The Price of Citizenship: Redefining the American Welfare State

by Michael B. Katz

For Michael B. Katz, the term "welfare state" describes the intricate web of government programs, employer-provided benefits, and semiprivate organizations intended to promote economic security and to guarantee the basic necessities of life for all food, shelter, medical care, protection in childhood, and support in old age. In this updated edition of his seminal work The Price of Citizenship , Katz traces the evolution of the welfare state from colonial relief programs through the war on poverty and into our own age, marked by the "end of welfare as we know it."

Katz argues that in the last decades, three great forces—a ferocious war on dependence, which has singled out the most vulnerable; the devolution of authority within both government and the private sector; and the application of market models to social policy—have permeated all aspects of the social contract. The Price of Citizenship shows how these changes have propelled America toward a future of increased inequality and decreased security as individuals compete for success in an open market with ever fewer protections against misfortune, power, and greed. A new chapter, written for this edition, explains how these trends continue in the post-9/11 era and how the response to Hurricane Katrina exposed the weaknesses of America's social safety net.

Offering grounds for modest optimism, the new chapter also points to countervailing trends that may modify and even partially reverse the effects of recent welfare history.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

528 pages, Paperback

First published April 17, 2001

Reviews

[CTEP]

This month I decided to read Michael Katz’s The Price of Citizenship. In the book Katz explores the need to redefine the American welfare system. Katz, who is a historian of American social welfare, put in years of research in order to write an in depth book that analyzes the developments of the American welfare system and how it has changed and evolved for those living in poverty. The book takes the reader through a multitude of historical events during and following World War l. He sets out to prove that the American welfare state has changed significantly from once being a sense of security and has now turned into a social injustice.

At its beginning in the 1920’s, the United States’ welfare system was put in place in the anticipation of economic stability and a form of protection from unpredictable risks. Katz describes the welfare state as: “a collection of programs designed to assure economic security to all citizens by guaranteeing the fundamental necessities of life: food, shelter, medical care, protection in childhood, and support in old age”. In the early stages of the welfare state it was positively viewed because it was looked at as economic security and a source of dependence for Americans.

A sudden shift occurred during the Truman era in the 1950’s. The welfare state began to strictly focus its services on single mothers and African Americans who were unable to care for their children. Katz states, “By the 1960’s this meaning of welfare and the welfare state had changed completely. No longer understood to protect everyone against risk, “welfare” had become a code word for public assistance given mainly to unmarried mothers, mostly young women of color, under aid to families with dependent children”. This caused a spilt between the “undeserving poor” who received welfare and the “deserving poor” who received social insurance, such as health care and social security. Katz argues that this is unfair; he passionately believes that the recent welfare change has caused a social injustice between the underprivileged and the upper class. He goes on in the book to explain how all American citizens deserve the right to social welfare because they do not always have control over factors such as disability and prejudice against race which are factors that can get in the way of finding a job. Katz states that a weak economy cannot be the sole reason for why jobs are unobtainable for people especially in the inner cities. He says that jobs will be consistently hard to find because of factors such as location, transportation, skill requirements, and racial preferences in hiring. In other words, it’s the economic structure that is hindering the disparity between the wealthy and poor.

I found this book to be very compelling. It’s obvious from the very start that Katz has a lot of knowledge of the welfare state. I enjoyed the way the book was written. Katz did a great job of starting from the very beginning of the welfare state while progressing to the present. He also presented both sides of the argument surrounding welfare. I would highly recommend this book!

[Mark Isaak]

Katz gives a detailed investigation of almost all U.S. programs that would be considered "welfare", including Social Security, AFDC, unemployment insurance, and the rest. By design, he omits the large government handouts that go to the wealthy. (I would have liked to see at least a list of the most significant ones.) And unaccountably, there is no coverage of foster care. The main book follows the programs through 2000, and a 40-page addendum extends it to 2007. The coverage includes history back to the 19th century, description, politics and motivations which affected each program, and outcomes.

Three common themes emerge. First, the U.S. has been systematically reducing welfare since 1980 or so, with predicable results for the poor. Second, a great deal of welfare is tied to employment, including Earned Income Tax Credit and (until after this book was written) health insurance. The pervasive attitude, which has been pervasive for over a century, is that if you don't work, you are worthless. Third, poverty and race are closely linked, and not by accident. Some welfare programs have been designed to hurt racial minorities.

The book is not a hard read, but not easy either. Summaries and tables would have helped. It is not a happy read, either.

[Karen Smith]

Excellent job showing how our patchwork social welfare program came to be.