Welfare for the Wealthy

Parties, Social Spending, and Inequality in the United States

Christopher G. Faricy

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781107101012
• eBook ISBN: 9781316355459
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: American Government
• Index: Politics & International Relations

How does political party control determine changes to social policy, and by extension, influence inequality in America? Conventional theories show that Democratic control of the federal government produces more social expenditures and less inequality. Welfare for the Wealthy re-examines this relationship by evaluating how political party power results in changes to both public social spending and subsidies for private welfare - and how a trade-off between the two, in turn, affects income inequality. Christopher Faricy finds that both Democrats and Republicans have increased social spending over the last forty-two years. And while both political parties increase federal social spending, Democrats and Republicans differ in how they spend federal money, which socioeconomic groups benefit, and the resulting consequences for income inequality.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Acknowledgments
• 1 The Politics of Social Policy in America
• 2 The Partisan Politics of the Divided U.S. Social Welfare State
• 3 Political Parties and Public Social Spending: Testing the Conventional Wisdom
• 4 Government Subsidies and the Private American Social System: The Special Case of Tax Expenditures
• 5 A Republican Welfare State?
• 6 The Modality of Social Spending and Income Inequality in America
• 7 The Implications of the Divided American Welfare State
• References
• Index