The Welfare State and Social Work

Josefina Figueira-McDonough, Ph.D., is professor emerita of Social Work and of Justice and Social Inquiry at Arizona State University. Trained in social work and sociology at the University of Michigan, she has taught in both fields at the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, and Vanderbilt University. She has lectured and/or conducted research in Puerto Rico, Brazil, South Korea, Taiwan, Mozambique, Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Ireland. Her work on social justice has focused on deviance and control, the ecology of poverty, policy outcomes, community analysis and curricula. This research has been supported by federal, state, and private grants and disseminated in social science as well as in social work journals. She is presently on the board of two international and interdisciplinary journals, Social Intervention and Social Compass, and is a member of the book committee of the National Association of Social Workers. Her most recent books include Community Analysis and Praxis: Toward a Grounded Civil Society (Brunner-Routledge, 2001), Servico Social: Profissao e Identidade, with A. Negreiros, A. Martins and B. Henriques (Veras Editora, 2000), and Women at the Margins: Neglect, Punishment and Resistance, edited with Rosemary Sarri (Howard Press, 2002).

Introduction PART I. MAKING SENSE OF SOCIAL JUSTICE Ch 1: Justice as a Value in Social Work A Schizophrenic Profession? Rescuing a Profession That Betrayed Its Mission Gil on Social Determinism and Constructing a Just Society Piven and Cloward on Welfare, Control, and Disruption Gilbert on Balanced Reform From Within Jordan on Struggling for Justice and Social Work Wakefield on Justice as the Organizing Principle of Social Work Comparing Concepts of Social Work Ch 2: Understanding Social Justice in Liberal Democracies Liberal-Democratic Society and its Contradictions Theories of Social Justice for Liberal Democracies Freedom Versus Democracy: Priorities in the United States Ch 3: Evaluating Distributive Justice in the United States Expanding the Welfare State Concept Dimensions of Distributive Justice How does the United States Rate on Distributive Justice? PART II. INTERPRETING WELFARE IN THE UNITED STATES: BEYOND EXCEPTIONALISM Building an Analytic Framework Ch 4: The Fragile Roots of Welfare in the United States: From Colony to the Gilded Era The Legacy of the English Poor Laws and the Shaping of a National Ideology in the Eighteenth Century The Nineteenth Century: Seismic Changes and Moral Certainties Ch 5: The Ambiguous Ancestry of Welfare and Social Work in the First Half of the Twentieth Century The Progressive Era Social Work, 1900-1920 Social Regression, Disaster, and the Birth of the Welfare State During the Interwar Years Social Work in the Twenties and Thirties Ch 6: From the Aftermath of World War II to the Great Society Holding Back the New Deal Social Work in the Postwar Period The Promise of the Great Society Social Work in the Sixties Ch 7: The Weakening of the Welfare State Gains Speed The Seventies: Expansion and Stagnation Social Work in the Seventies Reagan and the Precipitous Undoing of Public Assistance Social Work in a Regressive Era Ch 8: The End of the Millennium and the Demise of Entitlement to Public Assistance A Centrist President in a Conservative Government Social Work at the End of the Millennium PART III. THE LESSER AMERICANS: HISTORICAL LEGACIES The Story of a Limited Democracy Ch 9: Women and the Welfare State The Preindustrial Period Economic and Social Restructuring The Place of Women in the New Deal Ch 10: Welfare Through the Color Lens African Americans Mexican Americans Native Americans Genocide, Manifest Destiny, and Contradictory Federal Policy PART IV. CONTEMPORARY DIRECTIONS OF THE LIBERAL WELFARE STATE Ch 11: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families - I Positive Outcomes, Concerns, and Questions Devolution: Unaccountability, Creativity, and State Budgets Crisis Promoting the Work Ethic and Self-Sufficiency Toward a Nuclear Family State Ch 12: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families - II Barriers and Exclusion TANF Reauthorization Ch 13: Social Security and the Push Toward Privatization The Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003 Social Insurance Financing and Alternative Proposals Further Thoughts About Privatization PART V. CONTEMPORARY DIRECTIONS OF WELFARE STATES IN DEVELOPED NATIONS Ch 14: Types of Welfare States, Different Outcomes, and Future Needs Different Logics of Welfare States Alternative Institutional Designs Comparing Welfare Types Historical Synopses Achievements of the Welfare Regimes Ch 15: The Future of Welfare State in Postindustrial Societies Demographic and Economic Shifts The Three Pillars of Welfare PART VI. LOCATING AND COUNTERACTING SOURCES OF INJUSTICE Ch 16: Framing Policy Practice Social Work's Commitment to Justice for the Twenty-First Century How Do Professional Statements Fit With Social Work Theories of Justice? What Do Social Justice Theories Add? What Guidelines Can Be Derived From the Historical Analysis? Ideology Policy Decision Making Summary Ch 17: Policy Practice Building Influence From the Ground Up Influence in Policy Making Shaping Policy Implementation Judicial Policy Making Interdependence Among Types of Policy Practice Conclusion