Welfare Policy

2018 ◽  
pp. 446-474
Author(s):  
Price V. Fishback
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
The United States ◽  
Welfare Programs ◽  
Assistance Programs ◽  
The Public ◽  
Poverty Relief ◽  
The Impact

The expansion of the safety net in the United States was one of the major changes in the economy in the twentieth century. The public safety net evolved from poverty relief programs run by local governments and private charities to a much larger system dominated by social insurance programs run by different mixtures of the federal and state governments. These included such social insurance programs as Social Security, workers’ compensation, unemployment insurance, and disability insurance, as well as the public assistance programs that are commonly described as welfare programs. This chapter surveys the work done by economic historians on how and why the US safety net expanded during the formative years of the early twentieth century and the impact of those changes.

Botched Executions and the Struggle to End Capital Punishment: A Twentieth-Century Story

2013 ◽  
Vol 38 (03) ◽  
pp. 694-720 ◽  
Author(s):  
Austin Sarat ◽  
Katherine Blumstein ◽  
Aubrey Jones ◽  
Heather Richard ◽  
Madeline Sprung-Keyser ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Capital Punishment ◽  
The United States ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Newspaper Coverage ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Way

Why have accounts of botched executions not played a larger role in the struggle to end capital punishment in the United States? In the twentieth century, when methods of execution became increasingly controlled and sterilized, botched executions would seem to have had real abolitionist potential. This article examines newspaper coverage of botched executions to determine and describe the way they were presented to the public and why they have contributed little to the abolitionist cause. Although botched executions reveal pain, violence, and inhumanity associated with state killing, newspaper coverage of these events neutralizes the impact of that revelation. Throughout the last century, newspapers presented botched executions as misfortunes rather than injustices. We identify three distinct modes by which newspaper coverage neutralized the impact of botched executions and presented them as misfortunes rather than as systemic injustices: (1) the dual narratives of sensationalism and recuperation in the early years of the twentieth century, (2) the decline of sensationalism and the rise of “professionalism” in the middle of the century, and (3) the emphasis on “balanced” reporting toward the end of the century.

THE INSTITUTIONAL EFFECTS OF LEADERSHIP: THE UNITED STATES GENERAL ACCOUNTING OFFICE AND ITS AUDIT REPORT REVIEW PROCESS

1994 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 255-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Onker N. Basu
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Review Process ◽  
Field Research ◽  
The United States ◽  
Organizational Leaders ◽  
Audit Report ◽  
The Public ◽  
General Accounting Office ◽  
Audit Team ◽  
The Impact

In accounting research, the role of organizational leaders has been underrepresented. The limited research dealing with leadership issues has focused on the impact of leadership on micro activities such as performance evaluation, budget satisfaction, and audit team performance. The impact of leadership on the structure of accounting and audit systems and organizations has been ignored. This paper focuses on the impact that past Comptrollers General have had on the working and structure of one federal audit agency, the United States General Accounting Office (GAO). In addition, it also focuses on the influence of the two most recent Comptrollers General on one important audit related activity, i.e., the audit report review process. Using qualitative field research methods, this paper documents how the organizational leadership impacts its long-term audit practices and thereby influences auditing, especially in the public sector.

The Rise of Flamenquismo in Madrid, 1888–1898

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Llano
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Social Problems ◽  
Social Disorder ◽  
The Public ◽  
Rural Immigrants ◽  
The Impact

This chapter analyzes the impact on the population of the expansion of nightlife in Madrid from the 1880s on. More particularly, it studies public fears raised by alcoholism and flamenco that led to this music being identified with social disorder and immorality. The Fuencarral Street murder (1888), in which a flamenco aficionado was involved, shocked the public and triggered a campaign against flamenco and the culture associated with it, known as flamenquismo. Behind this campaign, however, was fear and hatred of rural immigrants from Andalusia, who transformed Madrid’s culture and elicited the opposition of the population most affected by the rise of hunger and deprivation in Madrid. At the turn of the twentieth century, this situation led to flamenquismo being used as a catchword to designate any social problems affecting Spain in the wake of the 1898 desastre.

scholarly journals Assessing the Risk of Democratic Reversal in the United States: A Reply to Kurt Weyland

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Matias López ◽  
Juan Pablo Luna
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Boolean Algebra ◽  
Qualitative Comparative Analysis ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Democracy ◽  
Institutional Dynamics ◽  
The Public ◽  
Original Analysis ◽  
The Impact

ABSTRACT By replying to Kurt Weyland’s (2020) comparative study of populism, we revisit optimistic perspectives on the health of American democracy in light of existing evidence. Relying on a set-theoretical approach, Weyland concludes that populists succeed in subverting democracy only when institutional weakness and conjunctural misfortune are observed jointly in a polity, thereby conferring on the United States immunity to democratic reversal. We challenge this conclusion on two grounds. First, we argue that the focus on institutional dynamics neglects the impact of the structural conditions in which institutions are embedded, such as inequality, racial cleavages, and changing political attitudes among the public. Second, we claim that endogeneity, coding errors, and the (mis)use of Boolean algebra raise questions about the accuracy of the analysis and its conclusions. Although we are skeptical of crisp-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis as an adequate modeling choice, we replicate the original analysis and find that the paths toward democratic backsliding and continuity are both potentially compatible with the United States.

scholarly journals Debt Relief and Debtor Outcomes: Measuring the Effects of Consumer Bankruptcy Protection

2015 ◽  
Vol 105 (3) ◽  
pp. 1272-1311 ◽  
Author(s):  
Will Dobbie ◽  
Jae Song
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
The United States ◽  
Debt Relief ◽  
Random Assignment ◽  
Percentage Points ◽  
Consumer Bankruptcy ◽  
Annual Earnings ◽  
The Impact

Consumer bankruptcy is one of the largest social insurance programs in the United States, but little is known about its impact on debtors. We use 500,000 bankruptcy filings matched to administrative tax and foreclosure data to estimate the impact of Chapter 13 bankruptcy protection on subsequent outcomes. Exploiting the random assignment of bankruptcy filings to judges, we find that Chapter 13 protection increases annual earnings by $5,562, decreases five-year mortality by 1.2 percentage points, and decreases five-year foreclo-sure rates by 19.1 percentage points. These results come primarily from the deterioration of outcomes among dismissed filers, not gains by granted filers. (JEL D14, I12, J22, J31, K35)

Health Care Cost Containment in Large American Cities

1989 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Perry Moore
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Cost Containment ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Health Care Cost ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Agencies ◽  
The Public ◽  
Survey Results ◽  
The Cost ◽  
American Cities

This research provides information about the health care cost containment efforts of local governments and agencies across the United States, particularly in large American cities. Survey results indicate that while the public sector lags behind the private sector, public agencies are beginning to match the cost containment efforts of private employers. While initiation of these efforts represents considerable recent progress, their tangible benefits are not yet apparent.

scholarly journals The Effect of Governmental Health Measures on Public Behaviour During the COVID-19 Pandemic Outbreak

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guoyan Wang ◽  
Li Li ◽  
Lingfei Wang ◽  
Zhi Xu
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
New York State ◽  
The United States ◽  
Average Score ◽  
Phase Rule ◽  
The Public ◽  
Health Measures ◽  
Epidemic Area

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in radical changes in many aspects of life. To deal with this, each country has implemented continuous health measures from the beginning of the outbreak. Discovering how governmental actions impacted public behaviour during the outbreak stage is the purpose of this study. Methods: This study uses a hybrid large-scale data visualisation method to analyse public behaviour (epidemic concerns, self-protection, and mobility trends), using the data provided by multiple authorities. Meanwhile, a content analysis method is used to qualitatively code the health measures of three countries with severe early epidemic outbreaks from different continents, namely China, Italy, and the United States. Eight dimensions are coded to rate the mobility restrictions implemented in the above countries. Results: (1) Governmental measures did not immediately persuade the public to change their behaviours during the COVID-19 epidemic. Instead, the public behaviour proceeded in a three-phase rule, which is typically witnessed in an epidemic outbreak, namely the wait-and-see phase, the surge phase and the slow-release phase. (2) The strictness of the mobility restrictions of the three countries can be ranked as follows: Hubei Province in China (with an average score of 8.5 out of 10), Lombardy in Italy (7.125), and New York State in the United States (5.375). Strict mobility restrictions are more likely to cause a surge of population outflow from the epidemic area in the short term, whereas the effect of mobility restrictions is positively related to the stringency of policies in the long term. Conclusion: The public showed generally lawful behaviour during regional epidemic outbreaks and blockades. Meanwhile public behaviour was deeply affected by the actions of local governments, rather than the global pandemic situation. The contextual differences between the various countries are important factors that influence the effects of the different governments’ health measures.

The American Reception of Hegel (1830–1930)

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Kaag ◽  
Kipton E. Jensen
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Pragmatism ◽  
Human Effects ◽  
The Impact

This chapter outlines the reception of Hegel in the United States in the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century. Hegel dramatically influenced the formation of American transcendentalism and American pragmatism, despite often being described as simply antithetical to these American philosophies. While pragmatists such as Peirce and James often criticized a certain interoperation of Hegel, their readings of the Phenomenology and Logic helped them articulate a philosophy, inherited from Emerson, that was geared toward experience and to exploring the practical, deeply human, effects of philosophy. Care is taken to describe the impact that the study of Hegel had on American institutions of culture and politics in the nineteenth century.

How Does a Reduction in Mandated Medicaid Spending Affect Local Fiscal Behaviors? Evidence from New York State

2021 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 495-547
Author(s):  
Yusun Kim
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
New York State ◽  
Property Tax ◽  
Effective Property ◽  
Medicaid Spending ◽  
State And Local ◽  
Sudden Decrease ◽  
The Impact

In 2005, New York (NY) state capped the growth of county-level Medicaid spending, which abruptly decreased counties’ Medicaid outlay in both relative and absolute terms. This study exploits this discontinuity in county Medicaid outlay to estimate the impact of the relief mandate policy on county budgets and property tax levies. It bridges a gap in the public finance literature by addressing local government responses to a sudden decrease in the outlay of a large mandatory spending category. We find a compositional change but no income effect on non-Medicaid spending. However, the policy reduced the effective property tax rate significantly by 6.6 to 8.1 percent on average among affected NY counties after the enactment of the policy relative to control counties. This study advances our understanding of local fiscal responses to an intergovernmental fiscal policy that changes how state and local governments share the costs of a large public social insurance program.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document