Recent Trends in U.S. Social Welfare Policy

Many scholars have characterized the United States as a welfare state “laggard,” less generous than most other nations because of a peculiarly American set of historical circumstances and values. This article explores “American exceptionalism” in the context of welfare state reforms over the past two decades. The authors first describe recent social policy innovations in Western democracies, considering two competing views of welfare state change. The first asserts that welfare states have been fundamentally transformed into “enabling” states, characterized by efforts to promote work, privatize benefits and services, and target benefits to the most needy. The second holds that policy structures have remained essentially intact because of “path-dependent” processes that create institutional continuity. Although evidence for the United States is somewhat mixed, the general direction of policy decisions and current frameworks of policy debates is consistent with a transition toward an enabling state.