U. S. Social Welfare Reform examines pivotal changes in social welfare for low-income families
in the United States between 1981 the advent of the Reagan administration and 2008 the end
of the G.W. Bush administration. It focuses on the change from the Federal-state open
entitlement Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program to the time-limited state
run Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program which Congress authorized with
passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996. The book also focuses
on the development of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) program enacted in 1975 against the
backdrop of failed efforts to nationalize AFDC which aimed at providing a basic income to all
poor families but which blossomed with continued bipartisan support in the 1990s. This book
also explores alternative strategies to assist low-income families including job training
programs. It present original research on the educational and economic well-being of youth from
low-income families who participated in government sponsored job training programs in the late
1970 and early 1980s. The book seeks a middle ground between general and technical social
policy texts. It provides more depth than is available in the more general social policy texts.
Further while the more comprehensive texts often rely on government documents and reports
relying on Current Population Survey data to profile program use this book relies on panel
data from the National Longitudinal Surveys and presents original research that builds upon
prior related research and scholarship about the role of the federal government in social
welfare provisioning in general and AFDC TANF and EITC use in particular and on school-to-work
transition programs. It presents related technical material in a narrative style better suited
to professionals and policy makers who may lack expertise in quantitative analysis.
