San Antonio College Library

From housing, pensions, and family benefits, to health-care, unemployment insurance, and social assistance, the welfare state is a key aspect of our lives. But social programs are contested political realities that we can't hope to understand without locating them within the "big picture." This book provides a concise political and sociological introduction to social policy, helping readers to grasp the nature of social programs and the political...

Whose fault is homelessness? Thirty years ago the problem exploded as a national crisis, drawing the attention of activists, the media, and policymakers at all levels, yet the homeless population endures to this day, and arguably has grown. In this book the author offers a major reconsideration of homelessness in the U.S., casting a critical eye on how we as a society respond to crises of inequality and stratification. Incorporating local studies...

Reforming health care, revamping the welfare system, preserving or cutting Social Security, creating employment programs for displaced employees, and revising U.S. social programs to help working parents with children - all of these endeavors and more are part of ongoing national debates about the future of social policy in the United States. In this wide-ranging collection of essays, renowned social scientist Theda Skocpol shows how historical understanding,...

"What Government Can Do argues that federal, state, and local governments can and should do a great deal. Benjamin I. Page and James R. Simmons detail what programs have worked and how they can be improved, while introducing the general reader to the fundamentals of social insurance programs such as Social Security and Medicaid, tax structures, minimum wage laws, educational programs, and the concept of "basic needs." Through their discussions of...

"Presents 'tools' to make life in Latin America more equitable and fair for the majority. Suggests policies and programs for making tax structures more progressive; giving small businesses a chance; protecting labor mobility and workers' rights; tackling corruption; and raising levels of quality, efficiency, and equity of the education systems"--Provided by publisher.

Texas pride, like everything else in the state, is larger than life. So, too, perhaps, are the state's challenges. Lone Star Tarnished approaches public policy in the nation's most populous "red state" from historical, comparative, and critical perspectives. The historical perspective provides the scope for asking how various policy domains have developed in Texas history, regularly reaching back to the state's founding and with substantial data for...

The author explains how Texas politicians Bush, Cheney, Rove, & Perry created a conservative political agenda based on banking deregulation, lax environmental standards, draconian tax cuts, states rights, gun ownership, and sexual abstinence that is now sweeping the country and defining our national identity.