Models for Analysis of Social Policy


Book Description

This book traces the historical development of social policy analysis, emphasizing the factors that promoted its development, the need for social policy analysis, and the fields of application for social policy analysis.




A Rights-Based Approach to Social Policy Analysis


Book Description

This brief resource sets out a rights-based framework for policy analysis that allows social workers to enhance their long-term vision as well as their current practice. It introduces the emerging P.A.N.E. (Participation, Accountability, Non-discrimination, Equity) model for evaluating social policy, comparing it with the traditional needs-based charity model in terms of not only effectiveness and efficiency but also inclusion and justice. Recognized standards for human rights are used to identify values crucial to informing policy goals. Exercises, key documents, and an extended example illustrate both the processes of creating empowering social policy and its best and most meaningful outcomes. Included in the coverage: Rights-based and needs-based approaches to social policy analysis. Regional and international human rights instruments. Grounding social policies in legal and institutional frameworks. Conceptualizing social issues from a human rights frame. Measuring progress on the realization of human rights. Rights-based analysis of maternity, paternity, and parental leaves in the United States. For social workers and social work researchers, A Rights-Based Approach to Social Policy Analysis gives readers a modern platform for achieving the highest goals of the field. It also makes a worthwhile class text for social work programs. ​




Analyzing Social Policy


Book Description

From formulation to implementation, an approach to the analysis of social policy through the lens of research Analyzing Social Policy prepares professionals and students to make better informed decisions related to identifying and understanding the intricacies and potential impact of social policymaking and enactment on their organization as well as their individual responsibilities, goals, and objectives. Authors Mary Katherine O'Connor and F. Ellen Netting thoroughly examine various approaches to the analysis of social policies and how these approaches provide the knowledge, multiple perspectives, and other resources to understand and grasp the nuances of social policy in all its complexity. Comprehensive and based on research, Analyzing Social Policy explores: An overview of the practice of social policy analysis The role of research in guiding policy analysis The idea of policy analyses as research Themes, assumptions, and major theories that undergird rational models of policy analysis Nonrational themes, assumptions, and major theories informing nontraditional interpretive and critical approaches to policy analysis Strategies for applying selected models and approaches when engaging in policy analysis as research Providing practitioners and students with a set of tools that can be used to enhance an understanding of what constitutes policy as well as acceptable standards for critical analysis of policy, this resource enables policy advocates—regardless of their level—to be political, strategic, and critical in their work.







Improving Information for Social Policy Decisions -- The Uses of Microsimulation Modeling


Book Description

This book reviews the uses and abuses of microsimulation models--large, complex models that produce estimates of the effects on program costs and who would gain and who would lose from proposed changes in government policies ranging from health care to welfare to taxes. Volume 1 is designed to guide future investment in modeling and analysis capability on the part of government agencies that produce policy estimates. It will inform congressional and executive decision makers about the strengths and weaknesses of models and estimates and will interest social scientists in the potential of microsimulation techniques for basic and applied research as well as policy uses. The book concludes that a "second revolution" is needed to improve the quality of microsimulation and other policy analysis models and the estimates they produce, with a special emphasis on systematic validation of models and communication of validation results to decision makers.




Improving Information for Social Policy Decisions -- The Uses of Microsimulation Modeling


Book Description

This book reviews the uses and abuses of microsimulation modelsâ€"large, complex models that produce estimates of the effects on program costs and who would gain and who would lose from proposed changes in government policies ranging from health care to welfare to taxes. Volume 1 is designed to guide future investment in modeling and analysis capability on the part of government agencies that produce policy estimates. It will inform congressional and executive decision makers about the strengths and weaknesses of models and estimates and will interest social scientists in the potential of microsimulation techniques for basic and applied research as well as policy uses. The book concludes that a "second revolution" is needed to improve the quality of microsimulation and other policy analysis models and the estimates they produce, with a special emphasis on systematic validation of models and communication of validation results to decision makers.




Theory and Practice in Policy Analysis


Book Description

Many books instruct readers on how to use the tools of policy analysis. This book is different. Its primary focus is on helping readers to look critically at the strengths, limitations, and the underlying assumptions analysts make when they use standard tools or problem framings. Using examples, many of which involve issues in science and technology, the book exposes readers to some of the critical issues of taste, professional responsibility, ethics, and values that are associated with policy analysis and research. Topics covered include policy problems formulated in terms of utility maximization such as benefit-cost, decision, and multi-attribute analysis, issues in the valuation of intangibles, uncertainty in policy analysis, selected topics in risk analysis and communication, limitations and alternatives to the paradigm of utility maximization, issues in behavioral decision theory, issues related to organizations and multiple agents, and selected topics in policy advice and policy analysis for government.




Social Policy and Social Programs


Book Description

This popular and practical text explores the basics of social policy and program analysis, including how to design new programs or evaluate and improve upon existing ones. Highlights of the Fourth Edition Provides students with the criteria for judging the effectiveness of current programs, enabling them to apply what they've learned to improve existing programs or to create new ones. Features a model chapter that uses child welfare legislation to highlight methods of analysis and the results of the analysis, demonstrating for students the practical applications of theoretical concepts (Chapter 10). Outlines a method for analyzing personal social services generally provided by social workers, such as counseling and therapeutic, supportive assistance, as well as "hard benefits," such as food stamps, cash, or housing vouchers. What Reviewers Think: ""I found the text easy to follow...and practical in its identification of skills and information useful for practitioners in a variety of professional settings."" Carla M. Curtis, Ohio State University ""Social Policy and Social Programs provides a simple and concise model for analyzing social policies."" William E. Buffum, Barry University Don't Miss These Other Special Value Pack Option: Research Navigator(TM) "Research Navigator(TM)" can be a student's best friend when they're facing a large research project. Especially helpful with the toughest challenge--getting started--"Research Navigator(TM)" offers a comprehensive, step-by-step walk-through of the research process, along with access to some of the most respected source databases available. Access to "Research Navigator(TM)"--a $15 value--is FREE when packaged with a new Allyn & Bacon Social Work textbook! If this text did not come packaged with "Research Navigator(TM)," look for it in your bookstore or visit http: //www.researchnavigator.com today to purchase immediate access. Career Center Allyn & Bacon's "Career Center" offers registered students eight 30-minute sessions with a career specialist. This $25.00 retail value is FREE when packaged with any Social Work textbook. For more information visit www.ablongman.com/careercenter or contact your local Allyn & Bacon representative. Contact your local Allyn & Bacon representative and request a special packaging code to take advantage of these great offers.




Social Welfare Policy Analysis and Choices


Book Description

Social Welfare Policy Analysis and Choices gives you a thorough introduction to social welfare policy analysis. The knowledge you’ll gain from its pages will enable you to understand and evaluate individual policy issues and choices by exploring the possible choices, the effects and implications of each alternative choice, and the factors that influence each choice. Social Welfare Policy Analysis and Choices provides frameworks for making basic social policy choices and applying them to specific instances. You’ll find its depth of insight into the larger framework in which social policy decisions are made--beliefs, values, and interests--and its historical perspective on current “new” issues unique and invaluable. The book’s approach is to develop a framework for looking at the underlying issues, ideologies, social and economic forces, culture, and institutionalized inequalities that are constant within this changing mass. Specifically, Social Welfare Policy Analysis and Choices provides frameworks for looking at beliefs about: human nature the nature of society ways of thinking values and the moral and ethical implications of those values roots of those values in religion, culture, historical traditions, myths, and rationalized self-interests The insight offered in Social Welfare Policy Analysis and Choices will allow you to determine your own positioning; understand for strategic purposes what direction opponents, potential allies, and others are coming from; and develop a priorities perspective to guide compromises when the optimum policy is not attainable.




The Handbook of Social Policy


Book Description

Comprises 33 papers grouped under five themes: The Nature of social policy; The History of social policy; Social policy and the social services; The Political economy of social policy; and International and future perspectives on social policy.