From Rhetoric To Reform? - Welfare Policy In American Politics (Paperback)

In assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the American political process, this book explores why the debate on welfare policy has shifted to the conservatives' vantage point. The author discusses how political rhetoric shapes the welfare debate, and considers topics such as how welfare became a programme fraught with problems and abuses, and why and when welfare was the answer to a problem and when it became the problem. She reviews the response to caring for the less fortunate and examines welfare policy from the federal to the state level. A chapter is devoted to the 1996 Welfare Reform Bill and its impact on the states in 1997.