Reassessing the Conventional Wisdom: Entitlements from the Inside
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Andrea Louise Campbell
Andrea Louise Campbell is Professor of Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She studies political behavior and public policy, particularly health, social, and tax policy. Her books includeHow Policies Make Citizens (Princeton, 2003),The Delegated Welfare State with Kimberly J. Morgan (Oxford, 2011), andTrapped in America’s Safety Net: One Family’s Struggle (Chicago, 2014), upon which these observations are based.
Abstract
A family tragedy enables a social policy scholar to examine how American social assistance works from the recipient perspective. The experience results in a reexamination of conventional wisdom around US social policy. In contrast to the revisionist account, meager social assistance programs are still pretty meager. Despite the bifurcation between deserving and undeserving beneficiaries, some deserving populations are swept into catch-all means-tested programs and fare badly. Finally, the experience forces a new look at research approaches to social policy. More qualitative and ethnographic work is needed, as well as examinations of the interactions among multiple programs and their complicated and often contradictory rules.
About the author
Andrea Louise Campbell is Professor of Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She studies political behavior and public policy, particularly health, social, and tax policy. Her books include How Policies Make Citizens (Princeton, 2003), The Delegated Welfare State with Kimberly J. Morgan (Oxford, 2011), and Trapped in America’s Safety Net: One Family’s Struggle (Chicago, 2014), upon which these observations are based.
References
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©2015 by De Gruyter
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- Politics at the Precipice: Fixing Social Security in 2033
- The Segmented Third Rail: The Politics of Social Security from Carter to Obama
- Unraveling from Within? The Affordable Care Act and Self-Undermining Policy Feedbacks
- Opting In, Opting Out: The Politics of State Medicaid Expansion
- Not Such a CLASS Act: America’s Long-Term Care Problem
- Reassessing the Conventional Wisdom: Entitlements from the Inside
- The Role of the Private Sphere in US Healthcare Entitlements: Increased Spending, Weakened Public Mobilization, and Reduced Equity
- Mistaken for Dead: The Affordable Care Act and the Continued Resilience of Medicare Advantage
- Martha Derthick and the Art of Policy History: A Scholarly Appreciation
- On Martha Derthick
- Martha Derthick and The Influence of Federal Grants: Explaining Federalism
- Book reviews
- Electing the Senate: Senate Elections before the 17th Amendment
- The Great Debate: Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, and the Birth of Right and Left
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- Politics at the Precipice: Fixing Social Security in 2033
- The Segmented Third Rail: The Politics of Social Security from Carter to Obama
- Unraveling from Within? The Affordable Care Act and Self-Undermining Policy Feedbacks
- Opting In, Opting Out: The Politics of State Medicaid Expansion
- Not Such a CLASS Act: America’s Long-Term Care Problem
- Reassessing the Conventional Wisdom: Entitlements from the Inside
- The Role of the Private Sphere in US Healthcare Entitlements: Increased Spending, Weakened Public Mobilization, and Reduced Equity
- Mistaken for Dead: The Affordable Care Act and the Continued Resilience of Medicare Advantage
- Martha Derthick and the Art of Policy History: A Scholarly Appreciation
- On Martha Derthick
- Martha Derthick and The Influence of Federal Grants: Explaining Federalism
- Book reviews
- Electing the Senate: Senate Elections before the 17th Amendment
- The Great Debate: Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, and the Birth of Right and Left