Social Policy 1 Midterm Study Guide (Weeks 1-5)

Flashcards covering the foundational concepts, historical periods, and social welfare policies from Weeks 1 through 5 of SOWK 205.

Social Policy

The choices society makes through laws, programs, and institutions about who is needy, how they should be helped, and with what resources.

Social Welfare Programs

Programs that redistribute resources from one group to another.

Individual Responsibility

A perspective rooted in U.S. political culture that values private assets over public goods and personal effort over government intervention, based on the belief that public aid might discourage independence.

Shared Governmental Responsibility

The concept that government must fund and adopt social policies to meet social needs because markets do not redistribute resources, often prompted by economic crises.

English Poor Law Principles

Early poverty relief traditions centered on local responsibility, family responsibility, and legal settlement rules (residency requirements), funded by taxing local residents.

Deserving Poverty

A historical category of poverty involving age, illness, disability, and circumstances out of an individual's control, qualifying them to receive cash or goods while remaining in their homes.

Undeserving Poverty

A historical classification for people who were physically able to work but deemed unwilling, irresponsible, or violating community expectations, requiring them to live and work in almshouses.

Almshouses

Poorly constructed institutions that lacked heating and ventilation and had crowded rooms and bad air, failing to provide basic comfort, meet basic needs, or protect older adults, children, and people with mental illness.

Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act

Legislation that created child protective services but was limited by focusing exclusively on abuse and neglect rather than underlying poverty or economic issues.

Freedmen's Bureau

The main public welfare provider in the South during Reconstruction that helped unite families, provided medical supplies, and supplied transportation.

Fourteenth Amendment

A Reconstruction amendment passed by Congress that granted citizenship to freed slaves.

Fifteenth Amendment

A Reconstruction amendment passed by Congress that gave African American males the right to vote.

Black Codes

Post-Civil War legal barriers designed to restrict Black labor, property rights, and economic opportunities.

Charity Organization Societies

Organizations focused on preventing pauperism by distinguishing "worthy" from "unworthy" individuals.

Settlement Houses

Community organizations that engaged in social reformation, offered recreation and education, and conducted social research on family needs.

Mothers' Pensions

Progressive Era cash relief given to widowed mothers with the goal of keeping "dependent children" in their own homes.

Workers' Compensation

Laws that provided income protection against accidents and industrially caused illness, reducing economic catastrophe for workers.

Emergency Relief

Great Depression-era assistance administered by public agencies for needy unemployed people and their dependents, adjusted according to each family's resources.

Work-Relief Programs

Government-created initiatives designed to boost income, aid community recovery, and provide assistance to people without jobs.

Social Insurance

Programs established under the Social Security Act to address issues like old age and unemployment, financed through payroll taxes to cover current or former workers.

Public Assistance

Programs created under the Social Security Act for non-work-related needs, funded through joint federal-state grants based on seen needs.

Social Security Act of 1935

New Deal legislation designed to stabilize the economy, expand social welfare programs, and protect older individuals, which had limits on equal access by excluding African Americans and aiding only employed, "worthy" workers.