Empowerment and public policy: An exploration of the implications of Section 115 of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act

2004 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 127-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheryl Pimlott Kubiak ◽  
Kristine Siefert ◽  
Carol J. Boyd
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Personal Responsibility ◽  
Work Opportunity

No Win… Facing the Ethical Perils of Welfare Reform

1998 ◽  
Vol 79 (3) ◽  
pp. 277-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann Withorn
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Welfare Reform ◽  
Personal Responsibility ◽  
Ethical Problem ◽  
Political Conflict ◽  
Welfare Rights ◽  
The People ◽  
Different Levels ◽  
Intense Debate ◽  
Work Opportunity

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Art of 1996, or “welfare reform,” is highly controversial public policy. In every state the ‘devolution’ of federal entitlements has created intense debate and new legislation, either presaging the national changes or in response to them. In addition to being a source of deep political conflict, welfare reform has also created immediate and continuing dilemmas for the people who try to work within the new rules and for those struggling to change them. The author reviews the context for understanding welfare reform as an ethical problem for the whole society, and uses examples drawn from her work as a teacher and welfare rights activist to illustrate the day-to-day problems that welfare reform forces upon women who use the system and workers whose job it is to help them. Finally, possibilities for responding at different levels are presented.

scholarly journals Formation of Sports Public Policy within the Context of Hierarchy Governance

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 35-45
Author(s):  
Vilma Čingienė ◽  
Mindaugas Gobikas
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Strategic Planning ◽  
Data Collection ◽  
Environmental Analysis ◽  
Personal Responsibility ◽  
Policy Formation ◽  
Ministry Of Education ◽  
Sports Governance ◽  
Education Science

This article aims to analyse the process of formation of sports public policy in Lithuania within the theoretical context of hierarchy governance. This study consisted of collection and analysis of official documents regarding sports public policy formation from 2011 until 2018. The data collection was aimed at uncovering of key components of the process of public policy formation – environmental analysis, strategic planning, competence and decision making power, and stakeholders. The main findings of the research concluded that Lithuanian sports governance, along with the majority of other European countries, is defined as bureaucratic configuration. The main responsibility within the process of sports public policy formation falls on the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports and active national non-government sports organisations, while principal objectives of the Lithuanian sports public policy formation are laid out in strategic documents. However, the implementation needs to be centred on institutional and personal responsibility, proper environmental regard and tolerance, and the ability to listen and to reach an agreement.

Framing Welfare Reform in Affluent Societies: Rendering Restructuring More Palatable?

2000 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-193 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fiona Ross
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Welfare Reform ◽  
Personal Responsibility ◽  
Welfare Regimes ◽  
Discursive Politics ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Political Framing ◽  
Policy Arena ◽  
Work Opportunity

This paper investigates the conditions under which political framing can render welfare restructuring more palatable. I start by asking two research questions. What are the necessary (albeit perhaps insufficient) conditions that allow leaders successfully to frame welfare reform? To what extent are these conditions evident across welfare regimes? I identify four variables that affect leaders' opportunities for framing social policy: (1) extant frames, (ii) actors, (iii) institutions and (iv) policy arena. After examining the four dominant types of frames found across affluent societies, I review the discursive politics surrounding The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act as a case where all four conditions for framing welfare reform coalesced.

Aging: Public Policy

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeanette C. Takamura
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Population Policy ◽  
Personal Responsibility ◽  
Adult Population ◽  
The United States ◽  
Older Americans ◽  
Health Security ◽  
Conservative Policy ◽  
Older Adult Population ◽  
The U.S

Public policy advances in the field of aging in the United States have lagged compared to the growth of the older adult population. Policy adjustments have been driven by ideological perspectives and have been largely incremental. In recent years, conservative policy makers have sought through various legislative vehicles to eliminate or curb entitlement programs, proposing private sector solutions and touting the importance of an “ownership society” in which individual citizens assume personal responsibility for their economic and health security. The election of a Democratic majority in the U.S. House and the slim margin of votes held by Democrats in the U.S. Senate may mean a shift in aging policy directions that strengthens Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, if the newly elected members are able to maintain their seats over time. The results of the 2008 presidential election will also determine how the social, economic, and other policy concerns will be addressed as the baby boomers join the ranks of older Americans.

American Catholicism, Catholic Charities U.S.A., and Welfare Reform

2001 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
John A. Coleman ◽  
S.J.
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Welfare Reform ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Personal Responsibility ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Catholicism ◽  
Catholic Charities ◽  
American Catholic ◽  
Do So

In this article I want to give at least a thumbnail sense of the background assumptions, policy contours, and vehicles for American Catholicism in engaging in public policy discussions. To do so, I will eventually concentrate on one major recent public policy discussion in the United States: the debates on welfare reform that led up to, and continue vigorously even after, the passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996. I do so because American Catholic institutions, including the United States Catholic Conference and Catholic Charities U.S.A., played a crucial and continuous role in these debates about welfare reform. Indeed, New York's Senator Daniel P. Moynihan, a vigorous opponent of the proposed welfare reform bill, in excoriating his fellow liberals for signing on to the bill, could lift up the example of the Catholic bishops' lobbying and exclaim: “The bishops admittedly have an easier time with matters of this sort. When principles are at stake, they simply look them up. Too many liberals, alas, make them up!” This particular debate (which is not, by any means, over) also helps to show some of the unique assumptions behind proposals found in Catholic interventions in the policy sector. In what follows, I will develop, briefly, four sections or subthemes to the paper:1. Catholilc Social Thought: Five Background Assumptions for Policy: Human Dignity; The Common Good; Solidarity; Subsidiarity; Justice2. The Move from Background Assumptions to Policy3. Catholic Policy Proposals: Their Style and Instrumentalities4. Catholicism and Welfare Policy

scholarly journals Sécurité du revenu et exclusion sociale aux États-Unis : bilan préliminaire de la réforme de 1996

2002 ◽  
pp. 97-108
Author(s):  
Patrick Villeneuve
Keyword(s):  
Personal Responsibility ◽  
Exclusion Sociale ◽  
Work Opportunity

RÉSUMÉ En août 1996, par l'adoption du Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), le système américain de sécurité du revenu était modifié en profondeur. Trois ans plus tard, malgré le caractère préliminaire des résultats disponibles et un contexte économique exceptionnellement favorable, et au-delà du fait que le nombre de prestataires a diminué de façon importante, certaines tendances préoccupantes se dessinent en matière d'évolution des revenus, dans un contexte social et politique particulièrement peu sensible aux questions d'exclusion sociale.

scholarly journals Explaining Welfare Benefits in the South: A Regional Analysis

2007 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Breaux ◽  
John C. Morris ◽  
Rick Travis
Keyword(s):  
Social Control ◽  
Personal Responsibility ◽  
Regional Analysis ◽  
State Model ◽  
The South ◽  
Welfare Benefits ◽  
Southern States ◽  
Substantial Control ◽  
Work Opportunity

This paper examines the choices made by states in the implementation of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996. Commonly known as TANF, the legislation gives states substantial control over the choices of benefits and sanctions they impose on program recipients. Using the models and theoretical explanations offered by Soss et al. (2001) and tested in a 49-state model, we test the degree to which these explanations hold when applied to a regional analysis of southern states. We find that the southern states are similar to the rest of the country when it comes to setting TANF benefit choices, although social control explanations are more important for southern states than for the rest of the nation.

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