Class 2: Structure of the welfare state- underlying logic and values Flashcards
Structural contexts: Social problems and policy responses
As Russell suggests- welfare state development is directly related to the structural contexts surrounding social problems
- Historical background
- Technological stage of development
- Socioeconomic system
Social theory and ideology: How do we understand social problems
We develop our understanding influenced by
- Philosophical and religious thought
- Russell traces how medieval Christianity influenced western thought and became secularized or in some cases, disassociated from the religious doctrine while maintaining the core beliefs
- Secularized: Not just religious anymore
- Belief systems affect how you think aside from that
From the medieval to the modern
Feudalism
- (Change in belief, not just change in order)
- The collapse of this system, ushering in of the modern era
- Represents a radical transformation of the ordering of society
These are changing structures and beliefs taking place over several hundred years
We care about this because this history influences the kinds of institutions Americans choose to develop
- Pull from what they learned in their home countries
The Role of the Medieval Church
(Catholic Church= “Medieval Church”)
Church looms as primary
Accepted rules/laws governed the behavior of
- Serfs (most people were serfs)
- Nobleman
- The monarchy
- The church; “subsistence economy” (Wants just what’s necessary to survive)
Protestant reformation begins to challenge the primary of the Catholic church beginning in the early 1500s to the mid 1600s
Protestant Reformation
In the mid 16th century, corruption in the Catholic church spurs Martin Luther, a professor priest, to translate the bible into German so commoners could read it
- This was revolutionary
- Before this, you needed to go to the church to get it read to you
In the same time period, Calvin, a French Catholic theologian began agitating for change, moving about the European countryside
Myriad Forces
There were many influences that aided in the movement from medieval structures to those in the 17th and 18th century
- Merchant, guilds and tradesmen begin to amass wealth and demand more freedoms
Keep in mind, successful colonies were established in America as early as 1607
Who are these early Americans?
Keep in mind, the marked upheaval in Europe and the disintegration of old systems make America particularly attractive to
- Displaced laborers; Indentured servitude (6-12 years, then free)
- The landless (it was virtually impossible for a commoner to gain access to land in England)
- The religious who felt persecuted
- English poor who could enter indentured servitude to gain passage to America; laws governed to treatment of indentured servants in the colonies
Early Worldview
Though many early Americans were fleeing strictures in England
- They only new the system from which they came and would begin to develop familiar institutions here
- “Poor Law” traditions (direct borrow from English Poor law), settlement rules, tithing (aka taxing); overtime, however, a uniquely American system would develop
These early settlers where loyal to the crown and required the protection of a world power to provide security
Early Market Economy
Movement to a more market based economy absent the weighty history or obligations that evolved in Europe based on centuries of feudal history
- Europes monarch/feudal history isn’t their history in the New World (Amer.); Modern conception: ‘classless country’
Americans could access land
- (Freedom to the economic order)
- (Increasing ability to work land= Increasing quality of a democracy)
- Farms become individual units of production
- Families produced goods, traded and earned money in a way that would have been impossible in England
- This sows the seeds for the American revolution
The American Enlightenment and Revolution
Beyond Tea and Taxes
The idea of natural rights
- Government was only legitimate if it had the will of the people
- The idea of divided government to provide checks and balances against power grabs; Forsaking the idea of monarchy- Divided govt instead
- The rejection of monarchy and oligarchy
Struggle, from the inception of the nation, for the democratic ideal
Our idea of what we are isn’t what we actually do
July 5, 1852 (76 years after independence) - Frederick Douglas’ speech “What to the Slave is the 4th of July”
- Slavery
- Women’s suffrage
The importance of land: How it is acquired and caused to be new Americans
An incredible thirst for land is an important story as these new Americans
- Believed it to be God’s plan, “manifest destiny” that they should acquired land, rid the country of it’s native inhabitants; Manifest destiny: American expansion/It’s God’s will for this to happen
- As they would never be saved and reside in God’s grace and would not adopt a worldview predicated on ownership of property
The importance of land: How it is acquired and caused to be productive
The wholesale importation of slaves, regarded as chattel, to provide the economic engine for agricultural production
Slavery is instituted in the constitution and upheld by the judiciary through the 19th century
What is the “take-away” from our history tour?
Access to land and a more open economic structure allowed for a purer operation of market principles among a broader segment of the population than elsewhere
- Time period in which Adam Smith was writing is important
No history of “noblesse oblige”; the responsibilities of moneyed, privileged class toward “lessers”
The particular strength of Puritanism among colonists
- Total depravity, the concept of Original Sin (Most extreme religious activists)
- Predestination, God “saves” those he wishes
The ramification of “original sin”
- Suggest that man is depraved at the core and must be disciplined to resist this inherent evil
The ramification of “predestination”
- Suggest that one’s fate is already decided
If one believes deeply in these tenets then it follows logically that systems developed with this guiding logic would
- Be punitive toward those who need in order to provide the needed discipline for “goodness”; Hurting you by helping you/religious background
- Be somewhat useless since the fate of one’s soul has already been determined; Help is useless
Given our history of claiming independence from a world of power
- Deep, historical fear of an over-reaching central government; Concern about overarching govt presence
- Limited experience with and fear of large, government initiatives; we developed our social welfare programs much later than our industrialized Western counterparts; It took the Depression and the widespread civil unrest of the 1960s to get the Social Security Act and Great Society programs (the next burst was in the 1960s with medicare and social security because of the Great Society
Concern that “promoting the general welfare” should not involve any redistribution as this a denial of rights of the “haves” and bad for the “have nots”
- Hurting those you take from and who you’re giving it to
Arguments about social welfare programs “doing more harm than good” have been with us since the inception of the nation
Concerns about the harm of welfare state provision
Benjamin Franklin was quite concerned about the adoption of English Poor Law traditions in early America (he thought giving to the poor was making them lazy)
