Grommersoft

This chapter concentrates on the role of government in providing for the welfare of its citizens through government policies. At one time, governments provided only the minimal resources necessary for security and order. Now, through the welfare state, most governments provide a variety of services and programs designed to shield individuals from economic insecurity and promote increased economic equality. The promotion of welfare goals through government is controversial, however, because it requires government to choose between freedom and equality.

The Great Depression was crucial in changing thinking about how much government intervention was needed to promote social welfare. The New Deal policies were designed to remedy the problems caused by economic stagnation by boosting farm prices, reducing unemployment, and increasing social welfare expenditures. President Johnson's Great Society programs carried the spirit and programs of the New Deal one step further. Comprehensive legislation was passed to redress political, social, and economic inequality. Although successful in some areas, the Great Society programs failed to achieve their goals because of administrative problems and growing indifference. After his election in 1980, President Reagan used the growing disaffection with welfare programs to cut back overall levels of spending in this area.

Government has attempted to alleviate some of the consequences of economic adversity in such crucial areas as social insurance and public assistance. The most important kind of social insurance program is embodied in the social security legislation. Although there are questions about the financial viability of the system in the future, significant changes in social security harbor too much political risk. Another program, Medicare, has undergone attacks by conservative critics who see is as a wasteful and unnecessary intrusion of government in health care. Meanwhile, because about 15 percent of non-elderly Americans have no health insurance and rely on a patchwork public system, the nation is moving towards some form of health care reform.

Public assistance refers to state-administered programs that provide cash aid to individuals living below the federal poverty level. The food stamp program helps one in ten Americans to improve their food purchasing power. Bill Clinton vowed to end welfare "as we know it," and signed legislation in 1996 that will alter 61 years of government programs. Transforming some non-means tested benefits into means-tested benefits also has allure during times of budget deficit.

©1998 by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.