Flashcards Social Welfare Policy: Poverty, Mental Health & Civil Rights

What is the Social Welfare System?

An organized network of laws, programs, benefits, and services aimed at meeting the basic social, economic, health, and educational needs of a society.

What is Policy Analysis?

The systematic evaluation of the origins, implementation, and outcomes of social policies to determine their effectiveness and equity.

Define Rugged Individualism.

The belief that individuals are solely responsible for their own well-being and economic success through hard work.

Define Societal Responsibility.

The belief that society has a collective obligation to support members facing systemic barriers, illness, or economic hardship.

What is the distinction between Worthy and Unworthy Poor?

Worthy poor are seen as unable to work through no fault of their own (e.g., orphans, elderly), while unworthy poor are often stigmatized as lazy (e.g., able-bodied unemployed adults).

What does 'Blaming the Victim' refer to?

Attributing social problems to the personal failings of those affected rather than examining structural or systemic causes.

What is the role of CSWE?

The Council on Social Work Education is the national accrediting body for social work education in the U.S., mandating policy practice as a core competency.

Who are Street-Level Bureaucrats?

Frontline public service workers who interact directly with citizens and exercise significant discretion in how policies are enforced.

What were the Elizabethan Poor Laws?

Laws established in 1601 that created local government responsibility for the poor and codified the distinction between the worthy and unworthy poor.

What was the focus of Charity Organization Societies (COS)?

A late 19th-century movement focusing on 'scientific charity' and individual moral reform, utilizing 'friendly visitors' to investigate applicants.

What was the Settlement Movement?

A late 19th/early 20th-century reform movement focused on living among the urban poor and advocating for environmental reform and public health.

What characterized the Progressive Era?

A period focused on labor laws, child labor restrictions, maternal and child health, and government regulation to curb industrial excesses.

What was the New Deal?

FDR's response to the Great Depression that shifted social welfare responsibility from local/private charities to the federal government.

What is the Social Security Act of 1935?

The cornerstone of the U.S. welfare state, creating Social Insurance and Public Assistance tiers.

What was the War on Poverty?

LBJ's Great Society initiatives aimed at eliminating poverty through opportunity and empowerment, including programs like Medicare and Medicaid.

What is Rational Policy-Making?

A comprehensive, step-by-step approach that evaluates all possible alternatives and consequences to choose the optimal policy.

Define Incrementalism in policy-making.

Making small, gradual adjustments to existing policies rather than sweeping, radical overhauls.

What is Residual Policy?

A view of social welfare as a temporary safety net that steps in only when normal structures break down.

What is Institutional Policy?

A view of social welfare as a normal, permanent, and necessary function of modern industrial society.

What does Selectivity (Means-Tested) mean in eligibility approaches?

Benefits are restricted to those who prove financial need through income/asset tests.

What is Universality in eligibility approaches?

Benefits are available to everyone within a specific demographic category regardless of income.

What is Cash Assistance?

Direct monetary payments to individuals in need.

What are In-Kind Benefits?

Non-cash goods or services provided directly to individuals (e.g., Medicaid healthcare).

What are Vouchers in the context of assistance?

Coupons or electronic cards restricted to purchasing specific necessities.

What is Social Insurance?

Programs funded by mandatory employer/employee contributions (e.g., OASDI, Medicare).

Who are Stakeholders in policy dynamics?

Individuals, groups, or organizations affected by or having a vested interest in a policy outcome.

What is the Window of Opportunity in policy-making?

A brief period when a recognized social problem, a viable policy solution, and favorable political will align for major policy change.

What is the Culture of Poverty theory?

A controversial theory arguing that poverty persists because the poor develop a distinct set of defeatist values and behaviors passed down across generations.

Why study history in a policy class?

To understand how past values shape modern eligibility rules and avoid repeating past policy failures.

Why do social workers need to study policy?

Policies dictate funding, client eligibility, and service delivery, requiring advocacy for systemic change.

What complicates identifying social problems in the U.S.?

Deep ideological divides, competing stakeholder interests, and disagreements on addressing symptoms versus root causes.

Why do we have a social welfare system?

To stabilize the economy, maintain social order, protect vulnerable populations, and uphold basic human dignity.

What is Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs?

A theory stating that people must meet foundational physiological and safety needs before pursuing higher-level needs.

What is the Feminization of Poverty?

The phenomenon where women, especially single mothers and elderly women, experience poverty at disproportionately higher rates than men.

What is the Juvenilization of Poverty?

The disproportionate concentration of poverty among children compared to other age groups, impacting long-term health, education, and economic mobility.

Define Subemployment.

Includes not only the officially unemployed but also discouraged workers who stopped looking for work, involuntary part-time workers seeking full-time jobs, and full-time workers earning poverty-level wages.

What is homelessness?

The extreme manifestation of poverty and housing unaffordability, driven by stagnant wages, lack of affordable housing, domestic violence, and inadequate mental health/substance use support.

What does TANF stand for?

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, which provides time-limited, means-tested cash assistance to low-income families with children, paired with strict work requirements.

What is SSI?

Supplemental Security Income, a federal, means-tested cash assistance program for low-income individuals who are aged (65+), blind, or disabled.

What does SNAP provide?

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program provides monthly electronic vouchers to low-income households to purchase food.

What is the purpose of the EITC?

Earned Income Tax Credit is a refundable tax credit designed to supplement wages for low-to-moderate-income working individuals and couples, particularly those with children.

What do Medicaid and CHIP cover?

Means-tested public health insurance programs covering low-income adults, children, pregnant women, elderly adults, and people with disabilities.

What is Section 8?

Federal housing assistance programs providing subsidized rental units or housing vouchers to limit housing costs to roughly 30% of a household's adjusted income.

What is WIC?

Women, Infants, and Children program aimed at providing nutrition and early childhood education to break the cycle of juvenile poverty.

What was the CMHC Act?

Community Mental Health Centers Act of 1963, signed by JFK to fund local community mental health centers as alternatives to state institutions.

What is deinstitutionalization?

The large-scale release of patients from state psychiatric hospitals into the community, driven by the introduction of antipsychotic medications and civil rights concerns.

What are the key concerns of the elderly population?

Healthcare affordability, long-term care costs, Social Security solvency, prescription drug prices, fixed-income inflation, age discrimination, and maintaining independence.

What is the Social Security Act?

The foundational federal social insurance program providing monthly earned income to retired workers, their survivors, and workers with disabilities.

What does Medicare cover?

Universal federal health insurance for people aged 65+ and certain younger people with disabilities, including Part A (hospital insurance) and Part B (medical insurance).

What is the difference between the Bill of Rights and Civil Rights?

The Bill of Rights protects individual liberties from federal government infringement, while Civil Rights guarantee equal social opportunities and protection under the law.

Define institutional racism.

Systemic policies, practices, and norms within institutions that produce unequal outcomes by race, even without overt individual prejudice.

What is affirmative action?

Proactive policies and outreach efforts in education and employment aimed at remedying historical discrimination and increasing representation of marginalized groups.

What does nondiscrimination mean?

Legal prohibitions against treating individuals unfairly based on protected characteristics.

What is the significance of the 19th Amendment?

It granted women the right to vote in the United States.

Who was Emmett Till?

A 14-year-old Black boy brutally lynched in Mississippi, whose open-casket funeral galvanized the Civil Rights Movement.

What happened during the 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing?

A Ku Klux Klan bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, that killed four young Black girls in 1963.

What was the outcome of the Mississippi Murders in 1964?

Civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner were abducted and murdered by the KKK during 'Freedom Summer' while registering Black voters.

Who was Martin Luther King, Jr.?

A Baptist minister and preeminent leader of nonviolent civil rights resistance, assassinated in 1968 while supporting striking sanitation workers.

What is the focus of the documentary 'Sicko'?

It critiques the U.S. for-profit healthcare and managed care insurance industry by comparing it to universal healthcare models in other countries.

What does the documentary 'Civil Rights Martyrs' cover?

It chronicles the lives and sacrifices of ordinary citizens and activists who were murdered during the struggle for racial equality and voting rights in the American South.