Social work in the context of the US welfare system

The US has long been considered the only major industrialised country in the world with a residual social welfare system. The US welfare system relies on means testing for many of its major income maintenance and food aid programmes, so individual Americans must usually be poor to receive government assistance. Levels of social expenditure are low relative to national GDP and are volatile, with conservative politicians taking away what liberal elected officials are able to bestow when power shifts to Republicans from Democrats. The 2011 debate at local, state and national levels regarding cutting spending rather than raising taxes from historic low levels is one indication of the power of conservatives in American politics, as exemplified by Republicans winning control of the House of Representatives in the elections in 2010.

Jansson (2005) describes some of the contextual factors that explain the US ‘reluctance’ to embrace a welfare state. He emphasises the US belief that providing charity encourages idleness and dependency, that social problems will yield to simple programmatic solutions, that everyone has equal chances to succeed, that free markets are the best way to solve many problems of inequality and poverty and, indeed, that a certain amount of inequality is a positive thing. In addition, he argues that the division of programmatic financial responsibility into state-run and national government-run programmes, with both relying on private, non-profit organisations for implementation, has created a confusing lack of responsibility for aiding people in need. Jansson further notes the presence of racism and prejudice, which affect responses to solving social problems, many of which are seen as connected to failures on the part of people of colour and minority status.

Within this context of contest and debate, Blau and Abramovitz (2004) argue that the social work profession is also an arena of struggle, with clashes between those who work to change individuals (containment orientation) and those who work to change society (change orientation). The social work profession has strains of both traditions still living within its current structures and culture. Two primary historical patterns exist, the more individually oriented and conservative Charity Organization Society (COS) movement and the more reform-oriented liberal-leaning Settlement House Movement.