ABSTRACT
The American welfare state is exceptional in many respects. Social welfare policies were enacted much later in the US than in other industrialized democracies, and on a much smaller scale. National insurance programmes are held in high esteem, and are politically sacrosanct, as President Reagan discovered after suggesting that it might be necessary to curtail increased spending for Old Age, Survivors, Disability and Health Insurance (OASDHI) in order to reduce the deficit of the national government. The ineffectiveness of assistance in combating poverty is almost certainly not a result of poor or improper targeting. The political invulnerability of social insurance programmes in general, and social security in particular, stems from the size and mobilization of their clientele. The unwillingness of state and local policy-makers to commit a substantial share of resources to public assistance programmes seems to confirm the opinion of those who assert that redistribution must be accomplished by a central authority.
