Democracy Without Decency

Good Citizenship and the War on Poverty

William M. Epstein

• Publisher: Penn State University Press
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9780271050393
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Poverty in Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

The conservative attacks on the welfare system in the United States over the past several decades have put liberal defenders of poverty relief and social insurance programs on the defensive. In this no-holds-barred look at the reality of American social policy since World War II, William Epstein argues that this defense is not worth mounting—that the claimed successes of American social programs are not sustained by evidence. Rather than their failure being the result of inadequate implementation or political resistance stemming from the culture wars, these programs and their built-in limitations actually do represent what the vast majority of people in this country want them to be.

However much people may speak in favor of welfare, the proof of what they really want is in the pudding of the social policies that are actually legislated. The stinginess of America's welfare system is the product of basic American values rooted in the myth of "heroic individualism" and reinforced by a commitment to social efficiency, the idea that social services need to be minimal and compatible with current social arrangements.

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Title Page
• Library of Congress
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Preface
• Introduction: The Good Citizen and American Social Welfare
• 1. The Programmatic Precursors to the War on Poverty
• 2. The War on Poverty: Programs of the Office of Economic Opportunity
• 3. Other War on Poverty Programs
• 4. The Social Insurances and Welfare
• 5. Charity and Community Organization
• Conclusion: The Iron Sculpture
• Tables
• References
• Index
• Back Cover