Work Welfare and Poverty final

Welfare eligibility is contingent upon

Being part of a narrowly defined category.

Three components of welfare state according to Howard

1 Upper tier (universal, relatively generous entitlements like Social Security) 2. Lower tier (means-tested, relatively stingy benefits) 3. tax expenditures (mainly benefit the affluent but some benefits for poor)

What is a qualifying child and how does it relate to EITC eligibility?

1) A son/daugter, stepchild, foster child, brother, sister, step brother/step niece/nephew 2) Must live with the individual for the majority of the year 3) The more qualifying children that an individual has, the greater the EITC benefit.

What are the specific reasons that Soss think AFDC participants are less likely to participate in politics

1) AFDC recipients had to divulge personal info and were frequently threatened with termination 2) AFDC is not a rule based institution like SSDI 3) AFDC recipients view government as directive, therefore their role in it would be small 4) AFDC recipients don't believe that government officials will listen to them 5) AFDC recipients have high internal efficacy but low external efficacy

Three components of welfare state according to Hacker

1) Direct gov benefits, 2) hidden welfare state, 3) private benefits subsidized by the government.

What attributes of submerged state policies helped them to overcome partisan differences and institutional gridlock?

1) Republicans and conservative Democrats consider the submerged state a good vehicle for policymaking 2) Democrats have proven willing to go along 3) institutional features of Congress make it difficult to enact direct spending programs 4) interest groups that benefit from submerged state fiercely defend the benefits

What are the characteristics of path dependent process?

1) Self-reinforcing process 2) first mover advantage 3) inertia.

Under what circumstances is welfare state retrenchment more likely

1) When a party has electoral slack 2) moments of budgetary crisis 3) when you can lower the visibility of the change 4) when it can be reframed in a more positive, less polarizing light.

Hacker's critique of Pierson

Pierson's scope of inquiry was too narrow. He focuses primarily on formal revisions and does not account for drift and layering and etc.

Example of policy feedback

AARP was pretty weak prior to passage of Medicare. Lot of people didn't know the details of Medicare but wanted to find out. AARP provided the information for a fee. AARP became stronger which helped Medicare get stronger and this helped AARP become stronger.

What effects did ERISA have on private pensions

Accelerated the rise of defined contribution plans at the cost of defined benefit plans and contributed to the general fall in pension generosity.

Types of social constructions

Advantaged (powerful and positively constructed--great ability to directly influence the legislative process), contenders (powerful and negatively constructed--great ability to indirectly influence the legislative process), dependents (weak and positive constructed--receives symbolic benefits mainly), deviants (weak and negatively constructed--popular subject of punishment)

What are the sources of market failure in healthcare

Agency, moral hazard, adverse selection.

How did ERISA pre-empt state regulations of self-insured health plans influence the development of private health care benefits

Allowed firms to self-insure to circumvent state taxes and regulations so they became more sensitive to cost increases which encouraged cost saving measures. This led to discriminatory hiring practices and leaves high risk people without insurance or only public assistance.

What is the destructive logic of competitive insurance

As medical costs rise, businesses will try to minimize the expense of health benefits.

Distinction between submerged state and hidden welfare state

Benefits of submerged states are so well-hidden that many beneficiaries don't even recognize that they are benefitting from government intervention. Example of submerged state = home mortgage interest deduction. According to Mettler, beneficiaries do not even know they are benefitting. Howard's hidden welfare state concept alleges that beneficiaries are fully aware they are benefitting from government intervention and petition the government to take a stake in their financial well-being.

Compare private welfare benefits with public welfare benefits

Both are entrenched because of policy feedback.

What according to Lawrence, Stoker, and Wolman distinguishes how liberals/democrats and conservatives/republicans think about social policy

Conservative Republicans practice weak universalism even though they are far more likely than liberals to use group heuristics. Democrats practice strong univesalism

What are the four models of government that Soss considers?

Democratic, Capitalist, Complicated, and Autonomous. Anagram to remember: Soss Dissects Comprehensive Core Assumptions.

Identify and explain the four modes of policy change included in Hacker's article

Drift (transformation of stable policy due to changing circumstances), conversion (internal revision of existing policy), layering (building new policy without eliminating the old), and revision (formal reform of standard policy)

Name two refundable federal income tax credits

Earned income tax credits and additional tax credits

What possible explanations for white opposition to welfare did Gilens consider

Economic self-interest, individualist beliefs, party identification, ideology, and attitudes toward the poor.

What are the types of tax expenditures?

Exclusions, deductions, exemptions, credits, preferential rates.

What did ERISA not do

Expand Medicaid and encourage the selling of group plans

The Earned Income Tax Credit excludes childless single people from receiving benefits. True or false

False. Eligibility for EITC is not conditioned upon having a child

Power resources school

Fundamental basis for the welfare state is the power of the working class.

Revisionist school

Fundamental basis for welfare state is not redistribution but demand for insurance that cuts across all class lines.

What is the submerged state?

Government policy hidden beneath the surface of market institutions in the form of subsidies or similar devices for the sake of the public good. It benefits mostly the affluent in ways that are often unrecognizable

Hacker's writing on policy feedback

He argues that changes in public policy can result in changes in politics in a symbiotic, positive feedback loop.

List and explain four reasons why affluent people are more likely to receive more benefits from the hidden welfare state.

Higher marginal tax rates increase the value of tax increases, affluent people are more likely to have jobs that provide benefits through the hidden welfare state, affluent people have money to purchase goods favored by the hidden welfare state, affluent people can hire agents to assure they receive their benefits

Pierson's writing on policy feedback

Interest groups are the most important actors in politics. Remember the AARP example.

The shift from defined benefit plans to defined contribution plans has had what impact for people who change jobs frequently.

It has been good for people who change jobs frequently.

What were the explanations that Soss rejected

Lack of political skills, passivity syndrome, and social provision explanation (welfare tempers desire to make political demands).

Characteristics of Hacker's subterranean politics concept

Low visibility and low traceability and problems are depoliticized. This lends itself to a private welfare system which is broader than the hidden welfare state which includes tax expenditures and gov regulation. The private corporate benefits are for the affluent and organized. Regulation that imposes a high barrier to producer entry, encourages protectionism, or encourages redlining is an example of this.

Name and explain four provisions of the hidden welfare state.

Mortgage interest deduction, state and local property taxes deduction, pension income, and health income.

What are the forces that constrain welfare state retrenchment

Negativity bias (people will double down on a bad bet rather than folding) and policy feedback.

Eligibility conditions for EITC

Over 24 years old, must work and earn income, must be low income.

What is pension integration? According to Hacker, how did PI effect the development of pension policy?

Pension integration was supposed to reconcile the relationship between private and public pension through dollar for dollar offset program. Led to a two track system instead. Low income people only benefit from public pension programs like Social Security whereas high income people benefit from Social Security and private pension plans.

Hacker's argument as to why path dependency is self-reinforcing

People adjust their expectations and lives to reflection the expectations. For example, people will change spending behavior because they expect to receive Social Security benefits and Medicare and etc.

What is a group centric policy evaluation?

People evaluate a policy based off of who it is targeting.

Politics of retrenchment

Political goals of policymakers are different since politicians try to avoid blame for reducing benefits rather than spearheading new initiatives and changes in political context have benefitted advocates of retrenchment

Soss' explanation for non-participation

Political learning explanation--welfare programs shape poor people's behaviors.

Subterranean politics

Political realm in which it is difficult to assign blame or credit or even trace benefits. This allows market transactions to appear as if they happen in a vacuum free of government influence.

In what ways is US social policy exceptional according to Hacker

Private sector plays a very large role in social policy

Contrast private welfare benefits with public welfare benefits

Public benefits are a lot more visible and a lot less generous.

Agency

Refers to a problem in the relationship between patients and physicians.

What are tax expenditures and which are the most costly?

Tax expenditures are revenue losses that result from provisions of the income tax code that reduce or defer tax liability and some examples are the housing interest mortgage deduction, charitable deductions, and the earned income tax credit. The most costly is the employee health care exemption and then the housing interest mortgage deduction.

Although it does not create a negative tax liability, how does child tax credit help middle income families to reduce their federal income tax burden

The child tax credit reduces the amount owed in taxes 1000 per a child

What are the characteristics of welfare and who gets welfare

Welfare is defined as a set of social policies and programs that specifically target their assistance to people on the basis of need. The characteristics of these programs include redistribution of income, joint financing by state and federal government, and state and local administration.

How does social construction of targets influence public policy?

The social construction and political power of the target population will determine the elements of a policy design

How are advantaged groups likely to participate in politics?

They follow conventional patterns of participation, though they are more likely to vote and campaign

Weak universalism

Universal policy designs are favored over policies that target groups with negative social constructions.

Did ERISA encourage employers to self-insure

Yes. Self-insuring became a good good cost saving measure

Does Mettler argue that submerged state policies activate interest groups through policy feedback effects

Yes. She thinks interest groups mobilize to protect the policies that benefit them.

According to class readings, state and local tax burdens tend to be regressive but

states and localities can enact policies to mitigate the regressive qualities.