Divisions of Welfare: A Critical Introduction to Comparative Social Policy Book

This outstanding new textbook presents a critical and comparative appraisal of social policy in four advanced capitalist societies: Sweden, Germany, the United States and Britain. Integrating class, race and gender perspectives into social policy analysis, it focuses on the impact of welfare measures on these divisions within society.Norman Ginsburg outlines the major social policy developments in each state since the 1930s, concentrating particularly on restructuring since the world recession of the mid-1970s. He systematically addresses five areas in each state's welfare provision: policy ideology and welfare expenditure; income maintenance policies and outcome; race and racial inequalities; women and family policies; and the health care system.He demonstrates how the impact of welfare provision has varied between different areas of need and across countries. In all four states since the mid-1970s, he argues, social policy has contributed towards widening class, race and gender divisions. He also examines the effectiveness or otherwise of labour movements, anti-racist movements and women's movements in shaping policy.This lively and informative study of social policy in western industrialized societies will be essential reading for students of social policy, social administration, applied sociology and politics. Norman Ginsburg is Principal Lecturer in the Social Sciences Department, South Bank Polytechnic, London. He is the author of Class, Capital and Social Policy (1979).Read More