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Master the skills in CSWE’s core competencies and practice behaviors.
The Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) has 10 core competencies that are used as one of the measurements to grant accreditation to social work schools.
The Core Competencies include knowledge, skills, and practice behaviors that all Social Work students must learn. This text will help you master the skills in these core competencies.
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Competency Chapter
Professional Identity
Practice Behavior Examples…
Serve as representatives of the profession, its mission, and its core values
Know the profession’s history
Commit themselves to the profession’s enhancement and to their own professional conduct and growth
Advocate for client access to the services of social work
Practice personal reflection and self-correction to assure continual professional development
Attend to professional roles and boundaries
Demonstrate professional demeanor in behavior, appearance, and communication
Engage in career-long learning
Use supervision and consultation
Ethical Practice
Practice Behavior Examples…
Obligation to conduct themselves ethically and engage in ethical decision-making
Know about the value base of the profession, its ethical standards, and relevant law
Recognize and manage personal values in a way that allows professional values to guide practice
6
7
Make ethical decisions by applying standards of the National Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics and, as applicable, of the International Federation of Social Workers/International Association of Schools of Social Work Ethics in Social Work, Statement of Principles 5
Tolerate ambiguity in resolving ethical conflicts
Apply strategies of ethical reasoning to arrive at principled decisions
Critical
Thinking
Practice Behavior Examples…
Know about the principles of logic, scientific inquiry, and reasoned discernment
Use critical thinking augmented by creativity and curiosity
Requires the synthesis and communication of relevant information
4
Distinguish, appraise, and integrate multiple sources of knowledge, including research-based knowledge, and practice wisdom 9, 8, 3
Analyze models of assessment, prevention, intervention, and evaluation
Demonstrate effective oral and written communication in working with individuals, families, groups, organizations, communities, and colleagues
Adapted with the permission of the Council on Social Work Education.
Competency
Diversity in Practice
Practice Behavior Examples…
Understand how diversity characterizes and shapes the human experience and is critical to the formation of identity
Understand the dimensions of diversity as the intersectionality of multiple factors including age, class, color, culture, disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity and expression, immigration status, political ideology, race, religion, sex, and sexual orientation
Appreciate that, as a consequence of difference, a person’s life experiences may include oppression, poverty, marginalization, and alienation as well as privilege, power, and acclaim
Chapter
Recognize the extent to which a culture’s structures and values may oppress, marginalize, alienate, or create or enhance privilege and power 6, 5, 4, 1
Gain sufficient self-awareness to eliminate the influence of personal biases and values in working with diverse groups
Recognize and communicate their understanding of the importance of difference in shaping life experiences
View themselves as learners and engage those with whom they work as informants
Human Rights & Justice
Practice Behavior Examples…
Understand that each person, regardless of position in society, has basic human rights, such as freedom, safety, privacy, an adequate standard of living, health care, and education
Recognize the global interconnections of oppression and are knowledgeable about theories of justice and strategies to promote human and civil rights
Incorporates social justice practices in organizations, institutions, and society to ensure that these basic human rights are distributed equitably and without prejudice
Understand the forms and mechanisms of oppression and discrimination
Advocate for human rights and social and economic justice
Engage in practices that advance social and economic justice 3, 2
Research-Based Practice
Practice Behavior Examples…
Use practice experience to inform research, employ evidence-based interventions, evaluate their own practice, and use research findings to improve practice, policy, and social service delivery
Comprehend quantitative and qualitative research and understand scientific and ethical approaches to building knowledge
Use practice experience to inform scientific inquiry
Use research evidence to inform practice 8, 4, 1
Competency
Human Behavior
Practice Behavior Examples…
Know about human behavior across the life course; the range of social systems in which people live; and the ways social systems promote or deter people in maintaining or achieving health and well-being
Apply theories and knowledge from the liberal arts to understand biological, social, cultural, psychological, and spiritual development
Utilize conceptual frameworks to guide the processes of assessment, intervention, and evaluation
Critique and apply knowledge to understand person and environment. 7
Policy Practice
Practice Behavior Examples…
Understand that policy affects service delivery and they actively engage in policy practice
Know the history and current structures of social policies and services; the role of policy in service delivery; and the role of practice in policy development
Analyze, formulate, and advocate for policies that advance social well-being 9, 8, 7, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
Collaborate with colleagues and clients for effective policy action
Practice Contexts
Practice Behavior Examples…
Keep informed, resourceful, and proactive in responding to evolving organizational, community, and societal contexts at all levels of practice
Recognize that the context of practice is dynamic, and use knowledge and skill to respond proactively
Continuously discover, appraise, and attend to changing locales, populations, scientific and technological developments, and emerging societal trends to provide relevant services 9, 8, 7, 6, 2, 1
Provide leadership in promoting sustainable changes in service delivery and practice to improve the quality of social services
Competency
Engage, Assess Intervene, Evaluate
Practice Behavior Examples . . .
Identify, analyze, and implement evidence-based interventions designed to achieve client goals
Use research and technological advances
Evaluate program outcomes and practice effectiveness
Develop, analyze, advocate, and provide leadership for policies and services
Promote social and economic justice
A) ENGAGEMENT
substantively and effectively prepare for action with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities
Use empathy and other interpersonal skills
Develop a mutually agreed-on focus of work and desired outcomes
B) ASSESSMENT
collect, organize, and interpret client data
Assess client strengths and limitations
Develop mutually agreed-on intervention goals and objectives
Select appropriate intervention strategies
C) INTERVENTION
Initiate actions to achieve organizational goals
Implement prevention interventions that enhance client capacities
Help clients resolve problems
Negotiate, mediate, and advocate for clients
Facilitate transitions and endings
D) EVALUATION
Critically analyze, monitor, and evaluate interventions
MySearchLab
Connections in this Text
In addition to the outstanding research and writing tools and a complete etext in MySearchLab, this site contains a wealth of resources for social work students.
Below is a listing of the videos and readings found in MySearchLab, keyed to each chapter in this text. In addition, a wealth of assessment questions (including those based on CSWE’s core competencies) and useful online resources can be found under the appropriate chapters in MySearchLab
VIDEOS
Grandmothers Raising Grandchildren (1)
Military Families (1)
2010 Health Care Legislation, The (2010) (1)
* Participating in Policy Changes (1)
* Keeping Up with Shifting Contexts (1)
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Speech (2)
Great Contradictions of the Twentieth Century, The (2) Working Mothers (2)
Responding to the Great Depression: Whose New Deal? (2)
* Social and Economic Justice: Understanding Forms of Oppression and Discrimination (3)
Republicans and Democrats Divide on Tax Cut (2008) (3) Who Is the Middle Class? (2008) (3)
* Applying Critical Thinking (3)
America’s Aging Population (4)
Single Mothers (4)
Supreme Court: No Race-based Admissions (2007) (4)
* Assessment (4)
Victimizers and Victims Indians (4)
* Engage, Assess, Intervene, Evaluate Community Organization (5)
* Collaborate with Colleagues and Clients for Effective Policy Action in Community Organization (5)
* Attending to Changes and Relevant Services (5)
* Engaging in Research Informed Practice (5)
* Engaging the Client to Share Their Experiences of Alienation, Marginalization, and/or Oppression (6)
* Recognizing Personal Values (6)
* Building Alliances (6)
* Advocating for Human Rights and Social and Economic Justice (6)
Bailout Hearings, The (7)
Government Bails Out Automakers, The (7)
Tea Party Victories Concern for GOP (2008) (7)
Real ID (2008) (7)
American Revolution as different Americans Saw It (7)
Recession Hits Indiana (8)
Ellis Island Immigrants, 1903 (8)
Working Poor (8)
Raising the Minimum Wage (8)
Open Arms (9)
Historical Significance of the 2008 Presidential Election (9)
Economic Policy Debate at the G20 (2010) (9)
YouTube Politics (2008) (9)
* = CSWE Core Competency Asset
Δ = Case Study
MySearchLab
Connections in this Text
READINGS
Δ Social Workers Involved in Political Action (1)
Roe v. Wade (1973) (1)
Δ Community to Community (1)
Δ Community Heals a Family, The: The Story of the LaSotos (1)
Jane Addams, from Twenty Years at Hull House (1910) (1)
Frances Perkins and the Social Security Act (1935, 1960) (2)
Lyndon B. Johnson, The War on Poverty (1964) (2)
Meridel Le Sueur, Women on the Breadlines (1932) (2)
Franklin Roosevelt’s Radio Address Unveiling the Second Half of the New Deal (1936) (2)
John Kennedy’s Inaugural Address (1961) (3)
Jane Addams, The Subjective Necessity of Social Settlements (1892) (3)
* Critical Thinking (3)
* Policy Practice (4)
Δ Decisions, Decisions, Decisions (4)
Donald Wheeldin, “The Situation in Watts Today” (1967) (4)
Helen Hunt Jackson, from “A Century of Dishonor” (1881) (4)
Δ Veterans of the Vietnam War (5)
Δ Incarcerated Women (5)
Δ Homeless People (5)
Δ Mental Health Services Consumers (6)
Δ Linguistic, Interpretive, and Ethical Issues (6)
Δ Military Veteran Justice Outreach and the Role of a VA Social Worker (6)
* Diversity in Practice (6)
Andrew Carnegie, “Wealth,” North American Review (1889) (7)
Huey Long, “Share Our Wealth” (1935) (7)
Δ Baby Boomers: The Story of the Johnsons (7)
Δ Adventures in Budgets and Finances (7)
Herbert Croly, from Progressive Democracy (1914) (8)
Ladies Home Journal, “Young Mother” (1956) (8)
Caroline Manning, The Immigrant Woman and Her Job (1930) (8)
Abraham Lincoln, The Emancipation Proclamation (8)
Jesse Jackson, Common Ground (1988) (8)
Δ Golem, Albania (9)
Δ Elderly People (9)
Δ Divorce, Remarriage and Stepparenting (9)
United Nations, Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) (9)
Bob Stinson, Flint Sit-Down Strike (1936) (9)
* = CSWE Core Competency Asset
Δ = Case Study
Dimensions of Social Welfare Policy
Neil
Gilbert
University of California, Berkeley
Paul
Terrell
University of California, Berkeley Boston
Editorial Director: Craig Campanella
Executive Editor: Ashley Dodge
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Credits and acknowledgments borrowed from other sources and reproduced, with permission, in this textbook appear on the appropriate page within text or on page 285.
Many of the designations by manufacturers and seller to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and the publisher was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed in initial caps or all caps.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gilbert, Neil. Dimensions of social welfare policy / Neil Gilbert, Paul Terrell. — 8th ed. p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-205-09689-3
ISBN-10: 0-205-09689-1
1. Public welfare. 2. Social choice. 3. Public welfare—United States. 4. United States—Social policy. I. Terrell, Paul. II. Title.
HV41.G52 2013 362.97—dc23 2012009984
Student Edition
ISBN 10: 0-205-09689-1
ISBN 13: 978-0-205-09689-3
Instructor Edition
ISBN 10: 0-205-09692-1
ISBN 13: 978-0-205-09692-3
à la Carte Edition
ISBN 10: 0-205-14984-7
ISBN 13: 978-0-205-14984-1
Preface xiv
1. The Field of Social Welfare Policy 1
Institutional Perspectives on Social Welfare Policy 2 Kinship 3 Religion 6
Workplace 6
The Market 7
Civil Society 8 Government 10
Evolving Institutions and the Welfare State 11
Analytic Perspectives on Social Welfare Policy 13 Studies of Process 13 Studies of Product 14 Studies of Performance 14
Political Perspectives on Social Welfare Policy 16
Conservative and Progressive Approaches to Planning 18
Why Policy Analysis Is Relevant to Social Work Practice 19
Emerging Issues: Feminist Perspectives on Social Welfare 21
Theories of Welfare Growth 37 Is America Exceptional? 39 Welfare Goals 40
Welfare Scope 43
Social, Occupational, and Fiscal Welfare 45
Regulatory Welfare 48
The Welfare State Today—Attack and Defense 50
Emerging Issues: The New Social Accounting and Its Implications 52
SUMMARY 56
PRACTICE TEST 57
MYSEARCHLAB CONNECTIONS 58
3. A Framework for Social Welfare Policy Analysis 59
Benefit Allocations in the Social Market and the Mixed Economy of Welfare 61
Elements of an Analytic Framework: Dimensions of Choice 65
Choices Regarding Allocations and Provisions 66
Choices Regarding Delivery and Finance 66
An Example: The Transformation of Social Services 68
Application of the Framework 72
Social Justice in Public Assistance 73
Equality 76
Equity 76
Adequacy 78
Conservative and Progressive Values in Public Assistance 80
Theories, Assumptions, and Social Choice 82
Emerging Issues: The Search for Equity 85
SUMMARY 88
PRACTICE TEST 89
MYSEARCHLAB CONNECTIONS 90
4. The Basis of Social Allocations 91
Who Shall Benefit? 92
Universality and Selectivity in Income Maintenance 95
Seattle and Denver Income Maintenance Experiments 96
Children’s Allowance 97
A Negative Income Tax for Workers: The Earned Income Tax Credit 98
Child Support and Asset Building 100
Social Effectiveness and Cost Effectiveness 101
Work Incentives 102
Childbearing 104
Family Stability 105
Stigma and Social Integration 106
Another Perspective on Allocation: A Continuum of Choice 107
Attributed Need 108
Compensation 109
Diagnostic Differentiation 110
Means-Tested Need 111
Allocative Principles and Institutional–Residual Conceptions of Social Welfare 111
Operationalizing the Allocative Principles 113
Eligibility versus Access 117
Emerging Issues: Defining and Measuring Poverty 121
SUMMARY 124
PRACTICE TEST 125
MYSEARCHLAB CONNECTIONS 126
5. The Nature of Social Provision 127
Basic Forms: Cash versus In-Kind 128
Alternative Forms: An Extension of Choice 134
Vouchers: Balancing Social Control and Consumer Choice 136
Substance of the Social Provision 140
Expediency of Abstraction 140
Social Provisions as Reflections of Policy Values 143
Cash, Kind, and the Cycles of Public Assistance 146
Emerging Issue: Shifting Provisions for Child Welfare 148
SUMMARY 150
PRACTICE TEST 151
MYSEARCHLAB CONNECTIONS 152
6.
The Design of the Delivery System 153
Privatization and Commercialization in Service Delivery 155
Privatization and the Future of Public Social Services 155
Faith-Based Services 158
Commercialization: Services for Profit 160
Promoting Coherence and Accessibility: Service Delivery Strategies 162 Strategies to Restructure Policy-Making Authority 164
Strategies to Reorganize the Allocation of Tasks 169
Strategies to Alter the Composition of the Delivery System 173
Controlling Costs: Conditionality and Managed Care 175
Emerging Issues: Culturally Competent Service Delivery 179
SUMMARY 182
PRACTICE TEST 183
MYSEARCHLAB CONNECTIONS 184
7. The Mode of Finance: Sources of Funds 185
Sources of Funds 187
The Philanthropic Contribution 188
Voluntary Financing: Not Entirely a Private Matter 190
Functions of Voluntary Services 191
Problems and Issues in Voluntary Financing 193
The Mixed Economy of Welfare 193
Accountability 195
Conservatives and Voluntarism 197
Liberals and Voluntarism 198
Contributory Schemes and Fee Charging 199
Public Financing: Not Entirely a Public Matter 201
Tax Types, Tax Burdens 205
Social Earmarking 209
Taxes and Behavior 210
Emerging Issues: Financing Social Security 213
SUMMARY 216
PRACTICE TEST 217
MYSEARCHLAB CONNECTIONS 218
8. The Mode of Finance: Systems of Transfer 219
Centralization, Decentralization, and Their Ideologies 220
How the Money Flows 223
Transfers and Politics 225
Transfers and Policy Analysis 226
How Transfers Are Conditioned 227
Program Conditions 229
Financial Conditions 230
Beneficiary Conditions 231
Procedural Conditions 232
Devolving Public Welfare 233
Welfare Reformed 234
Terminating the Guarantee 236
Time Limits 237
Race to the Bottom? 238
Welfare to Work 239
The Responsibility Agenda 241
Evidence and Directions 244
Emerging Issues: Immigrants, Social Policy, and the States 246
SUMMARY 251
PRACTICE TEST 252
MYSEARCHLAB CONNECTIONS 253
9. Policy Dimensions: International Trends in the Twenty-First Century 254
Pressures for Change 255
Directions of Change 260
Emerging Issue: Toward Comprehensive Integration of Work Requirements and Public Aid 264
SUMMARY 266
PRACTICE TEST 267
MYSEARCHLAB CONNECTIONS 268
Notes 269
Photo Credits 285 Index 286
Preface
This new edition of Dimensions of Social Welfare Policy was prepared in a rather remarkable period for social welfare policy, characterized by the continuing expansion of the American welfare state, a growing awareness of the challenges created by welfare state costs, and increasing attacks on the part of welfare state critics. For all the criticism of welfare over the past thirty years, very few substantive changes actually occurred to slow the growth of social programs and benefits. In the second decade of the twenty-first century, however, government supports for vital elements of the safety net face real and present dangers.
Perhaps the great irony of post-recession social policy, at least to date, has been the dual reality of welfare success and the disparaging tone of public discourse. Safety net programs such as unemployment insurance and food stamps have clearly diminished the hardships faced by the victims of the recession. On the other hand, potent challenges to the fundamental legitimacy of the welfare state have been raised by powerful political elites as well as from the general population. Despite its role in ameliorating some of the worst distress of the recession, the welfare state is continually maligned. Indeed, it has often been blamed for the recession itself, and for the associated deficits and debt that many view as basic threats to the economic future. One widely read political columnist, Robert Samuelson, has written of the “death spiral of the Welfare State,” arguing that huge pension and health programs, and the aging of the population, have resulted in obligations that outstrip our ability to pay for them.
This new edition of Dimensions , therefore, while maintaining its core analysis of several key elements of social welfare policy, has been revised to give close attention to the controversies that are now so contentious in both the political and the academic worlds about the structure, nature, and character of the welfare state, the kinds of reforms that may be necessary to protect the solvency and effectiveness of programs, and the ultimate question of the role of the state in advancing national well-being. In addition, several emerging policy issues in the fields of child welfare, antipoverty, and immigration have been addressed. Among the topics covered are the new role of “workfare” in an economy with few jobs, the financing of the biggest U.S. social program, Social Security, the conflict between child safely and family rights, divergent definitions of social justice, and the evolving definition of “official” poverty.
As we have said in previous editions, we recognize that many readers would like a book that provides solutions to the weighty problems of social welfare, whether or not they agree with our views. If they agree, they can congratulate themselves on their wisdom; if they disagree, they can affirm their own position by dissecting our biases and our logic. In either case, a book that
gives firm and sure direction generally provides more immediate gratification than one that analyzes the terrain and debates the hazards of the different roads that can be taken.
Readers are forewarned that they will not find many specific answers to questions of social policy in this book. Rather, we attempt to share the intellectual challenges that are confronted in making social welfare policy choices. “Good” and “just” answers to fundamental questions in social welfare policy are not easy to come by. When addressed seriously, these questions require a willingness to abide complexity, an ability to tolerate contradictions, and a capacity to critically appraise empirical evidence and social values. Professionals engaged in the business of making policy choices require patience and intellectual curiosity.
To speak of policy choices implies that plausible alternatives exist. In this book, our second objective is to present and illuminate these alternatives. This edition is organized around what we consider to be basic dimensions of choice in social welfare policy. We place these dimensions of choice in a theoretical framework, providing ways of thinking and analyzing social welfare policies that are applicable to a wide range of specific cases. With this framework, we explore policy alternatives, the questions they raise, and the values and theories that reveal different answers. Ultimately, the purpose of this book is to equip students with the knowledge to come to grips with the complexities of social choice and to appraise and further develop their own thoughts on social welfare policy.
In preparing this eighth edition, we have been gratified by the extent to which our basic concepts of social policy choice-making have remained applicable and useful since the book’s original publication in 1974. We are equally impressed with the significant changes in the structure and content of U.S. social welfare programs. When we were preparing the first edition, social welfare was at the apex of thirty-five years of growth fueled by the expansion of social protection through new entitlements and publicly financed programs. As we complete the eighth edition, social welfare provisions are under tremendous pressure from the soaring costs of Social Security benefits and care for the elderly, the competitive demands of globalization, and a world economy in considerable crisis. Established benefits are contracting and programs are being reshaped by increased targeting, privatization, and work-oriented incentives, as entitlement to social protection gives ground to an emerging philosophy of public support for private responsibility.
The assistance of Mary Caplan in the production of this new edition has been invaluable. We thank her for her patience and talent.
For Evan, Jesse, Nathaniel, and Nicole—the lights of my life.
N. G.
For my boys, Josh, Ben, and Sean, with love.
P. T.
The Field of Social Welfare Policy 1
CHAPTER OUTLINE
Institutional Perspectives on Social Welfare Policy 2
Kinship
Religion
Workplace
The Market
Civil Society
Government
Evolving Institutions and the Welfare State 11
Analytic Perspectives on Social Welfare Policy 13
Studies of Process
Studies of Product Studies of Performance
Political Perspectives on Social Welfare Policy 16
Conservative and Progressive Approaches to Planning 18
Why Policy Analysis Is Relevant to Social Work Practice 19
Emerging Issues: Feminist Perspectives on Social Welfare 21
Summary 24
Practice Test 25
MySearchLab Connections 26
The purpose of this book is to develop an operational understanding of social welfare policy by identifying its essential dimensions of choice.
“I don’t think they play at all fairly,” Alice began, in rather a complaining tone, “and they all quarrel so dreadfully one can’t hear oneself speak—and they don’t seem to have any rules in particular: at least, if there are, nobody attends to them—and you’ve no idea how confusing it is all the things being alive: for instance, there’s the arch I’ve got to go through next walking about at the other end of the ground—and I should have croqueted the Queen’s hedgehog just now, only it ran away when it saw mine coming!”
Lewis Carroll Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 1866
Students entering the field of social welfare policy quickly come to feel somewhat like Alice at the Queen’s croquet party. They confront a puzzling and complex landscape, with changing features and hazy boundaries.1 Its knowledge base is fragmented and less than immediately related to the realities of day-to-day social work. Yet the study of this terrain is central for those who work in the social services because, to a large extent, social welfare policy shapes the forms of practice that professionals use and determines the client systems they serve. To a significant degree, both the supply of and the demand for services reflect social policy choices.
The objectives of this introductory chapter are to provide a general orientation to the field of social welfare policy and to illustrate the interrelatedness of practice and policy analysis. By presenting the subject matter of social welfare in its varied aspects, we hope that students will become interested in and comfortable with the subject of policy studies, and recognize its importance and power. The purpose of this book, as the title suggests, is to develop an operational understanding of social welfare policy by identifying its essential dimensions of choice.
We will begin by exploring three major perspectives—institutional, analytical, and political—that illuminate the field of social welfare policy. The focus on institutions identifies the key social structures, like families, churches, and voluntary agencies, that give shape, character, and boundaries to welfare activities. The focus on analysis indicates different approaches to studying and understanding policy, and for relating policy knowledge to social work practice. The focus on politics explores the interrelationships between society and government in the field of social welfare.
INSTITUTIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON SOCIAL WELFARE POLICY
Social welfare policy is an elusive concept, and one could easily exhaust an introductory chapter simply describing alternative approaches to its definition. This we will not do; nor will we review the ongoing discussion over the relationships among social policy, public policy, and social welfare policy. 2 Suffice it to say that no single definition is universally, nor even broadly, accepted. However, some effort is necessary to stake out boundaries and to form a common realm of discourse. Skirting the conceptual swamp of social policy, public policy, and social welfare policy distinctions, we will focus instead on examining the functioning of those major institutions in society that structure and provide social welfare.
All human societies organize their essential functions—child-rearing; the production, consumption, and distribution of goods and services; social
Table 1.1 Institutions, Organizations, and Functions
Social InstitutionsKey Organizational FormsPrimary FunctionsSocial Welfare Functions
KinshipFamiliesProcreation, socialization, protection, intimacy, emotional support
Dependent care, interfamilial financial support
ReligionChurchesSpiritual developmentFaith-based health, education, social services
WorkplaceBusinesses, factories, farms
The marketProducers (firms) and consumers (households)
Civil societyVoluntary groups, foundations, unions, social agencies
GovernmentFederal, state, and local governments
Production of goods and services
Exchange of goods and services for money
Promote civic and political participation, strengthen democracy
Raising and distributing resources for public purposes
protection; and so forth—into certain enduring patterns of conduct. All societies, for example, maintain institutions with responsibilities and expectations for raising and training the young. One primary institution seldom exhausts the patterns a society uses to deal with its essential functions. Although the family is the primary institution for socialization, for example, it is by no means the only one. Religious and educational organizations and social service agencies also assume some socialization responsibilities, although socialization is not their primary activity.
There are six fundamental social institutions within which the major activities of community life occur: kinship systems, religious organizations, workplace sites, economic markets, civil society, and government organizations. As indicated in Table 1.1, society’s basic day-to-day activities are organized in one or more of these spheres. And each of these spheres, to one degree or another, also carries out important social welfare functions.
Kinship
The family has always served as society’s major institution for social, economic, and emotional support. The family is also the key instrument of socialization, helping society to transmit knowledge, values, and patterns of behavior from one generation to the next. As an instrument of social welfare, families constitute networks of assistance based on blood and mutual attachment. Parents, for example, invest in their children’s future by providing for their health, their physical well-being, and their education. And families, in all societies, embody sets of reciprocal obligations to care for and protect one another. More specifically, families play an important role in at least four critical welfare arenas—caring for elderly and disabled relatives, caring for grandchildren, providing economic support, and providing help in emergency situations like natural disasters.
Employee benefits
Commercial social welfare goods and services
Social services, mutual support
Antipoverty, economic security, health, education, social services
It is estimated that there are 34 million unpaid caregivers in America providing an average of 21 hours of care per week and spending approximately $2400 yearly per relative.3 Millions of adults provide care to elderly relatives. Family caregivers are overwhelmingly women—mothers, daughters, spouses— and many live with the person needing help. A full 80 percent of all family caregivers provide care seven days a week.4
Providing care for elderly parents is a particular burden for working adults, who often must balance caregiving with their job obligations. A recent study estimated that 15 percent of the workforce actively and regularly provides assistance to older family members, often substantially interfering with their careers due to stress and absenteeism. About two-thirds of these working caregivers are women.5 While it historically has been the case that families provide the most important source of care for older parents, adult children also face legal obligations to care for indigent parents. In some 30 states, indeed, filial responsibility laws remain on the books requiring such care for life necessities like food, clothing, and medical attention.6
Many millions of adults raise children with disabilities—often adult children—who suffer severe mental and physical challenges. With the developmentally disabled, in particular, living far longer than in the past, parents often continue to care for their sons and their daughters into old age. And the care, more than ever before, is often technically demanding. Routine assistance—helping with eating, bathing, shopping—continues, but the explosion in home-health technology frequently requires caregivers to maintain ventilators, administer intravenous medicines, and monitor and implement complex treatment regimens. Care that once had to be handled in hospitals is now often delegated to family members.
Nearly three million children live without their parents, some staying informally with relatives, others placed with relatives under the jurisdiction of child welfare agencies. The prevalence of kinship care has grown rapidly since the 1990s, with grandparents in particular serving as foster parents, often assisted by public subsidies.7 Stepping in for drug-abusing sons and daughters who are unable to care for their own children, grandparents often take on the responsibility for full-time custody and care. Today, it is estimated that nearly 3 percent of U.S. children live in some form of kinship care.8
Grandparent care, while it can have its downside, has the potential to advance several important child welfare objectives. Perhaps most importantly, it helps reduce the trauma that typically occurs when children must be separated from their parents. Living with grandparents certainly reduces the stigma of being a foster child. And keeping care in the (extended) family also helps children maintain their ethnic, cultural, and family identities.9
The role that families play in helping single mothers’ transition from welfare to work is also becoming increasingly clear as welfare reform is implemented. Mothers in poverty often rely on their mothers, and other kin, for childcare, transportation, and financial support, in addition to emotional support and practical advice. While the magnitude of family care that is provided isn’t certain, it appears that nearly half of all single mothers receive an appreciable level of help from their parents.10
Families provide financial and in-kind assistance to their members in a number of ways beyond those mentioned. Such help frequently takes the form of financial assistance such as children helping aging parents with nursing or medical care expenses, or parents helping children to buy homes or deal with financial emergencies. 11 Jobless adults also frequently turn to family in hard
times. “As joblessness persists, credit cards max out and the government’s safety net has grown thin many Americans have turned to a patchwork quilt of family members and friends to stave off eviction, keep their electricity running or cover an unexpected medical bill. It is an underground banking system, complete with lenders and borrowers.” 12 Recent census data shows a similar pattern, as adult children, their parents, and their grandparents increasingly live in multi-generational households, pooling resources to keep costs down.13
One very significant source of interfamilial “welfare” is child support, especially income support from absent fathers. 14 Child support levels, unfortunately, are low and far from universal—only 40 percent of poor mothers, for example, received court-ordered child support in 2007. Courtordered awards, furthermore, don’t guarantee payments, so the actual proportion of poor women receiving child support is just 25 percent. Among never-married mothers, just one in four have court orders, and only 14 percent receive payments. 15 Nevertheless, custodial low-income parents as a group receive about $16 billion annually in child support payments, a figure that is about a fifth of the value of their public benefits.16
International family aid, “remittances,” provide considerable assistance from immigrants in rich countries to their relatives in the less developed world. In 2006, for example, over $45 billion in “migradolares” (migrants’ dollars) was sent to Latin America from U.S. relatives. In many countries, the value of these gifts exceeds the amount generated by many sectors of the local economy, such as exports and tourism. In Haiti, for example, remittances constitute 17 percent of GDP.17
It is estimated that three-quarters of Latino immigrants in the United States send regular support to their native countries. In money transfer offices in Hispanic neighborhoods, customers send electronic money orders regularly to assist parents and siblings back home with housing, food, small businesses, and education. And while most of these immigrants hold low-paying jobs, their payments average about $200 a month. One migrant worker, quoted in the New York Times, said, “We make sacrifices now so that our families can live better and so that one day we will live better back home.”18
Finally, relatives are essential resources in emergencies, both natural and otherwise. As reported by the Washington Post, for example, “hundreds of
Capsule 1.1 Kinship Security
It is patterns of kinship which most often cover us in our undertakings, provide us market opportunities, and even shield us from the importunings of the state. We do not hope to receive tuition, childcare, or a kidney from a business associate, but we do from relatives. Marriage is that device which extends to us a social security network of obligated kin. . . .
Marriage provides a kind of capital. Married couples, more than single parents, have parents
and grandparents as a resource. House loans, emergency aid, care payments, cash gifts, and job opportunities come disproportionately from these relatives. Over one-fourth of all new home purchases depend upon gifts from parents. Having four parents and eight grandparents attached to every marriage broadens the base of economic support, for us as for the Inuit.
David W. Murray, “Poor Suffering Bastards: An Anthropologist Looks at Illegitimacy,” Policy Review, 68, Spring 1994, p. 13. Reprinted by permission of The Heritage Foundation.
thousands of people displaced by Hurricane Katrina seem to be disappearing— into the embrace of their extended families.” 19 As in similar relief efforts in the past, it is families that provide the first line of assistance when misfortunes occur, dwarfing all other forms of private agency or government help.
Religion
Religious institutions manifest the spiritual aspect of human society through the ceremonies and observances that form systems of worship. But churches also sponsor elaborate social welfare provisions ranging from informal support and counseling to multimillion-dollar health, education, and social service programs.
The Church of the Latter Day Saints (Mormons), for example, operates over 600 food production projects for the poor, including 20 canneries and numerous meatpacking and dairy operations supplied by church-owned welfare farms. One estimate indicates that each year about 200,000 church members receive nearly 32 million pounds of commodities from Mormon storehouses and auxiliaries. 20 The Mormons also run Deseret Industries, which provides work and shelter for the elderly and people with disabilities, places members in jobs through church-sponsored employment offices, and organizes an extensive program of child welfare, foster care, and adoption services.21 Similarly, ultra-orthodox Jews in Borough Park, Brooklyn, have created their own welfare arrangements by pooling resources to support not only religious schools but also a network of social services including group homes, family counseling, and a volunteer ambulance service, in addition to food programs for the poor.
Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, and Protestant welfare organizations, of course, have explicit social welfare objectives, implemented both through professionalized agencies such as Catholic Charities and more informally through counseling by priests, ministers, and rabbis. The range of church-related services has been broadened in recent years by “family ministries” and “family life education” programs focused on married couples and their children, premarrieds and singles, and people facing problems such as alcoholism and divorce.22
The potential of sectarian programs expanded considerably in 1996 with the enactment of welfare reform’s “charitable choice” provision, which authorized states to contract with religious bodies for antipoverty services. “Faithbased services,” in vogue ever since, are said to harness the enthusiasm and resources and moral character of churches and church members to help solve the problems of the poor.
The magnitude of these programs is growing rapidly. Religious bodies provide billions of dollars in aid to the needy annually. Nearly 500 congregations, for example, participate in the Christian Community Development Association’s activities to address inner-city problems. Other congregations sponsor drug and alcohol, sexuality, and job training programs, often providing people tangible as well as spiritual resources that help them address life problems.
Workplace
Workplace organizations—factories, farms, universities, corporations, social service agencies—typically promote the welfare of their employees by providing job-related goods and services, along with regular paychecks. One’s job is the most important single source of financial support for most
Capsule 1.2 The Social Service Congregation
Black inner-city churches have increasingly become social service as well as spiritual institutions. The St. Augustine Episcopal Church in Oakland, California, sponsored the Black Panther’s first breakfast program in the 1970s. The 4000-member Allen Temple Baptist Church, close by, established its own social work efforts in the 1980s, creating programs addressing unemployment, AIDS, drug and alcohol abuse, and teen violence. Across the bay, San Francisco’s Glide Memorial Church currently operates nearly 100 separate community programs. Day care provides
over 100,000 hours of licensed part-day and fullday programming annually. Its daily free meals program served nearly a million meals in 2009. Glide also provides HIV testing, mental health services, crisis interventions, literacy classes, job training, shelter beds for the homeless and supports housing for people in recovery. Operating under the principle that God’s work requires practical charity, advocacy, and community work, black churches around the country, and especially in poor urban neighborhoods, have been leaders in faith-based social service activities.
U.S. citizens—both by providing the income necessary for everyday life and through welfare arrangements attached to the job, generally known as fringe or occupational benefits. The word fringe, however, seriously understates the importance of these benefits, since their value often constitutes nearly a quarter of a typical worker’s overall compensation.
Along with pensions, the most important fringe benefit is health insurance. Unlike most Western nations, which provide health benefits through public programs, U.S. citizens generally obtain their health benefits through their employment; in 2009, indeed, two-thirds of all working adults had employment-related insurance. Health insurance, even when employees share the costs with contributions of various sorts, still costs employers about $3000 per worker per year. On a per car basis, indeed, General Motors spends more on employee health care than it does on steel.23
Many firms also provide benefits such as sick leave, parental leaves, college tuition for the children of employees, gyms, legal and dental services, relocation assistance, and low-cost housing. Unions occasionally provide special benefits to supplement the public system of unemployment insurance. And many human services such as on-site childcare and alcohol and drug counseling are provided as part of company-sponsored EAPs (employee assistance programs). Some companies hire social workers and psychologists for such tasks; others rely on ordained ministers and priests to tend to their employees’ emotional needs.24
The Market
Although there are several ways in which goods and services can be produced and allocated in society—centralized state control is one system, private altruism another—the most ubiquitous and successful economic institution in modern times for satisfying people’s material desires is the private marketplace. Typically identified with capitalism, the market brings together buyers, sellers, and producers in reasonably satisfying and efficient transactions, its “invisible hand” allocating society’s resources according to mutual needs and desires.
From “New Role Thrust on the Black Church” by Gregory Lewis, San Francisco Examiner, February 28, 1993.
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