A fundamental goal of today's welfare reform is to practice ”expectant giving”: to demand constructive steps from the needy in exchange for assistance. This idea is not new. Since the nineteenth century, every generation of reformers has declared that handouts are harmfulFranklin Roosevelt called them ”a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit.”and that aid must demand something of recipients. Liberals and conservatives, bureaucrats and church leaders have all agreed that the purpose of welfare is not simply to keep people housed and fed with giveaways but to raise them to a happier, more productive condition. Welfare should be ”a hand up, not a hand out.”Why, then, no matter how often welfare is reinvented, do we keep getting the system nobody wants?In Overcoming Welfare , James Payne analyzes the roots of this recurring failure. Part of the problem, he observes, lies with modern social workers who have embraced the doctrine of meeting needs at all costs. Adding to the handout mentality is the ideology of income redistribution, which says the poor are automatically entitled to state giveaways.The most important cause of failure, however, is that government is not suited to carry out expectant giving. Such aid requires that the giver pass judgment; that recipients with different abilities and circumstances be treated unequally; that aid be withheld from recipients who don't keep their end of the bargain; and that a personal relationship of trust exist between giver and recipient. With their high caseloads, inflexible rules, and budgetary pressures to streamline aid, government welfare programs inevitably drift toward the handout approach.The future of charity belongs to private, voluntary efforts that have the sensitivity and discipline to meet the real needs of the poor. In his broad survey of the many different types of private assistance. Payne demonstrates that we can go beyond the sorry choice of being indulgent or being cruelbut only if we are willing to extend ourselves.

Overcoming Welfare: Expecting More From The Poor And From Ourselves

Politics & Social Sciences

Payne, James L.

Social Sciences

Basic Books

This book is a study of military forces, treating the causes of militarism, world trends in arms policies, and their implications for war and peace. Payne argues that nations do not set their level of forces rationally in response to foreign threats. Instead, they are influenced by cultural and ideological prejudices. As a result they either arm too much, or too little. The author incorporates into his findings suggestions for how the US should deal with militarism abroad, and how it should adjust its own military policies accordingly. The book is designed to be of interest to a broad range of students and researchers in the fields of political science, political philosophy, international relations and strategic, defence and peace studies. General readers may also find it of interest.

Why Nations Arm

Politics & Government

Blackwell Pub.

The American threat;: The fear of war as an instrument of foreign policy (Markham political science series)

Markham Pub. Co

Foundations of empirical political analysis (Markham political science series)

To find more information about Rowman and Littlefield titles, please visit www.rowmanlittlefield.com.

The Motivation of Politicians

Woshinsky, Olive H.

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

The American threat: National security and foreign policy

Lytton Pub. Co

Foundations of Empirical Political Analysis

From Library Journal\nIn this well-researched and stimulating book, Payne demonstrates that in the legislative environment vastly more people call for increasing government spending than for decreasing it. He states that a "culture of spending" has thus developed in which Congress is persuaded through this imbalance that there is a need to expand federal programs. However, by focusing on just one of the motivations for spending, Payne does not present a comprehensive review of the situation. His somewhat academic writing style will also limit the potential audience. A worthwhile but optional purchase. 
- Mark Guyer, Stark Cty. Dist. Lib., Canton, Ohio 
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The Culture of Spending: Why Congress Lives Beyond Our Means

Business & Money

Ics Pr

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