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The dilemma of American social welfare
Book Reviews
1601
complex, twenty-year quasi-experiment. In consideration of many potential threats to validity and alternative explanations, the authors provide a concise, bottom-line conclusion: "Although we lack the necessary information to reject them completely, our analyses of the available data converge to indicate that none of these alternatives can completely account for the differences in the cognitive functioning of subjects from Atole and from Fresco villages: the internal validity of the nutritional explanation is not compromised by these challenges" (p. 75). The remainder of this chapter is devoted to interpreting specific findings in detail, proposing a theoretical explanation of the biobehavioral mechanisms underlying the supplement effect, and identifying the policy implications. These sections are written as concisely and lucidly as the previous ones. In the final section, some of the issues discussed here are elaborated further in commentaries by Theodore Wachs and
Nevin Scrittishaw, with a response from the authors, which further adds to the value of this monograph. In conclusion, this is an important and well-written monograph whose findings deserve further scrutiny and follow-up by students and researchers, and serious consideration by planners and policy makers. The findings provide another justification, perhaps the most important one to-date, for investing in and viewing nutritional improvement as an instrument for human, social and economic development.
The Dilemma of American Social Welfare, by William M. Epstein. Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick, N. J. 1993, 241 pp. US$34.95 (cloth).
tradition more developed in the U.K. than in the U.S. However, in a now-familiar critique he argues that the profession continues to abandon the poor as it serves "its ambitions for greater professional status" (p. 64). "'Successful social work", writes Epstein, "does not imply helping people with their problems" (p. 97). The ongoing American obsession with welfare reform is addressed in Chapter four's discussion of the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program. As in other chapters, the author critiques attempts to evaluate income-maintenance programs to arrive at the conclusion that "the misleading research disguises the depth of social need in the United States" (p. 137). Juvenile delinquency and drug abuse are discussed in the fifth chapter. Chapter 6 concludes the book with a discussion of the problems of a social scientific enterprise that concludes, incorrectly according to Epstein, that cheap solutions help. He links the faith in these evaluative studies to American liberalism's belief in "the Pygmalian myth, the belief that the trip out of a cockney underclass involves little more than the good wishes, charity, and avuncular lessons of an effusive and benign wisdom: a few hours, a few dollars, and discipline" (p. 191). The criticisms of the welfare state presented in this book are not particularly new. There is an impressive literature now which shows that dependency and other problems are created by the forms of social services that have evolved in most industrialized nations. Epstein's focus on the evaluation research is an interesting and very useful point of entry into this discussion. He does not spend enough time, however, explicitly outlining the constraints on evaluation research. Epstein's references to the role of university research and government funding programs are not subjected to the same kinds of scrutiny that he applies to the studies he criticizes, l am sympathetic to the position taken by Epstein but the tone of his writing makes me wonder how seriously it will be taken by the people he is criticizing. If his reasoning is correct, it is those in the business of evaluation that he needs to convince. The book, used in conjunction with the outcome studies criticized by Epstein, will be a very useful addition to a class on evaluation research.
This is a timely book given current debates about the utility of social policies in the United States. Critics from both the left and right question whether or not welfare (in the broadest sense) services help Other the individual recipients or society as a whole. Epstein enters the debate by arguing that there have been no definitive studies which evaluate the outcomes produced by the social services. His analysis thus focusses on the social science which purports to evaluate the social services rather than the services themselves, although they too are open to criticism. He argues that "the public is not being exposed to arguments for broad-based, that is, structural solution to its problems" because social scientists "tacitly [accept] the implausibility of structural solutions and the intractability of current problems ... These stakes have resulted in misleading and patently inaccurate claims of program effectiveness" (p. 4) based on poorly designed and implemented evaluation studies. Throughout the book, Epstein reviews outcomes studies, themselves often reviews of previous studies. Epstein is particularly critical of the notion of social efficiency and attacks outcome studies which he sees work to promote the "myth of social efficiency" (p. 13). After an introductory chapter where he reviews the state of the social service industry in the U.S. and lays out his position, Chapter 1 turns to a detailed consideration of the role of social science scholarship in the evaluation of social services, pointing to methodological problems which plague most outcome studies (e.g., small or convenience-based samples). He claims that "Science's communal process of doubt and challenge has not extended to the social services" and that social services scholarship lacks scientific rigor and thus "invites damaging comparisons with the sideshows of American pseudosciences" (e.g., quackery and bogus cures) (p. 38). The second chapter critiques psychotherapeutics and its evaluative studies. An indication of Epstein's assessment of psychotherapy is found in this sentence: "[Psychotherapy] competes in the open market of personal improvement regimens with numerology, body building, religion, and bowling" (p. 61). Social work is the subject of Chapter 3. Although Epstein makes much of social work's links with psychotherapy he does acknowledge that there is a tradition of structural explanations in social science scholarship, a
David L. Pelletier
Cornell Food and Nutrition Policy Program Division of Nutritional Sciences Cornell University Ithaca, N Y 14853, U.S.A.
Department of Geography The Pennsylvania State University University Park, PA 16802, U.S.A.
Glenda Laws
1601
complex, twenty-year quasi-experiment. In consideration of many potential threats to validity and alternative explanations, the authors provide a concise, bottom-line conclusion: "Although we lack the necessary information to reject them completely, our analyses of the available data converge to indicate that none of these alternatives can completely account for the differences in the cognitive functioning of subjects from Atole and from Fresco villages: the internal validity of the nutritional explanation is not compromised by these challenges" (p. 75). The remainder of this chapter is devoted to interpreting specific findings in detail, proposing a theoretical explanation of the biobehavioral mechanisms underlying the supplement effect, and identifying the policy implications. These sections are written as concisely and lucidly as the previous ones. In the final section, some of the issues discussed here are elaborated further in commentaries by Theodore Wachs and
Nevin Scrittishaw, with a response from the authors, which further adds to the value of this monograph. In conclusion, this is an important and well-written monograph whose findings deserve further scrutiny and follow-up by students and researchers, and serious consideration by planners and policy makers. The findings provide another justification, perhaps the most important one to-date, for investing in and viewing nutritional improvement as an instrument for human, social and economic development.
The Dilemma of American Social Welfare, by William M. Epstein. Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick, N. J. 1993, 241 pp. US$34.95 (cloth).
tradition more developed in the U.K. than in the U.S. However, in a now-familiar critique he argues that the profession continues to abandon the poor as it serves "its ambitions for greater professional status" (p. 64). "'Successful social work", writes Epstein, "does not imply helping people with their problems" (p. 97). The ongoing American obsession with welfare reform is addressed in Chapter four's discussion of the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program. As in other chapters, the author critiques attempts to evaluate income-maintenance programs to arrive at the conclusion that "the misleading research disguises the depth of social need in the United States" (p. 137). Juvenile delinquency and drug abuse are discussed in the fifth chapter. Chapter 6 concludes the book with a discussion of the problems of a social scientific enterprise that concludes, incorrectly according to Epstein, that cheap solutions help. He links the faith in these evaluative studies to American liberalism's belief in "the Pygmalian myth, the belief that the trip out of a cockney underclass involves little more than the good wishes, charity, and avuncular lessons of an effusive and benign wisdom: a few hours, a few dollars, and discipline" (p. 191). The criticisms of the welfare state presented in this book are not particularly new. There is an impressive literature now which shows that dependency and other problems are created by the forms of social services that have evolved in most industrialized nations. Epstein's focus on the evaluation research is an interesting and very useful point of entry into this discussion. He does not spend enough time, however, explicitly outlining the constraints on evaluation research. Epstein's references to the role of university research and government funding programs are not subjected to the same kinds of scrutiny that he applies to the studies he criticizes, l am sympathetic to the position taken by Epstein but the tone of his writing makes me wonder how seriously it will be taken by the people he is criticizing. If his reasoning is correct, it is those in the business of evaluation that he needs to convince. The book, used in conjunction with the outcome studies criticized by Epstein, will be a very useful addition to a class on evaluation research.
This is a timely book given current debates about the utility of social policies in the United States. Critics from both the left and right question whether or not welfare (in the broadest sense) services help Other the individual recipients or society as a whole. Epstein enters the debate by arguing that there have been no definitive studies which evaluate the outcomes produced by the social services. His analysis thus focusses on the social science which purports to evaluate the social services rather than the services themselves, although they too are open to criticism. He argues that "the public is not being exposed to arguments for broad-based, that is, structural solution to its problems" because social scientists "tacitly [accept] the implausibility of structural solutions and the intractability of current problems ... These stakes have resulted in misleading and patently inaccurate claims of program effectiveness" (p. 4) based on poorly designed and implemented evaluation studies. Throughout the book, Epstein reviews outcomes studies, themselves often reviews of previous studies. Epstein is particularly critical of the notion of social efficiency and attacks outcome studies which he sees work to promote the "myth of social efficiency" (p. 13). After an introductory chapter where he reviews the state of the social service industry in the U.S. and lays out his position, Chapter 1 turns to a detailed consideration of the role of social science scholarship in the evaluation of social services, pointing to methodological problems which plague most outcome studies (e.g., small or convenience-based samples). He claims that "Science's communal process of doubt and challenge has not extended to the social services" and that social services scholarship lacks scientific rigor and thus "invites damaging comparisons with the sideshows of American pseudosciences" (e.g., quackery and bogus cures) (p. 38). The second chapter critiques psychotherapeutics and its evaluative studies. An indication of Epstein's assessment of psychotherapy is found in this sentence: "[Psychotherapy] competes in the open market of personal improvement regimens with numerology, body building, religion, and bowling" (p. 61). Social work is the subject of Chapter 3. Although Epstein makes much of social work's links with psychotherapy he does acknowledge that there is a tradition of structural explanations in social science scholarship, a
David L. Pelletier
Cornell Food and Nutrition Policy Program Division of Nutritional Sciences Cornell University Ithaca, N Y 14853, U.S.A.
Department of Geography The Pennsylvania State University University Park, PA 16802, U.S.A.
Glenda Laws