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Helping the poor is a question central to American life. Partially driven by America's Judeo-Christian heritage, Americans believe we possess enough wealth to provide some minimum basic standard of living for all and genuinely desire to help the least among us. We are the most generous nation on earth, spending hundreds of billions of dollars annually through private giving, corporate philanthropy, government aid, and other forms of charity. And yet, despite these efforts, international and domestic poverty persist.

Cover Page -- Half-title Page -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication Page -- Contents -- Preface -- List of Acronyms -- Chapter 1: Introduction -- Chapter 2: The Development of Reform -- Chapter 3: The Politics of Reform -- Chapter 4: Implementing Work Requirements -- Chapter 5: Local Variations -- Chapter 6: The Emergence of W-2 -- Chapter 7: Implementing W-2 -- Chapter 8: Paternalism -- Chapter 9: The Decline of Welfare -- Chapter 10: The Effects of Reform -- Chapter 11: Welfare Reform and Good Government -- Chapter 12: Origins of Excellence -- Chapter 13: Implications -- Notes -- Index.

If government tells dependent people how to live today, will we have a more self-reliant society tomorrow? That's the critical question as government increasingly seeks to supervise the lives of poor citizens who are dependent on it, often in return for supporting them. This trend is most visible in welfare policy, where "welfare reform" largely means attempts to require adults receiving assistance to work or stay in school in return for aid. However, it can also be seen in policy toward the homeless, where shelters increasingly set rules for their residents; in education, where states have instituted tougher standards for children; and in drug programs that test addicts for compliance. The drift in antipoverty policy is toward paternalism--the close supervision of the dependent. Paternalism has been a major trend in social policy for the past decade, and it has support from the public. But it has received little attention from researchers and policy analysts--until now. The New Paternalism opens up a serious discussion of supervisory methods in antipoverty policy. The book assembles noted policy experts to examine whether programs that set standards for their clients and supervise them closely are better able to help them than traditional programs that leave clients free to live as they please. Separate chapters discuss programs to promote work in welfare, prevent teen pregnancy, improve fathers' payment of child support, shelter homeless men in New York City, deter drug addiction, and improve the education of the disadvantaged. Cross-cutting chapters address the management of paternalism, the psychological needs of poor adults, and the tension between paternalism and American politics. The authors consider both sides of the debate over this controversial issue. Several chapters address the sensitive question of whether government or private

Political science is in decline because it has become too focused on methodological precision, has lost contact with public policy, and recruits only among academics. To become more vital and relevant, it must use a wider range of methods, recover a voice on policy issues, and expect much more government experience from its recruits.

AbstractImplementation research supports impact evaluation by determining how programs have been carried out prior to evaluation, studying what internal features explain high and low performance in a program, and exploring possible new applications of a program model. Permission to interview staff and data availability may limit opportunities for implementation research. Evaluation cannot succeed alone but only as part of a broader process of governmental learning that includes implementation research.