Social Policy and Social Work: Critical Essays on the Welfare State (Modern Applications of Social Work Series)

The decade of the 1990s saw a period of rapid change in society, especially in the area of social policy. In the short time between the publication of the first edition of this book and the present edition, there have been radical changes in the relationships between the public and private sectors, and within the public sector--among federal, state, and local governments. Privatization in areas that historically have been the responsibility of government, e.g., corrections, child welfare, and income maintenance, are now being transferred in part to the private sector. This transfer has been to a growing for-profit sector, operating on the assumption that the private sector is more capable than the public sector and the for-profit sector superior to the voluntary sector. Notions of profit-taking, efficiency, and effectiveness are being seen as interchangeable. Furthermore, much of this is based on belief and not on fact. We do not know the benefits and costs of this new partnership. Reforms in welfare, Medicare, and Medicaid and retrenchments in areas such as housing have been implemented that will have far-reaching affects on the fabric of our society and will reshape the welfare state begun in the 1930s. Historical ideas that have shaped our welfare system are being questioned. Ideas that have included entitlement and universal provision of services are being replaced with time-limited benefits to the vulnerable, means testing, and dual-service delivery systems for the poor and the nonpoor. The first edition examined the perceived dichotomy between two major approaches to social welfare--the institutional and residual models--arguing that the former assumes a sense of community while the latter is concerned with the extension of rights to the individual. In expanding this argument Moroney and Krysik incorporate notions of citizenship, suggesting that elements of both approaches can be integrated in such a way that the modified framework attempts to deal with critics from both sides. Current data are presented in each of the original chapters and two new chapters cover the areas of health and employment. Robert M. Moroney is professor of social policy and planning at the School of Social Work, Arizona State University. Judy Krysik is an adjunct professor at the School of Social Work, Arizona State University where she teaches social policy and research.