Rethinking Social Policy: Race, Poverty, and the Underclass by Christopher Jenck

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These essays examine major books on such subjects as affirmative action, the "safety net", the effects of heredity on learning and propensity to commit crime, and ghetto culture and the underclass. The book argues that neither liberal nor conservative ideas on these issues withstand close scrutiny.

FORMATPaperback LANGUAGEEnglish CONDITIONBrand New Publisher Description

In an appeal for clearer thinking on social issues, Christopher Jencks re-examines the way Americans think about race, poverty, crime, heredity, welfare and the underclass. Arguing that neither liberal nor conservative ideas about these issues withstand close scrutiny, he calls for less emphasis on political principles and more attention to specific programmes. Jencks describes how welfare policy was dominated in the early 1980s by conservatives who promoted ideas that justified cutting back sharply on the social programmes of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society. They believed that a period of sustained economic growth, with low taxes and free markets, would do more to help poor people than coddling them with government assistance. Despite the economic expansion of the later Reagan years, however, the problems of persistent poverty grew even more serious. The liberals took the intiative in the late 1980s, but their proposals failed to win broad popular support. Jencks analyzes influential books on such subjects as affirmative action (Thomas Sowell), the "safety net" (Charles Murray), the effects of heredity on learning and propensity to commit crime (James Q.Wilson and Richard Herrnstein), ghetto culture and the underclass (William J. Wilson). His intention throughout is to force us (readers and policymakers) to look at the way various remedial plans actually succeed or fail. For example, he believes that until we transform AFDC so that it reinforces rather than subverts American ideals about work and marriage, efforts to build a humane welfare state will never succeed. Christopher Jencks is the author of "Inequality" and "Who Gets Ahead".

Author Biography

Christopher Jencks is John D. MacArthur Professor of Sociology and Urban Affairs at Northwestern University.

Table of Contents

Affirmative action or quotas?; the safety net; heredity, inequality, and crime; making sense of urban ghettos; is the American underclass growing?; reforming welfare.

Details ISBN0060975342 Author Christopher Jencks Short Title RETHINKING SOCIAL POLICY Language English ISBN-10 0060975342 ISBN-13 9780060975340 Media Book Format Paperback Year 1993 Residence MA, US Subtitle Race, Poverty, and the Underclass DOI 10.1604/9780060975340 Imprint HarperPerennial Place of Publication New York, NY Country of Publication United States AU Release Date 1993-03-17 NZ Release Date 1993-03-17 US Release Date 1993-03-17 UK Release Date 1993-03-17 Pages 288 Publisher HarperCollins Publishers Inc Publication Date 1993-03-17 DEWEY 361.610973 Illustrations index Audience Undergraduate We've got this

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