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THE DYNAMICS of Social Welfare Policy the DYNAMICS of JOEL BLAU

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THE DYNAMICS of Social Welfare Policy the DYNAMICS of JOEL BLAU THE DYNAMICS of Social Welfare Policy THE DYNAMICS of JOEL BLAU with Mimi Abramovitz Social Welfare Policy 1 2003 1 Oxford New York Auckland Bangkok Buenos Aires Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi Sa˜o Paulo Shanghai Taipei Tokyo Toronto Copyright ᭧ 2003 by Joel Blau Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Blau, Joel. The dynamics of social welfare policy / Joel Blau; with Mimi Abramovitz. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-19-510968-6 1. Public welfare—United States. 2. United States—Social policy. 3. Social service—United States. I. Abramovitz, Mimi. II. Title. HV95 .B595 2003 361.6'1'0973—dc21 2002156303 987654321 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper Preface This social welfare policy text is written for students of social work and related human services. It has four underlying premises. The first premise is that social welfare policy pervades every aspect of social welfare. This point is obviously valid for work that is plainly policy-related— lobbying, organizing, and administration—but it is also true when we counsel people. In effect, social policy pays us to have conversations with clients. Once we recognize this fact, we will have more helpful conversations and talk less angrily to ourselves. The second premise is that knowledge about social welfare policy demands familiarity with the factors that shape it. We have woven these factors into a model of policy analysis, which is simply a tool for analyzing social welfare policy. The prospect may seem intimidating now, but when you learn how to use this tool, you will be able to analyze any social welfare policy. The third premise is that knowledge about social welfare policy demands familiarity with some of its most prominent substantive areas. Because these subjects—income security, employment, housing, health, and food—perme- ate the entire field of social welfare policy, we have devoted a chapter to each of them. The fourth and final premise of this book assumes the permanence of change in social welfare policy. What are the triggers of change in social welfare policy? What makes it evolve? And what might we do to make it evolve in a way that treats our clients better and makes our own jobs easier? We explore the answers to these questions throughout this book. This textbook is comprehensive. Social welfare policy is a big subject, and there is much to digest. Your knowledge and confidence, however, will grow as you read. By the end, your knowledge of social welfare policy will become another essential instrument in your repertoire of helping skills. Ultimately, regardless of what particular kind of social work you do, this knowledge will empower you to function as a more effective social worker. Acknowledgments I want to begin by recognizing the substantial contribution of Mimi Abra- movitz, who wrote three key chapters, helped to conceptualize the text’s basic framework, and shared jointly in the development of an innovative policy model. Because I appreciate her time and effort, I included her name on the chapters she wrote. I am pleased that her skillful analysis of complex policy issues could be part of this book. In the process of writing this text, I regularly sought two kinds of feedback: one from students and another from colleagues in the field. These test runs were enormously helpful. Feedback from students ensured that the text was accessible; comments from colleagues kept me on the right substantive track. Among the students at the School of Social Welfare, State University of New York at Stony Brook, I want to thank Shiela Esten, Cheryl Gabrielli, Janine Eng, Michelle Zoldak, Linda Himberger, Gail Smith, and Katie Holmes. I also want to highlight the special contribution of two other students: Allegra Baider, currently an M.S.W. student at the University of Michigan, who read several chapters and rightly demanded clarification when clarification was truly needed, and Jaimie Page, a doctoral candidate at SUNY, Stony Brook, whose comments on several chapters pointed the way to some significant revisions. I am also indebted to a number of colleagues who gave freely of their time in their area of expertise. Among the Stony Brook faculty, I want to thank Candyce Berger for her help with chapter 11; Ruth Brandwein for her careful reading of chapter 7; Michael Lewis for his assistance with chapter 3; and Carolyn Peabody for her comments on chapter 1. In addition, Jan Poppen- dieck of the Hunter College Department of Sociology, whose own work on food policy has been so vital, kept me from making a number of errors of fact and emphasis in chapter 12. Diane Johnson, a doctoral student at the School of Social Welfare, con- tributed significantly to the preparation of the instructor’s manual. I am enor- mously grateful to her for all her hard work. Likewise, Amy Aronson handled the book’s illustrations with her usual skill and dispatch, and my sister, Deb- orah Blau, provided invaluable assistance in the creation of some key graphs. A special note of thanks goes to Christopher Dykema, who not only left his imprint on how this material should be explained to social work students vi Preface but also once again, made a significant editorial contribution. At Oxford University Press, Maura Roessner was very helpful in shepherding the text through editing and production. And, last, for her unmatched savvy in pub- lishing matters, I want to express my deep appreciation to Sydelle Kramer. Beth Baron brought her intelligence and editorial skills to the reading of the manuscript. And, as always, my wife, Sandra Baron, has been essential for her editing, her support, and her steadfastness. Preface vii This page intentionally left blank Contents Part I Introducing Social Welfare Policy 1 Introduction: Social Problems, Social Policy, Social Change 3 2 Definition and Functions of Social Welfare Policy: Setting the Stage for Social Change 19 Mimi Abramovitz Part II The Policy Model 3 The Economy and Social Welfare 57 4 The Politics of Social Welfare Policy 90 5 Ideological Perspectives and Conflicts 119 Mimi Abramovitz 6 Social Movements and Social Change 174 Mimi Abramovitz 7 Social Welfare History in the United States 220 Part III Policy Analyses: Applying the Policy Model 8 Income Support: Programs and Policies 279 9 Jobs and Job Training: Programs and Policies 312 10 Housing: Programs and Policies 337 11 Health Care: Programs and Policies 373 12 Food and Hunger: Programs and Policies 403 Part IV Conclusions 13 If You Want to Analyze a Policy... 433 Notes 437 Figure Credits 479 Index 481 x Contents I Introducing Social Welfare Policy This page intentionally left blank 1 Introduction: Social Problems, Social Policy, Social Change ocial work students come from varied backgrounds. Some have arrived Sdirectly from school; others have worked in the human services for a while and want to refine their skills; still another group of older returning students wish to learn but are uneasy because they have not written a term paper in twenty years. Although a few of you are interested in and committed to advocacy, organizing, and political change, probably a larger number mostly think about using counseling to help people. Whatever your background, you all expect to succeed because you know your intentions are good, and you will work hard. Then you start running into obstacles. You want to do something for a client, but your supervisor says the program will not pay for it. Or, as hard as you look, there is no apartment in the community for $400 a month. Soon you discover that day care is scarce and real job training even scarcer. And, even though you believe that your client’s daughter needs more, not less, time with her mother, you have to do what the law says, and the law says the mother must find paid work. Gradually, it dawns on you: though you may be full of good intentions, good intentions alone are not enough. That is when the frustration sets in and you start asking questions: Why won’t the system let me do what I know is best for my client? Why won’t it let me just do my job? Is there something lacking in my social work skills, or even with me as a social worker? 3 This book provides a long answer to these questions, but we can sketch a short answer in this first chapter. In brief, the answer is that although the frustration overtaking most social work students affects each of you as an individual, it has a structural cause. And this structural cause has its roots in a simple fact: every form of social work practice embodies a social policy. Any example of social work practice will illustrate this point. Suppose you are counseling a battered woman about leaving her husband. The woman is understandably upset, and the session is intense. Because you are so emo- tionally involved, it is easy to imagine your relationship with her as inde- pendent and separate from the outside world. Then you think about it, and you realize it is not. You are sitting there in that room talking to that woman about leaving her husband because the women’s movement organized for many years to change our view of domestic violence from a private trouble to a social problem.
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