Rethinking the Welfare State

<p><em>Rethinking the Welfare State </em>offers a comprehensive and comparative analysis of social welfare policy in an international context with a particular emphasis on the US and Canada.<br><br>The authors investigate the claim that a decentralized delivery of government supported goods and services enables policy objectives to be achieved in a more innovative and efficient way but at a lower cost. Secondly they examine the effectiveness of the voucher system as a solution to problematic welfare concerns. While this system has shown much promise in improving welfare there have been problems for institutions unable to attract enough voucher-assisted consumers to ensure their survival.<br><br>In this context the authors examine major social programmes such as food stamps primary and secondary education post-secondary education labour market training childcare healthcare legal aid low-income housing long-term care and pensions.</p>