Studies of the welfare state have formed an important part of public policy research in America since the Second World War. The Enabling State reconsiders the scope of social welfare transfers, how they are delivered, and whom they benefit. In addition to presenting an analysis of direct public...

In the early 1960s, the motivating theme of social services in the American welfare state was reduction of economic dependency. At that time services were highly selective, aimed mainly at poor people. Between 1960 and 1980 there was a drift toward univeralism, as the welfare state expanded to...

How do we measure and rate the social welfare efforts of nations? Most people consider the U.S. and Japan welfare laggards when compared with European countries. This view derives from a widely used measure of “welfare effort”-direct government outlays for social programs as the percentage...