1. Social Welfare Policy Chapter 17
American Government: Continuity and Change
9th Edition
to accompany Comprehensive, Alternate, Texas, and Essentials Editions
O’Connor and Sabato
Pearson Education, Inc. © 2008

2. The Policy-Making Process
Public Policy
An intentional course of action followed by government in dealing with some problem or matter of concern
Based on law
Authoritative and binding on people
Those who do not comply can be penalized.
The impact or meaning of a policy depends on whether it is vigorously enforced, enforced only in some instances, or not enforced at all.

4. Theories of Public Policy
Elite Theory
Chosen few or elite make all important decisions in society.
Unequal distribution of power is normal and inevitable.
Other views
Bureaucratic Theory
Interest Group Theory
Pluralist Theory

5. A Model of the Policy-Making Process
Sequence of stages or functional activities
Policies do not just happen; rather they are the products of a predictable pattern of events
Problem recognition
Agenda setting
Policy formulation
Policy adoption
Policy implementation
Policy evaluation

6. Problem Recognition and Definition
Not everything qualifies as a problem deserving of government intervention.
Perceptions of government responsibility play a role.
These have changed over time.
Usually there is not a single agreed-on definition of a problem.
Political struggles may occur at this stage.

7. Agenda Setting Agenda Systemic Agenda
A set of issues to be discussed or given attention
Systemic Agenda
All public issues are viewed as requiring governmental attention.
A discussion agenda
Governmental (Institutional Agenda)
The changing list of issues to which governments believe they should address themselves

8. Getting on the Congressional Agenda
President is an important agenda-setter for Congress
Interest groups are major actors and initiators in the agenda-setting process
Major problems that evolve from crisis or other extraordinary event may receive automatic agenda status
Individuals may also push issues to the congressional agenda
Private citizens, members of Congress, other officials
Role of political changes
Agenda setting is a competitive process
Constant process of forming the list of issues to be addressed by government

9. Policy Formulation
The crafting of appropriate and acceptable proposed courses of action to ameliorate or resolve public problems
Routine formulation
A repetitive and essentially changeless process of reformulating similar proposals within an issue area that is well established on the government agenda
Analogous formulation
Handles new problems by drawing on experience with similar problems of the past
Creative formulation
Involves attempts to develop new or unprecedented proposals that represent a departure from existing practices

10. Policy Adoption
The approval of a policy proposed by the people with the requisite authority, such as a legislature
Major legislation requires much negotiation, bargaining, and compromise.
Complex legislation takes time to pass.
Legislation passed is often incremental.

11. Budgeting Most policies require money in order to be carried out.
A policy can be nullified by a refusal to fund.
Home Ownership and Opportunity for People Everywhere
Having the potential to curb funding can be a powerful tool for congressional committee chairs.

12. Policy Implementation
The process of carrying out public policy through governmental agencies
Some are enforced by other means such as the courts
Product liability
Product dating

13. Techniques Used by Administrative Agencies
Authoritative techniques
Rests on the notion that people’s actions must be restrained by government in order to prevent or eliminate activities or products that are unsafe, evil, or immoral
Incentive techniques
Encourage people to act in their own best interest by offering payoffs or financial inducements to get them to comply
Capacity techniques
Provide people with information, education, training or resources that will enable them to participate in desired activities
Hortatory techniques
Encourage people to comply with policy by appealing to their better instincts- “Just Say No”

14. Policy Evaluation
The process of determining whether a course of action is achieving its intended goals
Important players in this process
Congressional committees
Presidential commissions
Administrative agencies
University and Private research organizations
General Accountability Office (GAO)
Evaluation research and studies can stimulate attempts to modify or terminate policies and restart the policy process.

15. Roots of Social Welfare Policy
Early 19th century attitudes toward social welfare were focused on belt-tightening and charity.
NO governmental intervention
Late 19th century
Farmers and rural Americans sought help
Failing commodity prices; exploitation of railroads
1890s severe economic depression
Acceptance and expectance of government intervention

16. Income Security Great Depression
Social and economic thinking began to change
Idea that government could and should be used as a positive influence in society
FDR elected in 1932
Unemployment extremely high; bad for economy
Created Civil Works Administration by executive order to put people to work
Creation of Social Security
1935 law established old-age insurance (Social Security) and assistance for the needy, children, and others, and unemployment insurance

17. Health Care
National health insurance considered at time Social Security legislation was passed
AMA strongly opposed it; so it was omitted
1945 Truman put health insurance on the national policy agenda again
First idea received favorably by public
AMA opposed again; fearful of regulation
Medicare introduced by Johnson
Provide hospital care for the elderly already covered by Social Security
Wilbur Mills (D-AR) Chair Ways and Means
Expanded policy: included Medicaid

18. Public Education
Until the 20th century, public education had been almost the exclusive province of the state and local governments.
Responsibility for public education
Vested in the local community
1944 GI Bill began federal government’s involvement in helping people pay for education beyond high school
Pell Grants
Loan guarantees
$62 billion in student loans in
Reliance on local property taxes to fund schools
Disparities among different districts
Today federal government assumes more responsibility for public education than it has in the past.

19. Social Welfare Policies Today: Income Security Programs
Protect people against loss of income due to retirement, disability, unemployment or deal or absence of family breadwinner
Non-means-based programs
Social insurance
Old age, survivors, and disability insurance
Social Security
Unemployment
Means-tested programs
Supplemental Security Income
TANF
Family and Child Support Act

23. Welfare Reform of 1996
Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996
Required single mothers with a child over five years of age to work within two years of receiving funds
Included a provision that unmarried mothers under the age of 18 be required to live with an adult and attend school in order to receive welfare benefits
Set a five-year lifetime limit for aid from block grants
Included a requirement that mothers must provide information about a child’s father in order to receive full welfare payments
Cut off food stamps and SSI for legal immigrants
Cut off cash welfare benefits and food stamps for convicted drug felons
Limited food stamps to three months in a three year period for persons 18 to 50 years old who are not raising children and not working

24. Earned Income Tax Credit Program
Designed to help the working poor
Helps them by subsidizing their wages and provides an incentive for people to go to work
Results in a net cash rebate for many low-income tax payers who pay no federal income tax
Created in 1975 – Senator Russell Long (D-LA)

25. Food Stamp Program
Initial program was an effort to expand the domestic market for farm commodities
Provided the poor with the ability to buy more food, thus increasing demand for American agricultural produce
Made permanent in 1964
Extended nationwide in 1974
Benefits low income families
Combats hunger and reduces malnutrition
Food stamps went to over 25 million beneficiaries in 2005 at cost of $31 billion.
Average participant’s monthly disbursement: $93 in food stamps

26. The Effectiveness of Income Security Programs
Entitlement programs
Income security programs to which all those meeting eligibility criteria are entitled
Spending for such programs is mandatory
Funds must be provided for them unless laws creating the programs are changed
Difficult to control spending for this reason
Often a matter of considerable debate
Range of such programs are characteristic of all democratic industrial societies

27. Health Care Public Health U.S. government spends billions on health
Provides hospital care for veterans, Indian Health Services
Finances most medical research
Spends a great deal on public health
Medicare
Part A: automatic at age 65
Part B: optional; covers payment for items not covered by part A
Financed by a payroll tax of 1.45 percent paid by both employees and employers on the total amount of a person’s wages
Baby Boomers – strain on system
Medicaid
Provides comprehensive health care to all who qualify as needy
In 2005, Medicaid served over 52 million people at a cost of billion.
Jointly financed by national and state governments
Some variation by state in terms of who is covered
Public Health
Managing infectious and chronic disease

30. Public Education
2003: national, state, and local governments in U.S. collected more than $400 billion to spend on public education (K-12)
48.7% from state governments
42.8% from local governments
8.5% from the national government
Great variation across states in spending per student

31. Public Education Federal aid to education
Goals 2000
No Child Left Behind
Inequality in spending among school districts
Voucher plans
Charter schools

33. Public Education: Voucher Plans and Charter Schools
Permit some institutions (those with charters) to operate beyond the reach of school boards
Break the monopoly exercised by centralized school boards and allow students as well as parents to exercise choice
Freer to choose what to teach, what to spend money on, and whom to hire
Numbers have increased
Opposition comes from teachers unions; focus on hiring of under-qualified teachers
Numbers of private education companies (for profit) had questionable practices