In the wake of the Great Recession, an unprecedented number of Americans have turned to the government for help meeting their medical needs. Medicaid, the federal-state health program for low-income populations, has thus taken on increasing significance. As this program continues to expand, scholars face the task of assessing its myriad repercussions in the lives of the poor.
One need only glance at news headlines about immigration to get a sense of how the large influx of the foreign-born to the U.S. in recent decades seems to have unsettled many communities around the country. The increasing presence and diversity of the foreign-born has had a marked effect on our politics, changing the landscape of voters (as well as non-voters) and their alliances, but also the climate of reception for the new actors in the political sphere.
A substantial body of scholarship on individual’s attitudes towards public spending on social welfare benefits in the U.S. has focused on trying to understand the factors of and changes in level of support for that spending, the role of race and class-based attitudes in those views, and the types of programs individuals understand to be part of social spending. This research has typically focused on opinions about direct public spending programs, such as Social Security, Medicare, and AFDC.
Books
Theory and Practice of Social Planning
About This Book
Discusses the intellectual processes involved in social planning. Professor Kahn provides critical tools for the analysis of the planning process, and shows what social planning is and can be. Clarifying the major phases in the planning process, he shows how planning can succeed or fail at any one of these stages. He examined planners in their various roles: as "neutral" technicians and as advocates, as representatives of interest groups and as public officials.
The book describes both the social aspects of planning and the relationship between social and physical plans.
ALFRED J. KAHN was professor of Social Policy and Planning at the Columbia University School of Social Work.
Download
RSF Journal
View Book Series
Sign Up For Our Mailing List
Apply For Funding
Books
Regulatory Justice
Implementing a Wage-Price Freeze
About This Book
Regulatory Justice is based on a case study of two closely linked federal agencies—the Cost of Living Council (CLC) and the Office of Emergency Preparedness (OEP)—which administered a nationwide wage-price freeze in 1971.
ROBERT A. KAGAN is Professor of Political Science and Emanuel S. Heller Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley.
Download
RSF Journal
View Book Series
Sign Up For Our Mailing List
Apply For Funding
Books
Foundations and Government
State and Federal Law and Supervision
About This Book
Concentrates on the historical, statutory, judicial, and administrative aspects of philanthropic foundations. It begins with a general survey of the rise of foundations, particularly as a legal concept, and examines existing provisions for state registration and supervision, with special atention to the role of the attorney general. There are field reports on ten states with programs aimed at following charitable activities closely.
The concluding chapter provides appraisals and recommendations, and appendices include state legal requirements for charitable trusts and corporations, selected state acts, rules, reporting forms, and a list of cases.
MARION R. FREMONT-SMITH is a practicing attorney in Boston.
Download
RSF Journal
View Book Series
Sign Up For Our Mailing List
Apply For Funding
Books
Surveying Subjective Phenomena, Volume 1
About This Book
In January 1980 a panel of distinguished social scientists and statisticians assembled at the National Academy of Sciences to begin a thorough review of the uses, reliability, and validity of surveys purporting to measure such subjective phenomena as attitudes, opinions, beliefs, and preferences. This review was prompted not only by the widespread use of survey results in both academic and non-academic settings, but also by a proliferation of apparent discrepancies in allegedly equivalent measurements and by growing public concern over the value of such measurements.
This two-volume report of the panel’s findings is certain to become one of the standard works in the field of survey measurement. Volume I summarizes the state of the art of surveying subjective phenomena, evaluates contemporary measurement programs, examines the uses and abuses of such surveys, and candidly assesses the problems affecting them. The panel also offers strategies for improving the quality and usefulness of subjective survey data. In volume II, individual panel members and other experts explore in greater depth particular theoretical and empirical topics relevant to the panel’s conclusions.
For social scientists and policymakers who conduct, analyze, and rely on surveys of the national state of mind, this comprehensive and current review will be an invaluable resource.
CHARLES F. TURNER is professor of Applied Social Research at the City University of New York.
ELIZABETH MARTIN is research associate at the National Research Council.
CONTRIBUTORS: Robert P. Abelson, Barbara A. Bailar, Marian Ballard, Theresa J. Demaio, Otis Dudley Duncan, Baruch Fischhoff, Lester R. Frankel, William H. Kruskal, Michael B. Mackuen, Catherine Marsch, Elizabeth Martin, Sara B. Nerlove, Howard Schuman, Tom W. Smith, Charles F. Turner