Social Security: History and Politics from the New Deal to the Privatization Debate (Studies in Government & Public Policy)

Social Security: History and Politics from the New Deal to the Privatization Debate (Studies in Government & Public Policy) Review

Everyone agrees that Social Security's future is in jeopardy-or is it? Long viewed as the "third rail" of American politics, Social Security is a major political issue, and many experts and politicians would like to restructure this program. But too few of us, young and elderly alike, really understand the origins and workings of this popular program. Daniel Béland answers the call for objective information with a short history that provides context and clarity for the current debates.

Covering six decades through the beginning of the current century, Béland chronicles how Social Security and the controversy surrounding its solvency have evolved, offering along the way new insights into its past, present, and future. His balanced perspective will help readers understand and evaluate partisan arguments on both sides of the issue.

Béland reconstructs the political history of Social Security, describes the impact of subsequent amendments to the original act, and offers comparative insights from other countries that can improve our understanding of the debate. He focuses particularly on the relationship between ideas and institutions in policymaking to examine the impact of gender and race on Social Security politics; and he shows that gender has had a more direct impact on Social Security development-especially regarding spousal benefits-and is more important in understanding the politics of reform than has often been understood.

In assessing how Social Security has been sold to the public, Béland reveals how the 1935 act resulted in part from its link with the traditional American belief in the values associated with hard work and self-reliance, while surreptitiously providing some economic security for the impoverished. Today's privatizers argue for changing from a guaranteed benefit to a defined contribution program, seeking to reclaim from liberals the rhetoric about American values in order to alter the very nature of Social Security-effectually turning discourse centered on personal and collective gain against the institutional legacy of the New Deal.

Succinct and illuminating, Béland's work provides concerned citizens with a thoughtful exploration of how the politics of Social Security evolved, while offering scholars new theoretical insights about the welfare state and the role of ideas and institutions in policymaking.

The Global New Deal: Economic and Social Human Rights in World Politics (New Millennium Books in International Studies)

The Global New Deal: Economic and Social Human Rights in World Politics (New Millennium Books in International Studies) Review

Global human suffering in the 21st century seems bitterly entrenched, with almost half of the world's people remaining impoverished and over 26,000 children dying daily from preventable causes. This powerful and empowering text offers a way forward, presenting a realistic roadmap for enhanced benevolent global governance with practical, workable solutions to mass poverty. Now fully updated, including new chapters, The Global New Deal outlines the legal responsibilities for all institutions, organizations, and states under international law to respect, protect, and fulfill economic and social human rights. William Felice focuses on seven key areas: the dynamics within international political economy that contribute to economic inequality and create human suffering, the U.N.'s approach to economic and social human rights, the priority of ecosystem protection within all development strategies, the degree of racial bias prevalent in global economics, the relationship between gender equality and economic growth, the impact of military spending on human development, and the importance for the United States to adopt a human-rights approach to poverty alleviation. Arguing for a "global new deal," a set of international and national public policy proposals designed to protect the vulnerable and end needless suffering, this book provides a viable direction for structural reform to protect those left behind by the global economy.

Three Worlds of Relief: Race, Immigration, and the American Welfare State from the Progressive Era to the New Deal (Princeton Studies in American ... International, and Comparative Perspectives)

Three Worlds of Relief: Race, Immigration, and the American Welfare State from the Progressive Era to the New Deal (Princeton Studies in American ... International, and Comparative Perspectives) Review

Three Worlds of Relief examines the role of race and immigration in the development of the American social welfare system by comparing how blacks, Mexicans, and European immigrants were treated by welfare policies during the Progressive Era and the New Deal. Taking readers from the turn of the twentieth century to the dark days of the Depression, Cybelle Fox finds that, despite rampant nativism, European immigrants received generous access to social welfare programs. The communities in which they lived invested heavily in relief. Social workers protected them from snooping immigration agents, and ensured that noncitizenship and illegal status did not prevent them from receiving the assistance they needed. But that same helping hand was not extended to Mexicans and blacks. Fox reveals, for example, how blacks were relegated to racist and degrading public assistance programs, while Mexicans who asked for assistance were deported with the help of the very social workers they turned to for aid.

Drawing on a wealth of archival evidence, Fox paints a riveting portrait of how race, labor, and politics combined to create three starkly different worlds of relief. She debunks the myth that white America's immigrant ancestors pulled themselves up by their bootstraps, unlike immigrants and minorities today. Three Worlds of Relief challenges us to reconsider not only the historical record but also the implications of our past on contemporary debates about race, immigration, and the American welfare state.

Power and the Governance of Global Trade: From the GATT to the WTO (Cornell Studies in Political Economy)

Power and the Governance of Global Trade: From the GATT to the WTO (Cornell Studies in Political Economy) Review

In Power and the Governance of Global Trade, Soo Yeon Kim analyzes the design, evolution, and economic impact of the global trade regime, focusing on the power politics that prevailed in the regime and shaped its distributive impact on global trade. Using documents now available from the archives of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), Kim examines the institutional origins and critical turning points in the evolution of the GATT, as well as preferences of the lesser powers of the developing world that were the subject of heated debate over the International Trade Organization (ITO), which failed to materialize. Using quantitative analysis, Kim assesses the impact of the global trade regime on international trade and finds that the rules of trade forged by the great powers resulted in a developmental divide, in which industrialized countries benefited from trade expansion but developing countries reaped far fewer gains. The findings indicate that a successful conclusion to the Doha Round of the World Trade Organization (WTO) is urgently needed to mitigate the developmental divide by increasing trade between the industrialized and developing worlds. Kim offers a timely reading of the GATT/WTO system as a way to think about how trade and globalization more broadly may be governed in this post-Cold War century, as the global economy contends with a new geopolitical configuration featuring rising powers from the developing world. Important trading nations such as China, India, and other emergent actors in the G-20 countries, Kim argues, reflects the new power politics that will shape the course of global trade governance in the years to come.

Unchecked and Unbalanced: How the Discrepancy Between Knowledge and Power Caused the Financial Crisis and Threatens Democracy (Hoover Studies in Politics, Economics, and Society)

Unchecked and Unbalanced: How the Discrepancy Between Knowledge and Power Caused the Financial Crisis and Threatens Democracy (Hoover Studies in Politics, Economics, and Society) Review

In Unchecked and Unbalanced, Arnold Kling provides a blueprint for those who are skeptical of political and financial elitism. At the heart of Kling's argument is the growing discrepancy between two phenomena: knowledge is becoming more diffuse, while political power is becoming more concentrated.

Kling sees this knowledge/power discrepancy at the heart of the financial crisis of 2008. Financial industry executives and regulatory officials lacked the ability to fathom the complexity of the system that had emerged. And, in response, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke, said that they required still more power, including 0 billion to purchase "toxic assets" from banks.

Kling warns that increased concentration of power is a problem, not a panacea, for our modern world and suggests reforms designed to curb the growth of government and allow citizens greater control over the allocation of public goods.

Published in cooperation with the Hoover Institution

Democracy and the Limits of Self-Government (Cambridge Studies in the Theory of Democracy)

Democracy and the Limits of Self-Government (Cambridge Studies in the Theory of Democracy) Review

The political institutions under which we live today evolved from a revolutionary idea that shook the world in the second part of the eighteenth century: that a people should govern itself. Yet if we judge contemporary democracies by the ideals of self-government, equality, and liberty, we find that democracy is not what it was dreamt to be. This book addresses central issues in democratic theory by analyzing the sources of widespread dissatisfaction with democracies around the world. With attention throughout to historical and cross-national variations, the focus is on the generic limits of democracy in promoting equality, effective participation, control of governments by citizens, and liberty. The conclusion is that although some of this dissatisfaction has good reasons, some is based on an erroneous understanding of how democracy functions. Hence, although the analysis identifies the limits of democracy, it also points to directions for feasible reforms.

America Unrivaled: The Future of the Balance of Power (Cornell Studies in Security Affairs)

America Unrivaled: The Future of the Balance of Power (Cornell Studies in Security Affairs) Review

American power today is without historical precedent, dominating the world system. No other nation has enjoyed such formidable advantages in military, economic, technological, cultural, and political capabilities. How stable is this unipolar American order? Will the age-old dynamic of the balance of power reemerge as the other great powers rise up to challenge American preeminence? America Unrivaled examines these questions. The experts in this volume contend that full-scale balancing in this new world order has not yet occurred. They ask if a backlash against American dominance is just around the corner, or if characteristics of the current situation alter or eliminate the entire logic of power balancing.

American power poses threats, as do the likely responses to that power, the experts argue in America Unrivaled. The definition of these threats is critical to understanding future political trends and learning whether an original (and stable) world system has already come into existence. Most of the contributors agree that novel features of the American hegemony and the wider global order make an automatic return to a traditional balance of power order unlikely.

Votes and Violence: Electoral Competition and Ethnic Riots in India (Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics)

Votes and Violence: Electoral Competition and Ethnic Riots in India (Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics) Review

Revealing why Hindu-Muslim riots in India break out when and where they do, Steven Wilkinson demonstrates why some state governments in India prevent Hindu-Muslim riots while others do not or even help to incite violence. Wilkinson asserts that riots are manipulated to help win elections, and that state governments decide whether to stop them--depending on electoral calculations concerning the loss or gain of votes. He tests this claim using a dataset on riots and their causes as well as case studies of several Indian states.

Commodity and Exchange in the Mongol Empire: A Cultural History of Islamic Textiles (Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization)

Commodity and Exchange in the Mongol Empire: A Cultural History of Islamic Textiles (Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization) Review

In the thirteenth century the Mongols created a vast transcontinental empire that transported skilled artisans from one cultural zone to another. Among those transported were Muslim textile workers, resettled in China, where they made clothes for the imperial court. In a fascinating account, the author considers the significance of cloth and color in the political and cultural life of the Mongols. Situated within the broader context of the history of the Silk Road, the book will interest not only historians of the Middle East and Asia, but also art historians and textile specialists.

Security Studies: An Introduction

Security Studies: An Introduction Review

Security Studies: An Introduction Feature

• Condition: Like New

Security Studies is the most comprehensive textbook available on security studies.

It gives students a detailed overview of the major theoretical approaches, key themes and most significant issues within security studies.

• Part 1 explores the main theoretical approaches currently used within the field from realism to international political sociology.
• Part 2 explains the central concepts underpinning contemporary debates from the security dilemma to terrorism.
• Part 3 presents an overview of the institutional security architecture currently influencing world politics using international, regional and global levels of analysis.
• Part 4 examines some of the key contemporary challenges to global security from the arms trade to energy security.
• Part 5 discusses the future of security.

Security Studies provides a valuable new teaching tool for undergraduates and MA students by collecting these related strands of the field together into a single coherent textbook.