Poverty of Disability Households and Antipoverty Policies in the United States and Korea

This study compares the income of households with a disabled member to that of households without a disabled member in the U.S. and Korea using secondary analyses. It also compares the income of different subgroups by the types, number, and onsets of disabilities. Finally, it examines the effects on poverty of various income sources, including means-tested cash benefits for disability households.     

Public Policy,Economic Inequality,and Poverty: The United States in Comparative Perspective*

Objective. This article compares recent levels and trends in economic inequality in industrialized nations, largely those belonging to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. We also examine the effects of government policies and social spending efforts on inequality. Method. We use data from the Luxembourg Income Study and the U.S. Congressional Budget Office to measure disposable money income on an annual basis for 30 nations around the end of the 20th century. We also convert the incomes of a set of rich nations into real 2000 U.S. dollars, using a standard measure of purchasing power parity to examine absolute differences in income inequality. Results. The United States has the highest overall level of inequality of any rich OECD nation at the beginning of the 21st century. Moreover, increases in the dispersion of total household income in the United States have been as large as, or larger than, those experienced elsewhere between 1979 and 2002. Government policies and social spending have lesser effects in the United States than in any other rich nation, and both low spending and low wages have a great impact on the final income distribution, especially among the nonelderly. Conclusion. We speculate on the role policy plays in the final determination of income inequality. We argue that these differences cannot be explained by demography (single parents, immigrants, elders) but are more likely to be attributed to American institutions and lack of spending effort on behalf of low‐income working families.     

Health Care Fraud and Industry Structure in the United States

The cost of health care fraud and abuse is enormous. Not only is it costing us a lot of money but one wonders how many more people could afford and receive medical insurance if fraud and abuse were significantly lower. This paper will show that the problem is embedded in the way America does health business. The problem needs to be better addressed by both the criminal justice community and the health care industry. Most importantly, those making the health care industry policy decisions need to make a paradigm shift. The system is out of balance because of past policies and decisions that have given excessive power and liberty to the medical services community and insurance providers. Using O’Toole's Compass Card of the four major ideas that have influenced political decision‐making as a guide, this paper recommends that current decision‐making needs to strengthen the equality and community poles and restrict the liberty and efficiency poles so that more balance might exist within the American health care system. Talcott Parsons saw the dangers of commercializing health care over half a century ago. The health care scene of today shows that he was correct in his appraisal.     

Obamacare and the Politics of Universal Health Insurance Coverage in the United States

In the USA, universal coverage has long been a key objective of liberal reformers. Yet, despite the enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) (commonly known as ‘Obamacare’) in 2010, the USA is not set to provide health care coverage to all, even if and when that reform is fully implemented. This article explores this issue by asking the following question: Why was a clear commitment to universal coverage, the norm in other industrialized countries, excluded as a core objective of the PPACA and how has post‐enactment politics at both the federal and the state level further shaped coverage issues? The analysis traces the issue of universal coverage prior to the debate over the PPACA, during the 2008 presidential race, and during consideration of the bill. The article then looks at the post‐enactment politics of coverage, with a particular focus on how states have responded to the planned use of the Medicaid programme to expand access to care. The article concludes by discussing how an explanation of the limits of the PPACA, in terms of both its commitment to universal coverage and, more importantly, the failure to provide comprehensive health insurance to all, requires an understanding of complex institutional and policy dynamics.     

Leadership,politics, and administrative reform at the United States Section of the International Boundary and Water Commission,United States and Mexico

This paper draws on theories of leadership to explain administrative problems at the United States Section of the International Boundary and Water Commission, United States and Mexico that led the U.S. President, in an unprecedented action, to remove the U.S. Section's Commissioner in 2005. The analysis proceeds from a detailed review of the history and organizational features of the U.S. Section. While popular accounts of the U.S. Section's leadership difficulties invoke an endogenous explanation of leadership failure emphasizing leadership traits and skills, we argue that this explanation should be coupled with an exogenous explanation for leadership failure. Focusing on the U.S. Section's altered administrative environment since the late-1980s, the paper argues that heightened politicization associated with its changing operational environment and mission increased the structural risks of executive failure. The paper concludes by reflecting on the theoretical and practical lessons learned from the U.S. Section's post-2000 administrative difficulties.     

Women,Health and Housing Assistance: Implications in an Emerging Era of Housing Provision

Women and the households that they head are over‐represented among the most economically and socially disadvantaged households in Australia. Recent changes in the provision of housing assistance for low income households in Australia have distinct implications for women and this paper examines the implications of these changes. Shifting the emphasis in housing assistance away from publicly provided and rent‐controlled housing to direct subsidisation of rents for private tenants has important, largely negative, consequences for the health, affordability and security of housing for many women. This situation is made worse given the current housing affordability crisis in Australia; a crisis that extends across all private housing tenures.     

Educational Policy, Politics, and Mixed Heritage Students in the United States

This article describes local, state, and federal policies related to collecting, aggregating, and reporting data on student race and ethnicity in U.S. K-12 and postsecondary education. It traces data policy from the 1997 decision by the Office of Management and Budget to change from single-race reporting to a format that permits respondents to choose more than one race, to the October 2007 issuance of final guidance from the Department of Education. Taking a K-20 perspective, I consider how policies for data collection and reporting may affect educational and developmental outcomes for students, as well as local, state, and national education policy environments.     

Approaches to Homelessness Policy in Europe, the United States, and Australia

Workable and effective policies addressing homelessness need to be based on a clear definition of homelessness. This overview of recent policies in the European Union, the U.S., and Australia shows that, even at the very basic level of being able to define and enumerate the homeless, policy approaches are extremely variable. Research indicates the growing significance of the "new homeless," consisting of families, women, and children. Homelessness also needs to be seen as something dynamic that may involve movement into and out of housing and other supports over time. Older policies that address only limited kinds of homelessness and which do not recognize the dynamics involved are likely to be less effective. "Good practice" policy incorporates these changing understandings of homelessness by addressing the housing, psychological and social needs of the homeless, as well as integrating across programs and increasing independence through capacity building .     

Housing as Health Capital: How Health Trajectories and Housing Paths Are Linked

This article explores the relationships between housing and health inequalities. It locates housing within a network of health resources that can either promote well-being or increase susceptibility to disease. Housing thereby contributes to the accumulation, or depletion, of the health capital of individuals and communities. Qualitative interviews in three British regions help specify the links between health capital, on the one hand, and the network of resources, environments, events, institutions, and social relations comprising the housing system, on the other. The findings show why, from a health capital/health-resources-network perspective, a segment of the housing system (owner-occupation) that generally appears therapeutic can have the opposite effect for people whose resilience is low or whose health is in decline .     

美国区域研究的起源、性质和挑战

A .坦斯曼 (AlanTansman ,加利福尼亚大学伯克利分校东亚语言文学系教授 )指出 ,区域研究是一种翻译 ,是“一种谋求通过一个跨学科的透镜来了解、分析和阐释外国文化的事业”。“了解、分析和阐释”另一种文化———无论对一名想了解中国的美国人来说 ,还是对一名想了解印度的安哥拉人来说———都不可避免地要翻译。这首先要求外来者努力理解另一种社会和文化的假设、含义、结构和动态 ;但也为他们创造了机会 ,去扩展 ,甚至挑战他们对自己的社会和文化的理解。“跨文化的透镜”是不可或缺的 ,因为任何单一的学科都无法充分地理解另一种社…     

Growing Pains of a New Health Care Field: Genetic Counselling in Australia and the United States

The growing pains of genetic counselling in Australia and the United States are compared. Genetic counselling is discussed in terms of occupational struggles for status by the non-medical professionals and the effect this has on the balance between counselling and medical goals in this new health care field. The influence of medical team members vis-a-vis non-medical personnel is viewed as being stronger in Australia than in the United States.     

中、英、德、美四国制造业环境保护分析与比较

制造业是一个国家发展和强大的基石,是经济高速增长的强大动力来源,同时也是产生环境污染的主要部门,环境污染治理是制造业实现可持续发展的重要内容。英、德、关三国针对制造业的不同特点,在环境污染治理费支出、环境相关税收以及固体废物处置等方面采取了不同的措施。中国制造业必须走环境友好型的“新型制造业”发展道路,建立环境管理体系,实施清洁生产,以环境保护取胜,实现经济与环境的“双赢”。     

Chemical Accidents in the United States, 1990–1996

Objective. Much of the empirical work on environmental justice centers on the geographic distribution of potential chronic health risks (e.g., planned toxic releases or treatment storage and disposal facilities). Far less attention has been devoted to the geographic distribution of acute health risks that cause immediate harm. The purpose of this work is to examine environmental justice in terms of potential acute health risks by examining the distribution of serious chemical accidents across diverse subpopulations. Methods. We draw upon 1990 census data for the United States to study the relationship between the racial, ethnic, and economic characteristics of census block groups ( N = 226,398) and the presence or absence of chemical accidents that caused at least one injury, death, or evacuation for the time period of 1990–1996. The data used to map the location of the chemical accidents were obtained from the Environmental Protection Agency's Accidental Release Information Program (ARIP) database. Results. Our results indicate that the acute risk associated with chemical accidents at fixed facilities is greater for individuals living in low–income census block groups, especially when comparisons are made within the counties where the chemical accidents occur. Our results concerning race and ethnicity are less consistent and somewhat weaker. Conclusions. Although these results do not show large and dramatic effects, as have often been found in the study of the social distribution of chronic environmental risk, they do stand as one of a relatively few social analyses of social variation in exposure to acute environmental risk.     

The United States: welfare, work and development

It has long been claimed that social welfare programmes harm economic development. These programmes, it is alleged, depress work incentives, divert scarce investment resources to 'unproductive' social services and create a large underclass of dependent individuals. Welfare reform in the United States intends to reverse these allegedly negative economic effects by requiring welfare clients to work. It also hopes to reduce poverty. This article examines these claims. It discusses the welfare reform programme and concludes that its impact on both economic development and poverty has been minimal. Policies that transcend the current obsession with work, promote sustained economic development and invest in human capabilities are more likely to succeed.