Rethinking Social Policy: Race, Poverty, and the Underclass

By Christopher Jencks

Book Overview

In a fervent appeal for clearer thinking on social issues, Christopher Jencks reexamines the way Americans think about race, poverty, crime, heredity, welfare, and the underclass. Arguing that neither liberal nor conservative ideas about these issues withstand close scrutiny, he calls for less emphasis on political principles and more attention to specific programs. Jencks describes how welfare policy was dominated in the early 1980s by conservatives who promoted ideas that justified cutting back sharply on the social programs of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society. They believed that a period of sustained economic growth, with low taxes and free markets, would do more to help poor people than coddling them with government assistance. Despite the economic expansion of the later Reagan years, however, the problems of persistent poverty grew even more serious. The liberals took the initiative in the late 1980s, but their proposals failed to win broad popular support. With clarity and a gift for apt analogy, Jencks analyzes influential books on such subjects as affirmative action (Thomas Sowell), the "safety net" (Charles Murray), the effects of heredity on learning and propensity to commit crime (James Q. Wilson and Richard Herrnstein), ghetto culture and the underclass (William J. Wilson). His intention throughout is "to unbundle the empirical and moral assumptions that traditional ideologies tie together, making the reader's picture of the world more complicated"--in other words, to force us (readers and policymakers) to look at the way various remedial plans actually succeed or fail. For example, he believes that until we transform AFDC so that it reinforces rather than subverts American ideals about work and marriage, efforts to build a humane welfare state will never succeed. Other prescriptions, initially surprising and sometimes shocking, show demonstrable good sense once they are examined. As the author says, "If this book encourages readers to think about social policy more concretely, it will have served its primary purpose."

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0674766784
• ISBN13: 9780674766785
• Release Date: February 1992
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.1" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

What Jencks really says

One of the previous reviewers completely misrepresents Jencks' views. In fact, she seems to confuse his arguments with those he is criticizing, such as Charles Murray in "Losing Ground." Here are some points from Jencks, related to Murray's argument. Murray says the War on Poverty "created more poor people." However, the poor didn't begin to do badly in the 1960s, as a result of Great Society programs. Net poverty declined almost as fast from 1965 to 1980 as from 1950 to 1965. For example: 1. The proportion living below the poverty line was almost twice as high in 1965 than in 1980, and almost 3 times as high in 1950 than in 1980. 2. The decline in poverty rate from 1965 to 1980 occurred despite highly unfavorable economic conditions and depended on gov't efforts to help the poor. Improvement did slow down between 1965 and 1980, but so did the economy as a whole. 3. The beneficiaries were precisely those whom legislators had intended to help: the aged and disabled. Those whom the legislators did not want to help--poor women of color-- did not benefit. See the poverty rate of persons over 65 compared to families headed by a woman (Table 2.1, p. 73). It's a great book. Dispassionate, clear, apolitical.

thoughtful and thought-provoking

I buy this book for friends, assign it to my college students, and read it again every now and then for fun. Does social policy seem overwhelming - the domain of "experts" rather than ordinary people? By following the author's thoughtful analysis of complex issues, the reader cannot help but acquire critical thinking skills. Those skills can be put to good use in other contexts such as voting, evaluating news accounts, etc. Furthermore, the reader will learn interesting new things about topics covered in the book. Most highly recommended