The Segregated Origins of Social Security

Mary Poole builds on the pioneering scholarship of Jill Quadagno, Barbara Nelson, Gwendolyn Mink, and Linda Gordon, contributing significantly to the debate regarding the role of race in the history of welfare state development. Poole uses a wealth of data from government sources to document step-by-step the evolution of the Social Security Act. She focuses her analysis on four programs created by the Social Security Act that she considers the most significant to U.S. welfare state development: Unemployment Insurance, Old Age Insurance, Aid to Dependent Children, and Old Age Assistance. Poole follows the evolution of those programs through an analysis of the actors involved in the policy development process and their attitudes regarding race. The data provide a rich foundation for her conclusion that the Social Security Act “embedded ... the idea that not all citizens are equal, nor are entitled to equal rights and protections” (p. 11). My research supports that conclusion— that welfare benefits, from the beginning, were based on a racial hierarchy that mirrored society at large. (Deborah E. Ward, The White Welfare State, 2005)

Aid to Families with Dependent Children · Government (linguistics · Political science · Politics · Poverty · Scholarship · Social policy · Social security · Social Security Act · Social Welfare · Sociology · State (computer science · Underclass · Welfare · Welfare reform · Welfare state · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics · Law · Public Administration