The price of citizenship : redefining the American welfare state / Michael B. Katz.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Katz, M. B.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Public welfare--United States--History.

Public welfare.

Social policy.

History.

United States.

Welfare state.

United States--Social policy--History.

Physical Description:

518 pages ; 24 cm

Edition:

Updated edition.

Other Title:

Redefining the American welfare state

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, [2008]

Summary:

In The Price of Citizenship, the culmination of twenty years of research and writing, the historian Michael B. Katz traces the evolution of the welfare state from Colonial relief programs to the War on Poverty to our own age, marked by "the end of welfare as we know it." He argues that in the last decades, three great forces--a ferocious war on dependence, which has singled out the most vulnerable; the devolution of authority within both government and the private sector; and the application of market models to social policy--have infiltrated and revised all aspects of the social contract even as they have redefined both Republican and Democratic policy and rhetoric. Katz shows how these changes are propelling America toward a future of increased inequality and decreased security as individuals compete for success in an open market with ever fewer protections against misfortune, power, and greed. And he shows how these trends are transforming citizenship from a right of birth into a privilege available only to the fully employed.

Contents:

Prologue: The Invention of Welfare 1

1. The American Welfare State 9

2. Poverty and Inequality in the New American City 33

3. The Family Support Act and the Illusion of Welfare Reform 57

4. Governors as Welfare Reformers 77

5. Urban Social Welfare in an Age of Austerity 104

6. The Independent Sector, the Market, and the State 137

7. The Private Welfare State and the End of Paternalism 171

8. Increased Risks for the Injured, Disabled, and Unemployed 195

9. New Models for Social Security 232

10. The Assimilation of Health Care to the Market 257

11. Fighting Poverty 1990s Style 293

12. The End of Welfare 317

Epilogue: Work, Democracy, and Citizenship 341.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [401]-498) and index.

ISBN:

9780812220186

0812220188

OCLC:

229036238