American policy making : welfare as ritual
Epstein contends that the social sciences script fables of cure, prevention and rehabilitation that falsely testify to the feasibility of inexpensive and culturally compatible solutions to deep social problems. This is an unsentimental analysis of American social policy making.
xx, 247 pages ; 24 cm
9780742517325, 9780742517332, 0742517322, 0742517330
47623869
Part 1 Introduction Part 2 Preface Part 3 Acknowledgments Chapter 4 1 Political Theory, Ideology, and Social Welfare Chapter 5 2 The Willow World of Virtue: Rationality and Effectiveness in the Personal Social Services Chapter 6 3 The American Ethos 1: Two Civil Religions Chapter 7 4 The American Ethos 2: America Speaks - The Polls and Policy Choice Chapter 8 5 The American Ethos 3: Social Welfare Services as Rituals of the Civil Religion Chapter 9 6 Two Romances: The Enlightenment and the Anti-Enlightenment Chapter 10 7 Science, Limited Science, and Scientism Chapter 11 8 Hiding from the Jacobins Part 12 References Part 13 Afterword