Poverty, Inequality, and the Future of Social Policy: Western States in the New World Order

✍ Scribed by Katherine McFate (editor), Roger Lawson (editor), William Julius Wilson (editor)

• Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation
• Year: 1995
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 759
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

"Extremely coherent and useful, this much needed volume is concerned with the current status of the poor in Western industrial states. Its closely linked essays allow comparisons between case studies and are often themselves cross-national comparisons....The essays also comment on the meaning of globalization for social policy." ―Choice "Excellent and tightly integrated articles by a group of prominent international scholars....A timely and important book, which will surely become the basic reference point for all future research on inequality and social policy." ―Contemporary Sociology The social safety net is under strain in all Western nations, as social and economic change has created problems that traditional welfare systems were not designed to handle. Poverty, Inequality, and the Future of Social Policy provides a definitive analysis of the conditions that are fraying the social fabric and the reasons why some countries have been more successful than others in addressing these trends. In the United States, where the poverty rate in the 1980s was twice that of any advanced nation in Europe, the social protection system―and public support for it―has eroded alarmingly. In Europe, the welfare system more effectively buffered the disadvantaged, but social expenditures have been indicted by many as the principal cause of high unemployment. Concluding chapters review the progress and goals of social welfare programs, assess their viability in the face of creeping economic, racial, and social fragmentation, and define the challenges that face those concerned with social cohesion and economic prosperity in the new global economy. This volume illuminates the disparate effects of government intervention on the incidence and duration of poverty in Western countries. Poverty, Inequality, and the Future of Social Policy is full of lessons for anyone who would look beyond the limitations of the welfare debate in the United States.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Title page, Copyright, Dedication
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Western States in the New World Order
Chapter 1. Markets and States: Poverty Trends and Transfer System Effectiveness in the 1980s
Chapter 2. Poverty and Social-Assistance Dynamics in the United States, Canada, and Europe
Chapter 3. A Comparison of Poverty and Living Conditions in the United States, Canada, Sweden, and Germany
Chapter 4. Labor Insecurity Through Market Regulation: Legacy of the 1980s, Challenge for the 1990s
Chapter 5. The Impact of Technological Change, Deindustrialization, and Internationalization of Trade on Earnings Inequality: An International Perspective
Chapter 6. Gender Role and Family Structure Changes in the Advanced Industralized West: Implications for Social Policyn
Chapter 7. French Policies Towards Lone Parents: Social Categories and Social Policies
Chapter 8. Single Mothers in Sweden: Why Is Poverty Less Severe?
Chapter 9. Lone Parents: The Canadian Experience
Chapter 10. Single Mother Families and Social Policy: Lessons for the United States from Canada, France, and Sweden
Chapter 11. Is There a Problem with the Youth Labor Market, and If So, How Should We Fix It?
Chapter 12. Apprentice Training in Germany: The Experiences of the 1980s
Chapter 13. Special Measures to Improve Youth Employment in Italy
Chapter 14. Postindustrialization and Youth Unemployment: African Americans as Harbingers
Chapter 15. Divergent Destinies: Immigration, Poverty, and Entrepreneurship in the United States
Chapter 16. The Impact of Economic Change on Minorities and Migrants in Western Europe
Chapter 17. The Comparative Structure and Experience of Urban Exclusion: "Race," Class, and Space in Chicago and Paris
Chapter 18. Immigration, Marginality, and French Social Policy
Chapter 19. Poverty, Immigration, and Minority Groups: Policies Toward Minorities in Great Britain
Chapter 20. Ethnic Minorities in the Netherlands
Chapter 21. Trampolines, Safety Nets, or Free Fall?: Labor Market Policies and Social Assistance in the 1980s
Chapter 22. The Social Question
Chapter 23. Poverty, Social Rights, and the Quality of Citizenship
Name Index
Subject Index