The Public Welfare Movement and Democracy

With the development of the public welfare departments in cities, in counties and in states, so characteristic of the last few years, the question arises as to whether these public agencies are making any contribution to American democracy. These movements, representing an attempt to introduce methods of modern philanthropic work into official agencies, are looked upon by some people as dangerous and futile; by others as full of promise for the future of constructive social work. Our concern in this paper is not with the merits of that quarrel, although the question we are raising is related to it. In my study of modern philanthropic movements I endeavored to show that modern philanthropy tends to give more control to the people, in matters affecting the care of the disadvantaged, chiefly through its educational propaganda on the perils to democracy of social maladjustments, through its introduction of approved methods of rehabilitating the down and out and through the advancement of constructive social efforts to prevent family and individual disaster. This study is confined to the relation of public welfare departments to democracy

Aesthetics · Art · Democracy · Economics · Movement (music · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Public economics · Public welfare · Sociology · Welfare · Law · Social Work Education and Practice

• The Invention of “Welfare” in America

  Open Access•Michael B Katz, Lorrin Thomas et al.•Journal of Policy History•1998

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