American Politics and Social Welfare Policy
POS W 4226
Fall 1998
Judith Russell
 

This course is designed to address central issues in the foundation and development of social welfare policy in the United States. We want to understand the political factors and constraints that have shaped that bundle of social welfare policies we call the American Welfare State. We will be concerned with the political and economic history of this sector of national development as well as the specific political issues that dominate the public agenda today. We will address the contemporary meaning of these debates over the welfare state by analyzing the two decade old dual crisis of economic and political legitimacy. We will look at social policy as it relates to changing demography; economic, political, and social problems and trends; and public attitudes. We will focus on specific policy areas like income maintenance (Social Security and Aid to Families With Dependent Children [AFDC]), employment (labor legislation, active labor market policy, job training), health care (Medicare, Medicaid, proposals for national health care), and antipoverty programs (The Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996) and proposals.

Some key themes that will be addressed include: the idea and factors of American "exceptionalism" as a distinctive development of social policy in the US; the two-tier social welfare system (middle class entitlement programs like Social Security in contrast to income assistance for the poor like AFDC and welfare reform); the politics of social policy expansion and retrenchment; the role of the New Deal Coalition and its erosion beginning in the 1960s; the Republican 'revolution' and Contract With America in 1994 and its erosion beginning in 1996; and Clinton’s "Third Way."

It is expected that attendance and participation will be high in this course, and lively and informed contributions to the class work are encouraged. Attendance is taken in this class and considered a factor in the final grade, for both undergraduate and graduate students. Students are expected to arrive in class on time and to read assigned material in a timely manner. Requirements for undergraduate and graduate students differ:

• Undergraduates are expected to complete one in-class midterm (30%), one final examination (40%), and one short paper due November 5 (30%).
  
• More extensive reading is expected of graduate students who are to read selections from the recommended readings in addition to the assigned material. In lieu of examinations, graduate students are to complete one 30-page research paper to be determined in individual consultation with me.

All assigned readings are on reserve at the Barnard Library and the books listed below are available for purchase at the Columbia University Bookstore.

Prerequisites: POS BC 3001 Dynamics of American Politics or the equivalent

Books for Purchase

Drew, Elizabeth, Showdown: The Struggle Between the Gingrich Congress and the Clinton White House (Simon and Schuster, 1996)

Edsall, Thomas Byrne and Mary D. Edsall, Chain Reaction: The Impact of Race, Riots, and Taxes on American Politics (Norton, 1992)

Hamilton, Dona C. and Charles V. Hamilton, The Dual Agenda: Race and Social Welfare Policies of Civil Rights Organizations (Columbia University Press, 1997)

Johnson, Haynes and David S. Broder, The System: The American Way of Politics at the Breaking Point (Little Brown, 1996)

Katz, Michael, The Undeserving Poor: From the War on Poverty to the War on Welfare (Pantheon, 1989)

Light, Paul, Still Artful Work: The Continuing Politics of Social Security Reform (2nd ed.) (McGraw-Hill, 1995)

Weir, Margaret, Ann Shola Orloff and Theda Skocpol, eds., The Politics of Social Policy in the United States (Princeton, 1988)

Wilson, William Julius, When Work Disappears, (Knopf, 1997)

9/9	INTRODUCTION    NOTES ON POLITICAL SETTING AND CONTEXT
9/14, 9/16	POLITICS    "IT’S THE REALIGNMENT, STUPID!" Elisabeth Drew, Showdown: The Struggle Between the Gingrich Congress and the Clinton White House
9/21, 9/23	SOCIAL POLICIES    THE WELFARE STATE AND HOW IT GREW T.H. Marshall "Citizenship and Social Class" in Class, Citizenship, and Social Development (on reserve) Anna Orloff, "The Political Origins of America's Belated Welfare State" in Weir, Orloff, & Skocpol, eds., The Politics of Social Policy in the United States Skocpol and Kenneth Finegold, "State Capacity and Economic Intervention in the Early New Deal" in Political Science Quarterly Vol 97 No 2 Summer 1982 (on reserve) Recommended Stephen Skowronek, Building A New American State: The Expansion of National Administrative Capacities 1877-1920
9/28, 9/30	SOCIAL SECURITY THE BASIS OF THE WELFARE STATE Light, Still Artful Work John Myles, "Postwar Capitalism and the Extension of Social Security into a Retirement Wage" chapter seven in Weir, Orloff, and Skocpol G. John Ikenberry and Theda Skocpol "Expanding Social Benefits: The Role of Social Security" in Political Science Quarterly Vol 102 No 3 Fall 1987 (on reserve) Recommended Quadagno, The Transformation of Old Age Security: Class and Politics in the American Welfare State Jill Quadagno, "From Old-Age Assistance to Supplemental Security Income: The Political Economy of Relief in the South, 1935-1972" chapter six in Weir, Orloff, and Skocpol
10/5	FULL EMPLOYMENT Margaret Weir "The Federal Government and Unemployment: The Frustration of Policy Innovation from the New Deal to the Great Society," chapter four in Weir, Orloff, and Skocpol Jon Elster "Is There (or Should There Be) a Right to Work?" in Amy Gutman, ed., Democracy and the Welfare State (on reserve) Recommended Margaret Weir, Politics and Jobs Stephen K. Bailey, Congress Makes a Law: The Story Behind the Employment Act of 1946
10/7	Guest Lecturer Philip Harvey, Associate Professor of Law, Rutgers University, will lecture on "Alternative Strategies for Combating Joblessness." Read his paper, "Combating Joblessness: An Economic Analysis of the Principal Strategies that Have Influenced the Development of Social Welfare and Employment Law in the United States," prior to this lecture. It is on reserve in the Barnard Library.
10/12, 10/14	SEQUENCE, PACE, AND CRISIS I Legitimation and contradictions of the welfare state Morris Janowitz, Social Control of the Welfare State (on reserve) Recommended A.O. Hirshman "The Welfare State in Trouble: Systematic Crisis or Growing Pains?" in The American Economic Review May 1980 James O'Connor, The Fiscal Crisis of the State John Schwartz America's Hidden Success: A Reassessment of Twenty Years of Public Policy
10/19	IN-CLASS MIDTERM
10/21, 10/26	THE SAFETY NET Antipoverty policy Michael Katz, The Undeserving Poor: From the War on Poverty to the War on Welfare chs. 1-4
10/28, 11/4	The "underclass" William Julius Wilson, When Work Disappears Recommended Theda Skocpol, Protecting Soldiers and Mothers Linda Gordon, Pitied But Not Entitled: Single Mothers and the History of No Class on Nov 2 (election day holiday)
11/9	THEORIES AND AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM Historical institutionalism Theda Skocpol "America's First Social Security System: The Expansion of Benefits for Civil War Vetrans" in Political Science Quarterly Vol 108 No 1 Spring 1993 (on reserve) Marxist arguments Claus Offe, "Advanced Capitalism and the Welfare State" (on reserve) Social history Frances Fox Piven and Richard Cloward, Poor People's Movements (chs. 1, 3 on reserve)
11/11, 11/16 & 11/18	AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM REIFIED The color line in social welfare policy Dona C. Hamilton and Charles V. Hamilton, The Dual Agenda Some alleged political consequences of race Edsall and Edsall, Chain Reaction: The Impact of Race, Rights and Taxes on American Politics The policy of racial resistance Judith Russell, "Limited Access: Institutional Racism and Black Employment Policies in 1963" (on reserve)
11/23, 11/25	SEQUENCE, PACE, AND CRISIS II Paul Pierson, Dismantling the Welfare State? Reagan, Thatcher, and the Politics of Retrenchment Demetrios Caraley, "Dismantling the Federal Safety Net: Fictions versus Realities" in Political Science Quarterly Vol 111 No. 2 Summer, 1996 (on reserve) Recommended Theodore Marmor, Jerry Mashaw, and Philip Harvey, America’s Misunderstood Welfare State
11/30, 12/2	HEALTH CARE POLICY AND THE PUBLIC Johnson and Broder, The System: The American Way of Politics at the Breaking Point Lawrence Jacobs "The Recoil Effect: Public Opinion and Policymaking in the U.S. and Britain" in Comparative Politics 1992 (on reserve) Recommended Paul Starr, The Social Transformation of American Medicine Joseph White, Competing Solutions: American Health Care Proposals and International Experience Lawrence Jacobs, The Health of Nations: Public Opinion and the Making of American and British Health Policy Theda Skocpol, Boomerang
12/7, 12/9 & 12/14	THE REALIGNMENT: UNFINISHED BUSINESS OR ‘THIRD WAY’? Jeff Faux, "A New Conversation: How to Rebuild the Democratic Party," in The American Prospect No 21 Spring 1995 Everett Carll Ladd, "The 1994 Congressional Elections: The Realignment Continues," in Political Science Quarterly Vol 110 No 1 Spring 1995 Recommended Norman Ornstein and Amy L. Schenkenberg, "The 1995 Congress: The First Hundred Days and Beyond," in Political Science Quarterly Vol 110 No 2 Summer 1995 Gary C. Jacobson, "The 1994 Elections in Perspective," in Political Science Quarterly Vol 111 No 2 Summer 1996 Dan Balz and Ronald Brownstein, Storming the Gates: Protest Politics and the Republican Revival