Welfare reform : a race to the bottom?

Abstract

This timely collection presents research contributing to the ongoing debate over reform in the 1990s, especially since the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996. Some chapters argue that the law will lead states to restrict benefits out of fear of becoming welfare magnets. Other chapters assert that no such shift is taking place. Still others point to evidence that states are experimenting and serving as laboratories of democracy. And others suggest that none of these positions captures the complexities of reform. The work behind several contributions supported arguments (on either side) in a Supreme Court case about argued in January 1999. Contributors are professionals in government and political science, sociology, social work, and public administration. They are Sanford F. Schram, Samuel H. Beer, Mark Carl Rom, Paul E. Peterson, Kenneth F. Scheve, Jr., Frances Fox Piven, Margaret Weir, Scott W. Allard, Joe Soss, Irene Lurie, Thomas Vartanian, Jim Baumohl, Richard P. Nathan, Thomas L. Gais, Karen A. Curtis, Jocelyn M. Johnston, Kara Lindaman, Richard M. Francis, Saundra K. Schneider, Barbara Gault, Heidi Hartmann, and Hsiao-Ye Yi. Most chapters were prepared for a conference at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and published as a special edition of the journal Publius. They have been supplemented by two new chapters, a new introduction by Sanford F. Schram, and an index.

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