Academic literature on the topic 'Social Security Administration (1953-1979)'

A study by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) found that whilst the income of the poorest tenth of society fell by 18 per cent in real terms between 1979 and 1992 (after housing costs), their expenditure rose by 14 per cent. In a separate report on changes in individuals' incomes over time, the IFS found significant movement in and out of the poorest sections of society between 1991 and 1992. The latest edition ofHouseholds Below Average Incomeshowed that real net income rose by an average of 38 per cent (after housing costs) between 1979 and 1992/93, but fell by 17 per cent for the bottom tenth of the population (24:3/95,1.1). The narrowing of the gap in the north–south divide has halted, but a report on the geography of poverty explores many other divisions between and within areas of the UK. The report of the Commission headed by Lord Dahrendorf called for a new investment strategy and benefits structure, as well as measurement of social and environmental conditions as part of an annual audit of ‘wealth’. Tony Blair, the Labour Party leader, promised a fundamental review of the social security system once in power.

Regional considerations have played little if any part in the development of social security policies in the United Kingdom. The spatial concentration of present social security expenditure is purely incidental and occurs simply as a result of the clustering of social security beneficiaries in particular areas. Nevertheless, by affecting regional aggregate demand these spatial transfers act to lessen the growth of regional disparities. In this paper the pattern of spatial transfers effected by social security benefits in the period 1979/80–1985/86 is described, with particular reference to transfers across the so-called north–south divide. Although not all benefits cause the transfer of resources in the same geographical direction, in 1985/86 social security transfers to the north exceeded those associated with formal regional policies.

This article examines how Frieda Miller and Esther Peterson, two influential directors of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Women’s Bureau after World War II, revived and continued the alternative view of public administration through a combination of primary and secondary sources. Miller, who served as director from 1944 through 1953, reestablished a social justice–centered view of public administration through the creation of a special advisory committee and the institution of a new agenda that stressed equality over economic security. Peterson, who served from 1961 through 1964, quickly moved the Women’s Bureau into a political network with women’s labor leaders and the John F. Kennedy presidential administration, helping to create the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women (PCSW) and to enact a federal Equal Pay Act.

In November, the Secretary of State for Social Security announced that benefits would be uprated in line with inflation in April 1995. However, since 1979, there has been a widening gap between the incomes of poor and wealthier households (94—24/2—1.1). A report from the Social Policy Research Unit (SPRU) highlights government failure to uprate benefits in line with earnings as contributing to this growing inequality. Figures produced by the Government Statistical Service on the estimated take-up of incomerelated benefits for 1992 claim that more than four out of five of those eligible claim some £9 out of £10 of the available cash. The figures for family credit show a steady increase in take-up from 57 per cent of the caseload in 1988–9 to 66 per cent in 1991–2. Income support figures suggest that the take-up is now between 77 and 87 per cent.

ABSTRACTSince the election of the Thatcher Government in 1979, public expenditure on the welfare state has undergone a series of changes. The nature of change has, however, often been obscured by the use of inadequate and misleading statistical data. This paper presents a systematic examination of public expenditure on education, health care, housing and social security over the period 1979/80 to 1984/85. It shows that, contrary to much political rhetoric, the major changes in the welfare state have not always arisen from reductions in programme expenditures, but from changes in the composition of expenditure. It is the latter that has often increased economic inequality and can be legitimately referred to as ‘restructuring’.

Dan Carpenter's massive new study of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is a definitive study of regulatory politics and administrative behavior destined to stand alongside other classic studies of administrative agencies, such as Herbert Kaufman's The Forest Ranger (1960) or Martha Derthick's Policy Making for Social Security (1979). Like Carpenter's earlier work, Reputation and Power is marked by deep erudition, thorough scholarship, painstaking attention to detail, and a wide-ranging attention to alternative disciplinary paradigms. And it is argued with great craft, subtlety, and creativity both in developing its historical narrative and in its cogent theoretical analysis.

We offer a theory of intertemporal bureaucratic decision making which proposes that an agency's forecast optimism is related to the extent to which it discounts future reputation costs associated with bureaucratic incompetence. Agency forecasts of the distant future are more likely to be optimistic than short-term forecasts. We claim that unstable organizations will discount reputation costs at a steeper rate than stable organizations, and therefore will produce more optimistic forecasts. We test our theory using macroeconomic forecasts produced by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Social Security Administration (SSA) across six forecast horizons from 1979 to 2003. The statistical results are generally consistent with our theory: OMB generates more optimistic long-term forecasts than SSA. Further, differences in forecast optimism between these executive branch agencies widen as the forecast horizon increases. Our evidence suggests that more stable agencies place a premium on minimizing reputation costs. Conversely, less stable agencies are more likely to accommodate political pressures for forecast optimism. These findings underscore the importance of institutional design for understanding how executive agencies balance the conflicting goals of political responsiveness and bureaucratic competence within the administrative state.

This paper summarizes the changes brought about in French administrative law by a law of 1979 imposing on administrative authorities a broad duty to give reasons for their decisions. Traditionally, the state of the law had been that, failing a specific statutory requirement, administrative authorities were under no obligation to provide reasons. This, however, had not prevented the Conseil d'État from reviewing administrative action — even of a clearly discretionary nature — for unlawfulness or impropriety of motives. The new law is aimed at improving communications between administrative authorities and the public. It reverses the former rule for three broad classes of decisions concerning individual cases : those having an unfavourable effect on rights and interests, those allowing for more favourable treatment than is provided under a rule of general application, and those made by social security and unemployment assistance agencies. Alleviation or disregard of the new rule is allowed in cases of emergency, where confidentiality or secrecy is required by law, or where, no decision being made in a prescribed time, a negative decision is deemed to have been rendered. Guidelines for the implementation of the new law have been issued by the Prime Minister to all Ministers; the latter have in turn issued more detailed instructions to decision-making officers in their departments. Further guidance will have to come from the administrative courts when they are called upon to review decisions for insufficiency or impropriety of reasons. Ultimately, however, achievement of the goal of improving the quality of intercourse between citizens and administrative authorities will require the development of a more open and trustful relationship between them.

Purpose Lower Indus Basin (LIB) region is the food basket of Pakistan, and climatic variation in response to global warming might severely affect the crop production and, thus, food security and ultimately to the economy of the country. Design/methodology/approach The authors analyzed the previous climatic factors data series of LIB region to investigate the past and present climatic trends and to predict the future changes. Climatic changes were monitored by studying temperature, rainfall and relative humidity (RH) dynamics at two locations (Lahore and Multan) of the LIB region, Pakistan, by using data from 1953 to 2006. The data were divided into two equal halves (1953-1979 and 1980-2006) and statistically compared for the aforementioned weather parameters. Findings The results suggested that mean minimum temperature (MMT) and overall mean temperature in winter were significantly increased, whereas few summer months had also experienced the reduction in both temperatures. However, few minor changes were also observed for the mean maximum temperature at both locations. The rainfall amount did not vary significantly at both locations, with the exception for the months of February and June at Lahore location, which experienced relatively higher rainfall in latter period (1980-2006). However, morning and evening RH was significantly increased at Multan throughout the year and for some selected months (February-March and May-July) at Lahore. However, the comparison of climatic data of both temporal halves suggested either dryer weather during winter months because of increase in MMT and/or increase in area under irrigated agriculture, resulting in more evaporation at both locations. Similarly, the data also indicated the early monsoon rainfall patterns in summer and late western depression rainfall spell during winter, which played key role to affect the crop yield because of irregular rain events. Research limitations/implications The current manuscript would be very useful for the disaster management authorities and agriculture sector to predict the future irregular trends of climate change in Pakistan. Moreover, current findings can be important tool toward the management of climatic changes issues (i.e. floods and dryer spells) and to formulate the future strategies for the improved crop growth in arid and/or semi-arid developing nations such as Pakistan. Originality/value The current manuscript, for the very first time, provided detailed insights into key climatic factors changes for past seven decades, into the severely climate change-affected areas of the world. Furthermore, agricultural sector is likely to be severely affected because of minor seasonal change in temperature and moisture, and have a strong food security impact, which can be reflected with current data set to cope with both ecological and economic impacts of climate change in Pakistan. The current findings would be useful to manage the climate change-related issues in Pakistan, including the social, environmental and economic.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
In the early 1950s, President Dwight Eisenhower encouraged citizens to “Wake Up! Sign Up! Look Up!” to the Soviet atomic threat by joining the Ground Observer Corps (GOC). Established by the United States Air Force (USAF), the GOC involved civilian volunteers surveying the skies for Soviet aircraft via watchtowers, alerting the Air Force if they suspected threatening aircraft. This thesis examines the 1950s response to the longstanding problem posed by the invention of any new weapon: how to adapt defensive technology to meet the potential threat. In the case of the early Cold War period, the GOC was the USAF’s best, albeit faulty, defense option against a weapon that did not discriminate between soldiers and citizens and rendered traditional ground troops useless. After the Korean War, Air Force officials promoted the GOC for its espousal of volunteerism and individualism. Encouraged to take ownership of the program, observers appropriated the GOC for their personal and community needs, comprised of social gatherings and policing activities, thus greatly expanding the USAF’s original objectives.

Stassen’s immediate reaction when President Eisenhower offered him the post of director of mutual security was to be thrilled. His reaction was in keeping with the exuberance he had displayed after Eisenhower’s nomination as the Republican candidate for president. He predicted that Eisenhower would be a great president and even praised Senator Taft as a “great man and a great American.” He also cited his former rival, California governor Earl Warren, as worthy of his admiration. During Stassen’s confirmation hearings, Wayne Morse (I-OR) was only senator to sound a sour note. He accused Stassen of taking distinctly contradictory positions on whether US foreign aid would be used to put political pressure on the beneficiaries. At one time, Stassen had stated that aid should be withheld from “socialistic” countries. Morse was referring to the British Labour Party’s nationalization of the steel industry. Stassen responded by asserting that he would be faithful to Eisenhower’s statement in his inaugural address that the United States would never use its “strength to impress upon another people our own cherished political and social institutions.” Morse was not impressed, but he eventually joined his colleagues in approving Stassen’s appointment.