Description: "This is a study of the development of the American social welfare system during the postwar period through the end of the 20th century. Edward Berkowitz focuses on three case studies, the development of disability insurance in the mid-1950's, the passage of Medicare in 1965, and the welfare reform legislation of 1996, to explore the politics of welfare programs, and the relationship between experts, interest groups, political parties, and the ambitions of political leaders in the development of and resistance to an expanded national role in providing welfare. Issues raised and choices made at the time of the creation of programs like disability insurance continue to shape existing programs and debates about welfare reform decades later as reflected in his third case, the 1996 welfare reform legislation"--
Brief description:
Edward D. Berkowitz is emeritus professor of history and public policy at George Washington University. He is the author or coauthor of several books, including The Other Welfare.
Review Quotes: "Berkowitz offers a lively and useful explanation for the intractable social policy dilemmas that the United States faces today and helps us to understand how a society and polity with such a persistently anti-statist culture came to possess such a substantial--yet distinctly uneven--welfare state. We need this addition to the corpus, and it is uniquely the product of its author's career-long engagement with and immersion in the politics of American social policy."--Gareth Davies, Oxford University