Social Policy Problems Research Articles

The Unionist Party and Social Policy 1906–1914

It is generally agreed that the body of legislation passed by the Liberal governments after 1905 represented a uniquely important contribution to the problems of social policy in the twentieth century. The attitude of the Unionist opposition of these years to such matters has, however, received little attention. Yet the posture taken by the Unionists was, it will be suggested, of crucial importance in the development of the party in this period, playing a major part in the determination of its electoral fortunes. An appropriate starting point for this study is the reaction of the Unionist leader, Arthur Balfour, to the electoral disaster of 1906, in which he personally had lost his parliamentary seat. ‘What is going on here’, he argued, ‘is the faint echo of the same movement which has produced massacres in St Petersburg, riots in Vienna and Socialist processions in Berlin… We are face to face (no doubt in a milder form) with the Socialist difficulties which loom so large on the Continent. Unless I am greatly mistaken, the Election of 1906 inaugurates a new era.’

Methods and strategies in evaluating equity research

The thesis of this paper is that evaluation methods are strongly correlated to strategies employed in equity programming and research. Without attempting to settle the issue of specific advantages that might accrue to any particular approach, the paper nonetheless does aim to demonstrate that ends-in-view often determine choices in methods selected. A series of such broad-gauged methods are examined: evaluation research; cost-benefit analysis; quality of life measures; substitution strategies; microanalytic simulation; and in each instance evidence is adduced that the methods and procedures of research adopted — sometimes through scholarly initiatives, other times through government directives — serve quite specific epistemological and valuational premises of the researchers and agencies involved. One might say that the basic purpose of this exploratory study is to link problems in social policy to the style of analysis pioneered by the sociology of knowledge.

Reforming Public Welfare: A Critique of the Negative Income Tax Experiment, by Peter H. Rossi and Katharine C. Lyall

Reforming Public Welfare is an analysis and critique of the well-known New Jersey negative income tax (NIT) study. The NIT study was a landmark event in the history of policy-relevant research. It applied, for the first time on a large scale, an experimental design to investigate issues related to an important social policy problem. This pathbreaking study was funded by the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) and undertaken by two research organizations associated with prestigious universities. The proposal for a negative income tax had been put forth as a major reform of the public assistance program. The NIT study focused on a particular aspect-the relationship between a variety of negative income tax plans and their impact on promoting or discouraging employment of recipients-in order to explore two of the major objections that were being raised against the program. It was assumed that the labor supply response of recipients could aid policy makers in estimating the costs of a national program and its impact on the low-wage labor market. The NIT study's major conclusion was that the male heads of households in the sample remained committed to the labor market, regardless of the negative income tax plan in which they participated. Rossi and Lyall, despite their appreciation of many of the methodological aspects, severely criticize the NIT study for the limited applicability of its findings. They believe that a very small payoff was received, from the perspective of aiding policy makers, in light of the large financial expenditures and the utilization of considerable academic talent that went into the project. Their criticism is twofold: that the experiment failed, in its own terms, in realizing its objectives and that its scope was too narrow. The authors first argue that errors in the design and execution of the study limit the generality of the findings. This critique appears to be well founded. Rossi and Lyall criticize such aspects of the study as the decision to focus solely on the labor response of male-headed intact families, to disregard initially the factor of ethnicity which tainted the conclusions concerning ethnic differences, and to take their sample from a small number of urban sites rather than using a national probability sample. As a result, the study failed to achieve its objectives of providing an estimate of the costs of a negative income tax program and predicting the full impact on the labor market of the program. Of perhaps greater interest is their second criticism concerning the project's narrow scope. The authors attack the NIT study for not focusing on aspects of the negative income tax program which were far more important to the policy makers. In Chapter 7, they discuss a number of these significant issues-its impact on family dissolution, the effect of limiting the discretionary role of welfare administrators, and, more broadly, its impact in aiding the poor to cope with the pathology and vicissitudes that mark their lives. Elsewhere, they note that when Congress considered the negative income tax program, the labor supply question was dwarfed in importance by other issues. They criticize the NIT study for selecting their central focus on the

WHAT VALUE "HISTORY"?

For those of us who enjoy history, the publication of Bremner's two volumes on the history of children and youth in America' provides enormous satisfaction and pleasure. And yet the skeptic of Santayana says, "But how does that help solve our current problems in social policy?" Featherstone in a review of these volumes gives at least one answer. In the coming post-industrial society the major tension, he says, will be between the present dominant economic view and what others believe will be the greater emphasis on social goals. The history of children and the family "is more deeply rooted in American life than entrepreneurial, economic values. In the coming battles over national priorities and a new social policy, children and their families may be more important as symbols of social values than ever." Reading the history of children may guide us more surely toward these social goals.

The Progressive Movement in England

On the centenary of the birth of C. P. Scott, the political outlook of theManchester Guardianunder his editorship was explained thus: ‘He, and those who wrote under him, thought always in terms of what he called “the progressive movement”. What was important was that those who were agreed on reforming measures should work together to secure them’. In its use of the rather imprecise label ‘progressive’, in its conception of a reform movement wider than strict party boundaries, in its distinctive flowering in the press—in all these respects the progressive movement of early twentieth-century America gives us some notion of what Scott had in mind. And indeed American historiography can, I believe, suggest valuable lines of analysis which have not been fully applied in England. Perhaps the most obvious would entail giving closer attention to the intellectuals and publicists and asking more searching questions about their role in politics. A few years ago the late Charles Mowat pointed to the broadly similar problems in social policy which Britain and the United States faced at this time; and he commented on how, despite these similarities, the history of social reform in the United States had been written with due attention to the history of ideas: in Britain, by contrast, almost exclusively in terms of political and administrative history. It would not, perhaps, be fair to extend Mowat's observation by saying that in England we purposely write history with the ideas left out.

Above and Beyond the Best Interests of the Child: An inquiry into the Relationship Between Social Science and Social Action

The publication of an inter-disciplinary effort on child welfare law, co-authored by three such luminary figures as Joseph Goldstein (Walton Hale Hamilton Professor of Law, Science and Social Policy at Yale University Law School), Anna Freud (perhaps the foremost living authority on the emotional lives of children), and Albert Solnit (Director of the Yale University Child Study Center), is an intellectual event. The talents of these authors are such that their book, Beyond the Best Interests of the Child (1973), ought to have significance beyond its reconceptualization of the law of child custody; it ought also to be a landmark in the history of cooperation between social scientists and lawyers. Despite impressive achievements, however, the book's greatest utility may be as an example of the wrong way to employ social science to solve problems of social policy.

Public Social Policy and Population Problems in the United States

Although the birthrate has dropped sharply in the United States over the past five years, the danger of further rapid population growth remains because of the extremely large youth population in their prime reproductive years. At present, the nation's population policy is mostly limited to partial federal support for family-planning programs for poor people. This approach is too narrow. Ideally, population policy should be tied to a larger social and economic policy primarily addressed to improving the overall quality of life. The report of the President's Commission on Population Growth and the American Future makes recommendations that move in this direction; further movement is desirable. Policy planning and implementation should be addressed both to improving the operation of population-planning programs and to minimizing their possibly adverse effects. This suggests policies that take into account the complex of biological, social, psychological, political, and economic factors that affect human repr...

Issues in Career Education

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size NotesKenneth B. Hoyt, et al., Career Education: What It Is and How To Do It (Salt Lake City, Utah: Olympus Publishing Co., 1972), p. 1.Sidney P. Marland, Jr., “Career Education: Every Student Headed for a Goal,” American Vocational Journal, 47:34–62, March, 1972.Ibid., p. 35.Ibid., p. 36.Hoyt, op. cit., p. 2.Ibid., p. 7.For an in-depth examination of this question see: Robert L. Ebel, “What are Schools For? ”; Joseph Junell, “The Limits of Social Education”; and Theodore Brameld, “Education as Self-Fulfilling Prophecy,” Phi Delta Kappan, 54, September, 1972.George H. Gallup, “Fourth Annual Gallup Poll of Public Attitudes Toward Education,” Phi Delta Kappan, 54:33–46. September, 1972.Hoyt, op. cit., p. 7.See, for example, Alvin Tomer’s Future Shock (New York: Bantam Books, 1970).Leonard Goodwin, “How Suburban Families View the Work Orientations of the Welfare Poor: Problems in Social Stratification and Social Policy,” Social Problems, 19:337–348, Winter, 1972.Hoyt, op. cit., p. 4.Goodwin, op. cit.William A. Faunce, Problems of An Industrial Society (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1968), p. 84.This guide was prepared by the Division of Vocational Education of the University of Georgia, 1970–71, under a grant from the Division of Vocational Education of the Georgia State Department of Education and the U.S. Office of Education.I participated in three such workshops in Georgia during the Summer of 1972.Toffler, op. cit., pp. 402–403.Ibid., p. 403.Hoyt, op. cit., p. 1.Toffler, op. cit., p. 403.James S. Coleman, “How Do the Young Become Adults,” Phi Delta Kappan, 54:229, December, 1972.

Dilemmas in a general theory of planning

The search for scientific bases for confronting problems of social policy is bound to fail, becuase of the nature of these problems. They are “wicked” problems, whereas science has developed to deal with “tame” problems. Policy problems cannot be definitively described. Moreover, in a pluralistic society there is nothing like the undisputable public good; there is no objective definition of equity; policies that respond to social problems cannot be meaningfully correct or false; and it makes no sense to talk about “optimal solutions” to social problems unless severe qualifications are imposed first. Even worse, there are no “solutions” in the sense of definitive and objective answers.

How Suburban Families View the Work Orientations of the Welfare Poor: Problems in Social Stratification and Social Policy

Middle-class suburbanites, including adults and teenagers, draw sharp distinctions between themselves and the lower-class welfare poor with respect to work orientations. Certain distinctions are appropriate. The poor reveal less confidence in themselves and greater acceptance of welfare than the middle class. But middle-class respondents mistakenly deny that the work ethic is strong among the poor, fundamentally misunderstand how high work ethic leads to increased feelings of insecurity, and mistakenly project for the poor a strong identification of welfare income with income from quasi-illegal sources. These misperceptions encourage middle-class political leaders and their constituents to support so-called welfare reform which emphasizes a strong work requirement and below-poverty level base payments. A better understanding of interclass perceptions should lead to better public policies and programs regarding the poor.

How Suburban Families View the Work Orientations of the Welfare Poor: Problems in Social Stratification and Social Policy

How Suburban Families View the Work Orientations of the Welfare Poor: Problems in Social Stratification and Social Policy

Social Policy and Urban Problems

Social Policy and Urban Problems

Social Science and Public Policy: An Examination of the Political Foundations of Modern Research

Economics, sociology, psychology, and the other social sciences have in recent times begun to play a new and problematic role with respect to national and international policy. The problem of social policy has become acute precisely to the extent to which social science has become exact. Legitimation of policy recommendations from social scientists emerges in this period and not in previous periods because of a demonstrable feasibility of putting social science and social theory into a framework of political action. Demand for operations research analysts, tactical data systems, war gaming and simulation experts now rivals the search for basic engineering personnel. There is a paucity of exact information on how this transvaluation took place, due in part to the novelty of the situation and in part to the novelty of self-examination in the social sciences. What is at stake as a result of this newly acquired influence is not the feasibility of social science, but the credibility of social scientists. Any discussions of villains and values, which inevitably is what the study of social science and public policy boils down to, involves two distinct areas. One is the empirical basis of present relationships between social science and public policy, its formation and its

IV. Big-Business Pressure Groups and Bismarck's Turn to Protectionism, 1873–79

Although the first decade of the German Empire has long been a central topic of historical research, the question with which this essay is concerned—Bismarck's relationship to the pressure groups at this time—cannot be answered satisfactorily on the basis of the material known hitherto. This is due to the fact that until very recently historians have concentrated on the diplomatic-political occurrences. Bismarck's eastern policy, the Livadia affair, the ‘war-in-sight crisis’, the Berlin Congress, and the change from the Three Emperors' Alliance to the ‘Eternal’ Treaty with the Danube monarchy—these are the events always used to demonstrate Bismarck's ‘genius’ in the field of foreign policy. On the problem of the ‘Kulturkampf’ much less effort has been expended. Here Bismarck's outstanding political skill was not as apparent as it was in his judgement of international relations. Moreover, this question was bound up from the very beginning with a strong ideological bias which only slightly weakened after World War II for the first time. Even less attention has been paid to the problems of domestic and social policy and economic developments have been almost totally neglected. It is true that these items have recently obtained new historical relevance from the new socio-political point of view, but up to the present day they have not been clarified. The chief general contributions of this kind have been published by non-German historians (e.g. Rosenberg, Lambi, and Pflanze) in the United States or in Canada. These studies, however, give inadequate answers to specific questions, as do the detailed essays of Karl-Erich Born and Wolfgang Zorn with their systematizing way of reflexion. They do not deal with our formulation of the question: the relationship between economic development and political events in a comparatively short period. Nevertheless, the essays of Born and Zorn will serve as a starting-point for our own investigation. Born in particular realizes the urgent need for more detailed research in the social and economic sphere, and pleads for a ‘supplementary’ approach (Ergänzungsgeschichte). He states thatthe history of the aristocracy during the industrial age has to be completed by studies dealing with the history of the trade unions; by dissertations on the history of industrial branches, commercial centres, and companies; and last but not least by works on the disintegration of the old bourgeoisie. Then we shall be able to extend the political history of the German Empire, which is largely clarified, to a comprehensive view of a German historical epoch by adding the social and economic history of the late nineteeth century.

Problems in Social Policy

Problems in Social Policy

Problems of Social Policy (History of the Second World War)

Problems of Social Policy (History of the Second World War) George Rosen CopyRight https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.41.6.733-b Published Online: August 29, 2011

Social Science During the Second World War

Problems of Social Policy By Richard M. Titmuss. (History of the Second World War: United Kingdom Civil Series.) Pp. xi + 596. (London: H.M. Stationery Office, and Longmans, Green and Co., Ltd., 1950.) 25s.

Book Review: Problems of Social Policy

Book Review: Problems of Social Policy

Problems of Social Policy*

Public AdministrationVolume 28, Issue 4 p. 301-304 Problems of Social Policy* JOHN MOSS C.B.E., JOHN MOSS C.B.E.Search for more papers by this author JOHN MOSS C.B.E., JOHN MOSS C.B.E.Search for more papers by this author First published: December 1950 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1950.tb02768.x * By Richard M. Titmus. H. M. Stationery Office, London, pp. 564. Price 25s AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Volume28, Issue4December 1950Pages 301-304 RelatedInformation

Problems of Social Policy

Problems of Social Policy