The politics of child support in America / Jocelyn Elise Crowley.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Crowley, Jocelyn Elise, 1970-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Child support--United States.

Child support.

United States.

Child support--Government policy--United States.

Child support--Government policy.

Physical Description:

xiii, 217 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2003.

Summary:

Political observers have long struggled to understand how new ideas are placed on the public agenda. Oftentimes, their accounts have focused on the pivotal group and/or individuals who manage to emerge from the public at large and "get things done." In their studies, most social scientists have relied on biographical sketches and intensive case studies to explore the intricacies of innovation. Researchers have had much more difficulty, however, in moving from these individual success stories to more generalizable theories of entrepreneurship.

This book builds such a theory by focusing on the critical issue of child support enforcement in the United States. Beginning in the nineteenth century, this book tracks the evolution of multiple sets of political entrepreneurs as they grapple with the child support problem: charity workers and local law enforcement in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, social workers from the early twentieth century through the 1960s, conservatives during the 1970s, women's groups and women legislators in the 1980s, and fathers' rights groups in the 1990s and beyond. In detailing their efforts, this book borrows methodological tools from both political science and economics in order to highlight the pivotal stages in the innovation process.

Contents:

1 The Limits of Studying Entrepreneurial Episodes 1

2 Child Support Enforcement: The Current System 35

3 Charity Workers and Local Law Enforcement: The Beginnings of American Child Support Policy 52

4 Social Workers as Challenger Entrepreneurs 69

5 Conservatives as Challenger Entrepreneurs 94

6 Women Leaders as Challenger Entrepreneurs 127

7 Fathers' Rights Groups as Challenger Entrepreneurs 160

8 Innovation and the Vibrancy of American Entrepreneurship 194.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0521824605

0521535115

OCLC:

51330183

Online:

Publisher description