Exam 2 Slides

• Structural Interests within Social Welfare: Response to American needs undergone fundamental change since settlement.Traditional Providers. Welfare Bureaucrats. Clinical Entrepreneurs. Human Service Executives. Marginal Interests.
• The Forgotten Sector: Beginning in the 1970s: – Researchers had begun to investigate the scope of the voluntary sector. Generally, the expansion of the voluntary sector has paralleled economic growth. The extent unprecedented wealth will be used to amplify moral citizenship.
• Advancing Social Justice: The voluntary sector has been important inU.S. social welfare because it has been: – The source of efforts to advance the rights of disenfranchised populations. Openness of democratic American culture means that anyone is free to organize: – For purposes of rectifying past injustices.
• Contemporary Nonprofit Human Service Organizations: Voluntary human service sector consists of a large constellation of organizations– Theses organizations are instantly recognizable by most Americans. The United Way: best recognized voluntary sector. Elite Philanthropy.
• The Future of the Voluntary Sector: Most Americans prefer voluntary efforts to address social problems. The ability of the nonprofit sector to meet these public expectations. Commercialization. Faith-Based Social Services. Social Entrepreneurship.
• Privatization Issues: The balance between private and publicresponsibilities for welfare. Commercialization. Preferential Selection. Cost-Effectiveness. Standardization. Oligopolization.
• The Challenge of Privatization; Unions and the Private Sector. Strong arguments in favor of privatization as a strategy for promoting social welfare. – Continue to challenge the moral and rational impulses of human service professionals. Unions of health and welfare professionalsare one response to privatization.– Social workers who belong to unions
• Corporate Welfare & Social Responsibility: Corporate philanthropy has sponsored important social welfare initiatives. Corporate activities have tended to be underappreciated. Corporate practices have been applieddirectly to social problems.
• Corporate Influence on Social Welfare Policy: It would be naive to think the corporate sector is above self-interest: – In its orientation toward social welfare. Prominent conservative policy institutes favored by business community have been.– The AEI and the Heritage Foundation.
• The Future of Corporate Involvement in Social Welfare; Corporations: Equitable wages; Employee rights; Housing; Environmental responsibility. Continued demand for human services in the postindustrial period has drawn the: – Corporate sector directly into social welfare inthe United States.
• Consolidation and Growth in Human Service Markets: Human service corporations have become prominent/dominant in social welfare. More recently, proprietary firms established beachheads in other markets, – Notably life and continuing care, corrections, and welfare.Nursing Homes.
• Consolidation and Growth in Human Service Markets: 2003 Medicare Reforms; Hospital Management. Health Maintenance Organizations. Child Care; Home Health Care. Assisted Living. Corrections. Public Welfare.
• Implications for Health and Human Service Professionals: Most human service professionals have been skeptical about the provision of: – Social welfare by human service corporations. Commercial providers are likely to play an active role in defining social welfare. The corporate sector offers more opportunities for program innovation.
• Private Practice: Many social workers engage in private practice. Continues to be an attractive vehicle for delivering clinical social services. Provokes strong responses from welfare professionals. The Future of Private Practice.
• Technical Aspects of the Policy Process & Critical Analysis: Critical junctures in a proposal’s passage into legislation. The public policy process often proves frustrating for social activists. The policy process consists of a series of discrete decisions heavily influenced by: Money and connections.
• The Policy Process: Social Stratification. Formulation. Legislation: Senate/ House of Representatives. Implementation. Evaluation.
• Social Work and Advocacy Organizations & Political Practice: The rebuilding of a role for social workers in social policy will take concerted effort. The capacity of social workers to reassert their role in social welfare policy depends: On the willingness of individuals to considerpublic office a setting for social work practice.
• Advocacy Organizations and the New Policy Institutes: Children’s Defense Fund. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Economic Policy Institute (EPI). Institute for Women’s Policy Research. New America Foundation: Center for American Progress.
• History of U.S. Tax Policy; Tax Policy and Special Interests: Progressives and liberals. Tax policy is most visible in the passage of major bills. Tax policy has always contained provisions that benefit specific interest. The Great Recession was so profound that philanthropic giving actually dropped.
• Federal Tax Policy; State Tax Policy and the Poor. The budget is predicated on a tax base. – That is minimal compared to those of other industrialized nations. Federal taxes are important in social welfare policy because they subsidize: – The major social entitlements.
• The Efficiency of Tax Policy in Reducing Poverty; Expenditures: Tax policy is one of several strategies that apportion societal resources. Federal tax policy to alleviate poverty: – And the increase in states’ use of tax policy to augment the income of poor families. Tax expenditures in the form of deductions for families’ housing & health insurance.
• The Anti-Tax Movement: The extent that government enriches thepowerful and mistreats citizens. Conservative ambitions in domestic policy. – To reverse liberal dominance of government in the lives of citizens. – Allow them to do more for themselves.
• Definition of Social Insurance: Social insurance is the cornerstone of U.S.social welfare policy. Public assistance programs are subject to means tests & are based entirely on need. Conservatives complain about the costs of public assistance. Social insurance consume far more resources.
• The Background of Social Insurance: The first old-age insurance program was introduced in Germany in 1889. – By Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. – To curb the growing socialist trend in Germany. The Great Depression of the 1930s.
• The Background of Social Insurance: President Franklin Roosevelt championed a government assistance program. – That would cover both unemployed and retired workers. The original Social Security Act of 1935 and the current Social Security Act.
• The Financial Organization of Social Insurance: Social insurance is relatively straightforward. Social Security and Medicare taxes aredivided among several trust funds. – The trust funds are governed by a board of trustees.
• The Financial Organization of Social Insurance: Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary of Labor, Secretary of Health and Human Services. –Commissioner of Social Security and two public trustees. Before 1983 the system operated on a pay -as-you-go system.
• Key Social Insurance Programs: OASDI. – Combination of Old - Age & Survivors. Insurance (OASI) & Disability Insurance (DI) – Social Security, especially OASDI, has been a heated topic for much of its history. Unemployment Insurance – The UI System and its Benefits.
• Key Social Insurance Programs: Part-time workers. Temporary workers. Low-wage workers. Limited coverage. Benefit decline. Longer spells of unemployment. Women and unemployment.
• Key Social Insurance Programs: Meeting the UI system’s financial obligations. Regressive Nature of UI. Workers’ Compensation – Workers’ Compensation (WC) programs began in 1911. – Employers responsible for assuming costs of occupational disabilities without regard to fault.
• The Social Security Dilemma: Arguments against the Current Social Security System. Arguments for the Current Social Security System. Social Security in Trouble. The Long-Term Prospects for Social Security.
• Typologies of Welfare States & American Exceptionalism: Residual welfare & institutional welfare. US’s high degree of political decentralization:– Impedes the emergence of strong central political institutions. Welfare state exceptionalism. Comparisons between Europe & the US.
• The Welfare State in Transition: Have made structural adjustments to remain competitive. Western nations are experiencing a crisis: – Rooted in the need to compete in a new global economy. The retrenchment of the welfare state is paradoxical
• Ranking National Development; Human Development; Fourth World. Gauging the progress of nations. The Human Development Index as aranking of the development of nations. The United Nations developed other indices to assess national development.– Human Poverty Index
• Capability Poverty: Life; Bodily health; Bodily integrity. Senses, imagination, and thought. Emotions; Practical reason. Affiliation. Other species. Play. Control over one’s environment
• International Aid; Global Capital: Intergovernmental transfers haveaccounted for most foreign aid. The foundation for global markets was laid after World War II. The IMF & World Bank presume that:– International markets will be a means for development
• The Future: Habitat for Humanity– Christian organization; enlists volunteer labor& donated supplies to build housing. Grameen Development Bank– Enhanced the productivity of poor people but also reinforced solidarity. First Nations Development Institute