Chapter 15

A category of public policy that is comprised of policy decisions on matters affecting individuals within a political system

Governmental programs, such as social insurance and poverty programs, directed specifically toward promoting the well being of individuals and families

Programs, such as Social Security and Medicaid, whereby eligible individuals receive benefits according to law

A set of ideas applying Charles Darwin’s theory of biological evolution to society and holding that social relationships occur within a struggle for survival in which only the fittest survive

An urban reform movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that called for direct primaries, restriction on corporations, and improved public services. Influential in the administrations of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson

The first two terms of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose revolutionary policy initiatives established a pervasive and active role for the national government

President Lyndon Johnson’s term for an egalitarian society that aggressive governmental action to help the poor and disadvantaged would create in the 1960s

Welfare programs that provide cash or services to the aged, the disabled, and the unemployed, regardless of income level

Landmark legislation enacted in 1935 that firmly established for the first time a social welfare role for the national government by provided old age insurance, unemployment compensation, and grants to the states to provide cash assistance to dependent children and to the blind, disabled, and aged

A model of decisions making that holds that new policies differ only marginally from existing policies

A public health insurance program in which government pays the providers of health care for medical services given to patients who are aged or disabled

Type of social welfare program in which government provides cash or in-kind benefits to individuals who qualify by having little or no income

A definition of poverty that holds that individuals with less, regardless of their absolute income level, will feel poor or deprived relative to those who have more

Income level, different by family size and annually adjusted for inflation, below which government defines individuals as being poor

Individuals who, despite being employed are or seeking employment, are still defined as poor because their low earnings are not enough to put them above the poverty threshold

A proportion of the poor comprised of individuals isolated from the rest of society and for whom poverty is a continuing way of life

Policy strategies designed to reach the fundamental causes of poverty and to enable individuals to get out of poverty and lead productive, self-sufficient lives

Policy strategies designed to make poverty more bearable for individuals rather than designed to attack poverty by reaching its fundamental causes

Social welfare program, administered by the states and jointly funded by state and national revenues, that provides cash assistance to needy children and an adult relative and, in participating states, an unemployed parent

A 1996 law that fundamentally altered the AFDC welfare program by renaming it TANF and placing work and training requirements, as well as time limits, on its use

Social welfare program administered by the Social Security Administration whereby the national government guarantees a certain level of income for the needy, aged, blind, and disabled

A means-tested medical care program providing in-kind medical benefits for the poor

Noncash benefits, such as medical care services, that the needy receive from some social welfare programs

A means-tested program that provides the eligible needy with coupons that can be used only to purchase food

An independent agency that controls and abates air and water pollution and protects the environment from pollution by solid wastes, pesticides, radiation, and toxic substances

The process of estimating the potentially dangerous consequences of damage that might be caused by a particular practice, such as smoking, or by the use of a particular product, such as the impact of burning fossil fuels on global warming

Process of making decisions to try to reduce or contain identified risks