What is Social Policy?

by Daniel Béland

From housing, pensions and family benefits, to health care, unemployment insurance and social assistance, the welfare state is a key aspect of our lives. But social programs are contested political realities that we can't hope to understand without locating them within the "big picture." This book provides a concise political and sociological introduction to social policy, helping readers to grasp the nature of social programs and the political struggles surrounding them. It takes a broad comparative and historical viewpoint on the United States, using an international perspective to contextualize American social policy within the developed world. Provocative and engaging, it offers insight into a wide range of social policy issues such welfare regimes, welfare state development, the politics of retrenchment and restructuring; the relationship between social programs and various forms of inequality; changing family and economic relations; the role of private social benefits; the potential impact of globalization; and debates about the future of the welfare state. What is Social Policy? will be stimulating reading for upper-level students of sociology, political science, public policy, and social work.

224 pages, Hardcover

First published September 22, 2010

Reviews

[Elizabeth Higginbotham · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this book did an amazing overview of the field, it was working too hard to be neutral. It was hard to keep going as the writing was informative, but dry. It was trying to cover the scope of industrialized nations that have social welfare programs. However the attention to inequalities within them was limited. It did give me a better sense of how to think about the field.