MSW-6002 V1

Congress. (n.d.). The Legislative process: Overview [Video]. Congress.gov.
This website and video provide you with an overview of the legislative process directly from the Congressional webpage. This is a good refresher since your high school civics course.

Katz, B. (2008). The American welfare state. History in Focus.
This author is one of our experts on American social welfare policy. In this brief article, he describes the different divisions of social welfare policies and the purpose of these divisions. Make sure you pay attention to the differences between social insurance and public assistance. This is a topic we will address many times throughout the course.

Katz, M. B. (2010). The American welfare state and social contract in hard times. Journal of Policy History: JPH, 22(4), 508-529.
In this second article by Katz, he discusses how well the social welfare system can respond to economic downturns such as a recession that disproportionately hits those who are already in need. Spoiler alert – not very well!

Moffitt, R. A. (2015). The deserving poor, the family, and the US welfare system. Demography, 52(3), 729–749.
A subject that is addressed in this week’s lecture (and throughout the course) is the distinction between the ‘deserving’ and ‘underserving’ poor as reflected in our social welfare policies. In this article, Moffitt discusses how the distribution of welfare dollars continues to reflect this antiquated and simplistic view.

For your learning activity this week, you are encouraged to play LawCraft. In LawCraft, choose a district to represent in the House of Representatives. Review constituent letters and survey data to select an important issue. Then, craft your bill and navigate the law-making process, making necessary compromises to pass it through the House and Senate while creating a law you’re proud of.