Social Citizenship and Workfare in the United States and Western Europe: The Paradox of Inclusion / Edition 1

by Joel F. Handler

Overview

Comparing welfare policies in the U.S. and Western Europe aimed at the "workless" population, this study notes that the European labor policies of welfare services offer the best method of bringing the socially excluded back into mainstream society. Despite differences in ideology and practice, Joel Handler argues that there are also significant similarities between the U.S. and the Europeans, especially in field-level practices that serve to exclude the most vulnerable. The author examines strategies for reform and concludes with an argument for a basic income guarantee.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521541534
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	04/29/2004
Series:	Cambridge Studies in Law and Society
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	330
Product dimensions:	6.02(w) x 8.98(h) x 0.83(d)

About the Author

Joel F. Handler is Richard C. Maxwell Professor of Law and Professor of Policy Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements; 1. Introduction; 2. The American Welfare Reform: 'Ending welfare as we know it': The 'undeserving poor'; 'Ending welfare as we know it'; The 'work first' strategy; The low-wage labor market; The work experience of welfare recipients; The attitudes of welfare recipients; The decline in the welfare rolls and poverty; The future; Recommendations to make welfare really work; Social citizenship in the US; Some lessons from the American experience that might be applicable to Western Europe; 3. The European welfare states: social citizenship in the golden age; The challenge of unemployment; The impact on labor; Vulnerable groups: the socially excluded; Poverty; Right, center and left - questioning the welfare state; The 'third way': from status to contract; 4. Workfare in western Europe: the United Kingdom; Ireland; Sweden; Norway; Denmark; The Netherlands; France; Germany; Risks for the socially excluded; 5. Social Europe: alternatives? Conclusions? Solutions?; Part A. Social Europe: convergence vs. path-dependent; Negative vs. positive integration; Part B. Reform at the national level; Part C. Those who remain.

Editorial Reviews

"Handler provides a powerful critique of the trend from welfare to workfare." Comparative Labor Law and Policy Journal

From the Publisher