Workfare: Why Good Social Policy Ideas Go Bad

Abstract

Workfare: Why Good Social Policy Ideas Go Bad, Maeve Quaid, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002, pp. 244This book begins with the premise that workfare, properly administered, is good social policy. The author dismisses the moral arguments surrounding this policy: i) that workfare distinguishes the deserving from the undeserving; ii) that workfare is a form of slavery, forcing the poor to work in order to survive; iii) that workfare creates important responsibility for the recipient; iv) that workfare safeguards welfare recipients' status as citizens able to fully participate in a democratic society. These are controversial moral assertions about the merits or demerits of workfare that the author refuses to address. Instead, the author, as an expert in organizational behaviour and human resource management, is interested in whether this policy meets the goals it establishes. If workfare is to lead recipients to greater job prospects then this is the measuring stick that should be used to assess the success of workfare, argues Maeve Quaid.