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Comparing Social Policies: Some Problems of Method and the Case of Social Security Benefits in Australia, Britain and the USA*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2009

Helen Bolderson
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Abstract

The cross-national works of development sociologists and of political scientists have sought to disentangle some of the determinants of welfare, whereas studies in comparative social policy have been mainly evaluative. These have laid themselves open to charges of being, variously, a-theoretical, unsystematic and narrowly focused on the state sector. However, a case is made here for the continuation of such studies with a clear focus on social policy rather than the mixed economy of welfare, using more explicit evaluative criteria and a range of methods. A small comparative study of social security benefit levels in Australia, Britain and the USA is used as an illustration of the potential in this approach and the problems of method involved.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 17 , Issue 3 , July 1988 , pp. 267 - 288
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

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