Rethinking the welfare state: towards an alternative to the American welfare state

The contemporary American welfare state is a highly controversial institution plagued with tremendous deficiencies. There is agreement over the entire political spectrum that the current welfare system needs an overhaul, but there is considerable disagreement on how this should or could be accomplished. Neither liberal nor conservative reform proposals can be understood as solutions to the problem because they lack an appropriate analytical framework. This thesis tries to contribute to the current welfare debate by developing an analytical framework by which we can judge welfare policies. It is based upon contemporary theories of the welfare state and the concept of equality, by which we can judge welfare policies. This framework will be used to reveal how and why existing policies fail to achieve the central purpose of the welfare state and to re-introduce a policy proposal that might be able to avoid the difficulties that have plagued existing policies.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Political Science

Department dc:contributor.department

Political Science

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

1991

Author dc:creator

• Hauser, Harald

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Rich, Richard C.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• White, Stephen K.
• Walcott, Charles E.

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

etd-08142009-040446

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/44230