Summary
Contents
Subject index
The Handbook of Social Policy is an attempt to document the now substantial body of knowledge about government social policies that has been accumulated since the study of social policy first emerged as an organized field of academic endeavor about 50 years ago. The Second Edition offers a more streamlined format to make the book more consistent with the way most instructors teach their courses. This text is a comprehensive yet accessible introduction to a vast field of endeavor that has, over the years, made a significant difference to the lives and the well-being of the people of the United States.
The Political Economy of Social Policy
This part of the handbook provides an overview of the major theoretical and ideological orientations in social policy thinking today. These orientations provide very different insights into social policy and offer very different normative perspectives on how social policy affects social well-being. They reveal that social policy is not a technical or politically neutral activity but rather that it draws on wider ideological beliefs about how social life should be organized and how the ideals of the Good Society can be realized. These beliefs comprise a rich and complex political economy, which frames discussions about social policy today.
The first chapter in Part III discusses the institutional approach to social policy. Systematically formulated by scholars ...
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