![Social Democratic America](/assets/artwork/1x1-42817eea7ade52607a760cbee00d1495.gif)
![Social Democratic America](/assets/artwork/1x1-42817eea7ade52607a760cbee00d1495.gif)
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Social Democratic America
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- 28,99 €
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- 28,99 €
Descrizione dell’editore
Despite our nation's great affluence, too many Americans can't make ends meet. Too many have no health insurance or inadequate insurance. Too few have seen their boat lifted when the economic tide rises. We all know that this is wrong. Social Democratic America explains how we can do better. Lane Kenworthy convincingly argues that we can improve economic security, expand opportunity, and ensure rising living standards for all by moving toward social democracy. In a good society, Kenworthy asserts, when the country prospers, everyone should prosper. But since the late 1970s, even as the economy boomed, relatively little of that growth has reached households in the middle and below. The only entity that can repair this trend, he notes, is the government. Kenworthy proposes a set of social programs, including universal health care, universal early education, wage insurance, the government as employer of last resort, and many others. He also looks at common objections to social democracy, such as the oft-repeated claim that Americans don't want big government, which he readily debunks. Moreover, the available evidence suggests that rich nations can generate the tax revenues needed to pay for generous social programs, while maintaining an innovative and growing economy, and without restricting liberty. Indeed, we already have in place a host of social programs, ranging from Social Security to Medicare, unemployment insurance, and Obamacare. Clearly, the good society doesn't require a radical break from our past. We just need to continue in the direction we are heading. Drawing on his unparalleled knowledge of social policy, Kenworthy shows that the US continues to progress slowly but steadily toward a genuine social democracy. Kenworthy will attract a firestorm of criticism from some quarters, but even the most passionate doubters will have to take stock of his powerful and well-substantiated arguments.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this well-argued and fact-driven treatise, Kenworthy (Progress for the Poor), a professor of political science and sociology at the University of Arizona, makes a convincing argument for government-sponsored social programs. "Social programs," he claims, "provide economic security, enhance opportunity, and ensure rising living standards." Citing the familiar (Social Security, Medicare) as well as the less-obvious (public schools and affirmative action), Kenworthy argues that "social policy is actually public insurance" against the risks of a capitalist economy. He defines social democracy as the "commitment to extensive use of government policy to promote economic security, expand opportunity, and ensure rising living standards," while "facilitating freedom, flexibility, and market dynamism," and points to the Nordic countries as a model for how America can balance "flexibility and security, competition and social justice." Indeed, he contends that American social policy has always moved towards this end, beginning with the New Deal in the 1930s, and that despite the extreme divisiveness in government today, the progress will continue as Americans reap the benefits. This is a reasonable, worthwhile addition to the national debate over government's role in social policy. 51 b&w illus.