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Before the US began creating a federally based welfare state in the 1930s, most publicly funded responses to social problems had an institutional basis. The ways in which welfare programs initiated fifty years ago have influenced institutional trends, & are likely to continue to do so, are examined using previous survey research. Four special problem groups are assessed from a historical perspective: (1) the dependent aged & the movement from local almshouses & state insane asylums to nursing homes; (2) the mentally ill & the movement from state hospitals to a variety of local medical & nonmedical residences; (3) the developmentally disabled -- formerly the mentally retarded -- & the movement from state schools to private community residential facilities; & (4) the dependent/neglected & delinquent youth & the movement away from orphan asylums & training schools to group homes, treatment centers, adolescent psychiatric units, halfway houses, & outdoor camps. Recent trends & projections, as well as present & future policy issues, are assessed. 4 Tables. HA

Before America began creating a federally based welfare state in the 1930s, most publicly funded responses to social problems had an institutional bias. The ways in which the welfare programs initiated 50 years ago have helped to influence institutional trends, and are likely to continue doing so in the future, constitute the major focus of this analysis. Four special problem groups are assessed from a historical perspective: (1) the dependent aged and the movement from local almshouses and state insane asylums to nursing homes; (2) the mentally ill and the movement from state hospitals to a variety of local medical and nonmedical residences; (3) the developmentally disabled—formerly the mentally retarded—and the movement from state schools to private community residential facilities; and (4) the dependent/neglected and delinquent youth and the movement away from orphan asylums and training schools to group homes, treatment centers, adolescent psychiatric units, halfway houses, and outdoor camps. Recent trends and projections, as well as present and future policy issues, are assessed.

This study was undertaken to examine child welfare policies in terms of their relative emphases on protective or preventive measures, and it set out to determine whether, in general, protective policies enhance or reduce the impact of preventive policies or vice versa. There are great contradictions implicit in governments attempting simultaneously to pursue protective and preventive policies. Protection is used, in this report, to mean the rescue or supervision of a child from adverse family circumstances by compulsory government intervention, while prevention is used to refer to the summoning of an appropriate range of services on a non-compulsory basis, to reinforce and enhance the caring capacity of the family for the child.

China in the 1980s is in the midst of a social revolution as far-reaching as either land reform or the early years of the cultural revolution. The egalitarian ideals and collective solutions of the Maoist era have disappeared, and in their place is an ideology that validates individual rather than group goals, and private rather than public solutions. The article addresses the apparent contradiction of increasing welfare inequality during years of declining income inequality, arguing that the negative impact of decollectivization on social welfare programmes is the logical outcome of (1) specific principles behind Chinese welfare policies since 1950 and (2) a generally disadvantaged position for all welfare organizations in centrally planned economies. (DÜI-Sen)