything else. We are all the same, therefore, we should all get the same. This is a very idealized and human view of the world. Marxists viewed the welfare state as a capitalist form of self-protection. It subdues the revolutionary tendencies, moderates class conflict and protects the interests of the elite. The welfare state assists capitalism in regulating and controlling the conditions under which work is organized and wealth is distributed and is seen as a mechanism to pacify the working class and keep it subservient.

Marx ignores the independent influence of values, ideologies and political institutions in development of social welfare programs.

Front 27

What are the differnces among social, occupational, and fiscal welfare?

Back 27

Social- publicly sponsored goods and services
Occupational- workplace fring benefits
Fiscal- tax system that advances explicit social objectives

Social welfare corresponds to “direct expenditure” and is equated with the provision of a range of publicly sponsored goods and services – income support, health, social services, and the like.

Occupational welfare is associated with employment and workplace benefits. Form of “collective intervention”, because its’ scope and character reflect public policy. Gvmt has special tax arrangements (deductibility of employee benefits costs to induce employers to provide fringe benefits).

Fiscal welfare involves the income side of the budget, specifically, it identifies those features of the tax system (deductions, exemptions, credits) that advance explicit social objectives. Usually go to individuals who participate in income tax deductions for interest payments on home mortgages or deductions and credits for charitable donations.

Occupational and fiscal welfare can be seen as welfare mostly for middle and upper class.

Each constitutes a primary area of collective intervention aimed at meeting individual and societal needs.

Front 28

Explain 3 shifts from pre to post industrialization: Civil, politial and social rights.

Back 28

Durkheim: Shift from Mechanical to Organic
Tonnies: Shift from Gemienschaft to Gesellschaft
Marshall: Civic, political and social rights

Durkheim believed that pre-industrial society social cohesion was formed around labor. Mechanical solidarity refers to the homogeneous norms and values that resulted from people having the same life. This was a direct result of being part of a common work force. The social cohesion, a sense of solidarity, was based on these common norms and values. Industrialization created a division of labor (more types of work) and interdependence among community members. The break down of social cohesion due to industrialization, according to Durkheim, resulted in new forms of social cohesion that were more organic. A civic organization would be an example of a place for community that was more organic.

Tonnies: Pre-industrial shift from Gemienshaft (community) where people are connected to the larger association as mush, or more, than to their individual self interests, to Gesellschaft (society) where individuals act on their own self interest and relationships are contractual. With industrialization relationships changed from families to public connections; where they were once natural they are now a means to an end. Where there were once customs there are new fads. Where social control was once based on tradition and religion, it is now based on the public opinion. The current shift is even farther from Gemienshaft, in that connections are now virtual and social control is based on affinity groups.

Marshall: What makes an American? Post-industrial citizens are bound connected by their common political, civic and social rights. These rights create a sense of cohesion, social solidarity and belonging. The traditional group bonds of the pre-inudustrial society unraveled due to geographic and social mobility, making space for new structures of social cohesion. According to Marshall citizenship was the new social cohesion. Social welfare provisions gave people a stake in the system.

Front 29

What is one general reason usually given in favor or the means-test and one general reason given that is in opposition to this approach? What are the benefits of means testing?

Back 29

In favor
• Ensures that funds are used efficiently.
• Means testing ensures that only people who truly need government aide are receiving it. If upper class and high class people are receiving social services that they can afford, it would be a waste of limited resources.
Opposition
• Universalists say that means testing is stigmatizing. They also say that it is administratively costly.
• The way that means testing is administered can be degrading (i.e., late night phone calls to ensure that no man is in the house)

Front 30

Who is favored most by the dependent’s benefits under social security, the non-working wife or a high income husband, the non-working wife of a low-income husband, or the working wife in a two earner middle income family?

Back 30

● Social Security Act Amendment (1939)
○ Extended social security benefits to dependents (spouses, children)- Ensure reasonable standard of adequacy for entire families, not just indiv.
● Creates inequities among married couples w/ different work patterns
● Social security pension benefits rise with wage level
● Dependent wife in higher income families receive higher benefits than either dependent or employed wives in lower-income families.
● Ex: Non-working wife whose husband earns $60,000 is entitled to $7,470
○ $1,000 more than an employed wife making $11,4000 would be entitled to on her own as a primary beneficiary in a two-earner family with a husband earning $25,000 a year.
○ More than twice the dependent’s benefit granted to a nonworking wife whose husband earned $11,4000

Front 31

What are the 6 conditions that justify government intervention in capitalist society?

Back 31

1. Night watchmen/umpire- protection from external enemies, government serves as an umpire or regulator and imposes rules so that the market operates fairly
2. Technical monopoly- to control goods that are monopolized, sewer, gas; Needed service that cannot have competition for reasons of practicality , and needs wouldn’t be met by free market bcua the srecie would not be provided at a reasonable price (i.e., mail delivery in Flint, Michigan)
3. Stabilization- Ensures stable economy, taxes, interest rate adjustments. Allows gvmt to stabilize economy in times of distress.
4. Paternalism- taking care of people who can’t care for themselves (orphans); Needed service for those who are designated to not be able to care for themselves and for which the market provides no service bcuz there is no incentive (profit) to do so.
5. Redistributive- allocation of goods and services based on market, can’t have extreme inequalities in power and influence,
6. Neighborhood effects- When the benefits of services can’t be limited and there is no way of controlling consumption (fire, police)

Front 32

What is the doctrine of less eligibility?

Back 32

● People receiving gvmt aide should not get more money than the least paid worker.
● First expressed in Poor Law reform of 1834
● Condition of welfare recipients, regardless of need or cause, should be worse than that of the lowest paid worker
● Should provide work incentive
● Reflects punitive attitude to the poor, which is a change from previous Poor Laws and the attitude during the medieval times

Front 33

Friedman

Back 33

● Father of modern conservative economics
● Using fiscal and monetary policy to smooth out business cycle is bad
● Depression not caused by people hoarding money, but there was less $ in circulation
● Role of government is to keep the money supply growing steadily at a rate consistent with stable prices and long-term economic growth
● Welfare spending is for altruistic not economic reasons
● no dependence effect, consumers create the demand. Advertising does not manipulate, it gives info
○ Ex: failed ford car and the new coke.

Front 34

Three Pillars of the Welfare State

Back 34

1. Economic Security
● Goals: Protection of all citizens from common life risks by replacing lost income
● Policies: Social Security (unemployment, disability, retirement, etc.)
● Beneficiaries: working people, retirees, the family and dependents of workers and retirees

2. Material Sufficiency
● Goals: to provide basic floor of social protection
● Policies: Public Assistance (cash relief and social services)
● Beneficiaries: the poor and disadvantaged

3. Basic Services
● Goals: ensure access to critical goods and services
● Policies: education, health

Front 35

The nature of social provisions went from intangible and limited to concrete and diversified. Explain.

Back 35

Intangible and Limited: Casework services that presumably would rehabilitate the poor, changing their behavior in ways that would help them become economically independent (advise and counseling) and the service was limited by eligibility restrictions. (Gilbert did this and said that he felt like a friendly visitor!)

Concrete and Diversified: Concrete programs like day care centers, or drug treatment centers, work training programs and were more widely available. The movement of diversification stated that each state was free to support whatever social services it wanted. Only requirement was that these services be directed to one of five federally specified goals which were very broad.

Front 36

Explain Social Darwinism and its implications for the development of social welfare policies offering public aide to the poor.

Back 36

Social Darwinism applied the theory of evolution to sociology. “Survival of the Fittest” claimed that the most evolutionarily fit person will procreate, and thus lead to the improvement of society and the gene pool at large. In its most gross interpretation, it was used to justify eugenics. In terms of public aide to the poor, it was argued that helping them survive would lead to a worsening of the gene pool, as these individuals were deemed “less fit”.

Front 37

The recognition of tax expenditures changes the prevailing conceptions of who gains from social welfare transfers. What are tax expenditures and how do they change our views on who benefits from Social Welfare Transfers?

Back 37

Tax expenditures – deviation from the normal tax code that affects the private economy in ways that are normally achieve through government SW spending
● Consist of:
○ Deductions
○ Tax credits ($ that is subtracted from the taxes that you owe government)
○ Refundable tax credits (EITC)
○ Regulations that don’t allow for the taxing of work benefits like health insurance and pension funds
● If people recognized this as SW, it would show that EVERYONE receives SW, not just the needy

Front 38

List one similarity and one difference between TANF and GA.

Back 38

Both: To provide temporary economic assistance to those eligible for financial support, to ensure they receive at least a minimally adequate standard of living.
Both: have a work requirement, TANF: Work requirement or “work activities” within 2 years or loss of Assistance
GA: Nearly all states that provide GA to able bodied adults, require recipients to work in order to maintain benefits.
TANF: Federally funded
GA: state funded, not all states provide it
TANF: adults with children
GA: able-bodied adults w/o children

Front 39

What was the role of social casework under the 1962 Service Amendments? How has this changed since TANF?

Back 39

Early on everyone had case worker, delivery of benefits linked provision of serve and cash, your case worker insured that you weren't working, needs are met, and provided service

Early 70s split income maintenance and service part
Assumption is that poor people don't need service, just need $
By linking service and giving $ is hard, clts. Might not trust caseworker
The system did not work better that way!
Service Amendments of 1962
Case work the ppl out of poverty
Assumption that the problem was amenable to sitting and talking with people (reminiscent of COS) "friendly visitor"
Characteristics of Change in Social Services (1962,1977)

Front 40

What is the main difference between fee-for-service, categorical grants, and general revenue sharing?

Back 40

Categorical Grants
Government gives money to state that must be spent for very narrowly specified service
General Revenue Sharing
Federal government makes grants to lower unity of government without specification of program priority

Front 41

What does the “Laffer Curve” suggest about the relationship between tax rates and government tax revenues?

Back 41

- Laffer believed that optimal economic policy would consist of minimal taxation so as not to impede capital formation and expansion
- Laffer curve suggests that there is an optimum amount of government tax revenues that can be collected at which individuals will still have incentive to work. If tax rates become too high, they may become a disincentive and deter people from working.

Front 42

The basis of social allocation changed from selective access to universal access. Explain.

Back 42

Basis of Social Allocation: Selective to Universal
In 1962 eligibility was means-tested, limited to:
AFDC
Aid to the Blind
Old Age Assistance
Aid to the Permanently and Totally Disabled
Support for 1962 amendments based on idea that intensive social service could reduce the size of SW recipients
1974 Title XX broadened eligibly to include middle income people
1981 Social Services block grant revised Title XX and gave states more freedom w/ eligibility criteria

Front 43

Technical Monopoly and paternalism are two conditions used to justify government intervention in a capitalist society. Explain these conditions.

Back 43

Technical monopoly
- to control goods that are monopolized, sewer, gas
- Needed service that cannot have competition for reasons of practicality , and needs wouldn’t be met by free market bcua the srecie would not be provided at a reasonable price (i.e., mail delivery in Flint, Michigan)
Paternalism
- taking care of people who can’t care for themselves (orphans
- Needed service for those who are designated to not be able to care for themselves and for which the market provides no service bcuz there is no incentive (profit) to do so.