Analyses of Contemporary Welfare Reform Issues

Download Analyses of Contemporary Welfare Reform Issues PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 116 pages
Book Rating : 4.F/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Analyses of Contemporary Welfare Reform Issues by : Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs. Welfare Reform Policy Research Project

Download or read book Analyses of Contemporary Welfare Reform Issues written by Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs. Welfare Reform Policy Research Project and published by . This book was released on 1978 with total page 116 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Evaluating Welfare Reform

Download Evaluating Welfare Reform PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : National Academies Press
ISBN 13 : 0309184118
Total Pages : 159 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Evaluating Welfare Reform by : National Research Council

Download or read book Evaluating Welfare Reform written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 1999-11-04 with total page 159 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996 fundamentally changed the nation's social welfare system, replacing a federal entitlement program for low-income families, called Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), with state-administered block grants, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. PRWORA furthered a trend started earlier in the decade under so called "waiver" programs-state experiments with different types of AFDC rules-toward devolution of design and control of social welfare programs from the federal government to the states. The legislation imposed several new, major requirements on state use of federal welfare funds but otherwise freed states to reconfigure their programs as they want. The underlying goal of the legislation is to decrease dependence on welfare and increase the self-sufficiency of poor families in the United States. In summer 1998, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) asked the Committee on National Statistics of the National Research Council to convene a Panel on Data and Methods for Measuring the Effects of Changes in Social Welfare Programs. The panel's overall charge is to study and make recommendations on the best strategies for evaluating the effects of PRWORA and other welfare reforms and to make recommendations on data needs for conducting useful evaluations. This interim report presents the panel's initial conclusions and recommendations. Given the short length of time the panel has been in existence, this report necessarily treats many issues in much less depth than they will be treated in the final report. The report has an immediate short-run goal of providing DHHS-ASPE with recommendations regarding some of its current projects, particularly those recently funded to study "welfare leavers"-former welfare recipients who have left the welfare rolls as part of the recent decline in welfare caseloads.

Evaluating Welfare Reform in an Era of Transition

Download Evaluating Welfare Reform in an Era of Transition PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : National Academies Press
ISBN 13 : 0309171342
Total Pages : 267 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Evaluating Welfare Reform in an Era of Transition by : National Research Council

Download or read book Evaluating Welfare Reform in an Era of Transition written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2001-08-10 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reform of welfare is one of the nation's most contentious issues, with debate often driven more by politics than by facts and careful analysis. Evaluating Welfare Reform in an Era of Transition identifies the key policy questions for measuring whether our changing social welfare programs are working, reviews the available studies and research, and recommends the most effective ways to answer those questions. This book discusses the development of welfare policy, including the landmark 1996 federal law that devolved most of the responsibility for welfare policies and their implementation to the states. A thorough analysis of the available research leads to the identification of gaps in what is currently known about the effects of welfare reform. Evaluating Welfare Reform in an Era of Transition specifies what-and why-we need to know about the response of individual states to the federal overhaul of welfare and the effects of the many changes in the nation's welfare laws, policies, and practices. With a clear approach to a variety of issues, Evaluating Welfare Reform in an Era of Transition will be important to policy makers, welfare administrators, researchers, journalists, and advocates on all sides of the issue.

Evaluating Welfare Reform

Download Evaluating Welfare Reform PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : National Academies Press
ISBN 13 : 0309066492
Total Pages : 159 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (9 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Evaluating Welfare Reform by : National Research Council

Download or read book Evaluating Welfare Reform written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 1999-12-04 with total page 159 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996 fundamentally changed the nation's social welfare system, replacing a federal entitlement program for low-income families, called Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), with state-administered block grants, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. PRWORA furthered a trend started earlier in the decade under so called "waiver" programs-state experiments with different types of AFDC rules-toward devolution of design and control of social welfare programs from the federal government to the states. The legislation imposed several new, major requirements on state use of federal welfare funds but otherwise freed states to reconfigure their programs as they want. The underlying goal of the legislation is to decrease dependence on welfare and increase the self-sufficiency of poor families in the United States. In summer 1998, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) asked the Committee on National Statistics of the National Research Council to convene a Panel on Data and Methods for Measuring the Effects of Changes in Social Welfare Programs. The panel's overall charge is to study and make recommendations on the best strategies for evaluating the effects of PRWORA and other welfare reforms and to make recommendations on data needs for conducting useful evaluations. This interim report presents the panel's initial conclusions and recommendations. Given the short length of time the panel has been in existence, this report necessarily treats many issues in much less depth than they will be treated in the final report. The report has an immediate short-run goal of providing DHHS-ASPE with recommendations regarding some of its current projects, particularly those recently funded to study "welfare leavers"-former welfare recipients who have left the welfare rolls as part of the recent decline in welfare caseloads.

Race and the Politics of Welfare Reform

Download Race and the Politics of Welfare Reform PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Michigan Press
ISBN 13 : 0472025511
Total Pages : 391 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (72 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Race and the Politics of Welfare Reform by : Sanford F. Schram

Download or read book Race and the Politics of Welfare Reform written by Sanford F. Schram and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2010-03-10 with total page 391 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It's hard to imagine discussing welfare policy without discussing race, yet all too often this uncomfortable factor is avoided or simply ignored. Sometimes the relationship between welfare and race is treated as so self-evident as to need no further attention; equally often, race in the context of welfare is glossed over, lest it raise hard questions about racism in American society as a whole. Either way, ducking the issue misrepresents the facts and misleads the public and policy-makers alike. Many scholars have addressed specific aspects of this subject, but until now there has been no single integrated overview. Race and the Politics of Welfare Reform is designed to fill this need and provide a forum for a range of voices and perspectives that reaffirm the key role race has played--and continues to play--in our approach to poverty. The essays collected here offer a systematic, step-by-step approach to the issue. Part 1 traces the evolution of welfare from the 1930s to the sweeping Clinton-era reforms, providing a historical context within which to consider today's attitudes and strategies. Part 2 looks at media representation and public perception, observing, for instance, that although blacks accounted for only about one-third of America's poor from 1967 to 1992, they featured in nearly two-thirds of news stories on poverty, a bias inevitably reflected in public attitudes. Part 3 discusses public discourse, asking questions like "Whose voices get heard and why?" and "What does 'race' mean to different constituencies?" For although "old-fashioned" racism has been replaced by euphemism, many of the same underlying prejudices still drive welfare debates--and indeed are all the more pernicious for being unspoken. Part 4 examines policy choices and implementation, showing how even the best-intentioned reform often simply displaces institutional inequities to the individual level--bias exercised case by case but no less discriminatory in effect. Part 5 explores the effects of welfare reform and the implications of transferring policy-making to the states, where local politics and increasing use of referendum balloting introduce new, often unpredictable concerns. Finally, Frances Fox Piven's concluding commentary, "Why Welfare Is Racist," offers a provocative response to the views expressed in the pages that have gone before--intended not as a "last word" but rather as the opening argument in an ongoing, necessary, and newly envisioned national debate. Sanford Schram is Visiting Professor of Social Work and Social Research, Bryn Mawr Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research. Joe Soss teaches in the Department of Government at the Graduate school of Public Affairs, American University, Washington, D.C. Richard Fording is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science, University of Kentucky.

Investigating Welfare State Change

Download Investigating Welfare State Change PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Edward Elgar Pub
ISBN 13 : 9781847209894
Total Pages : 329 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (98 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Investigating Welfare State Change by : Nico A. Siegel

Download or read book Investigating Welfare State Change written by Nico A. Siegel and published by Edward Elgar Pub. This book was released on 2008 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'The welfare state is a catch-all term which covers a broad range of governmental interventions into social affairs. Over the past decades, social policy scholars have devoted tremendous efforts to analyze those factors that account for cross-national variation and energize the reform trajectories of advanced welfare states. By contrast, the dependent variable has received much less attention: This volume presents a systematic overview of the dependent variable problem in comparative welfare state research. By sketching different approaches on how to conceptualize and measure social policy change and by highlighting their genuine strengths and weaknesses, this volume should be on the bookshelf of everyone interested in comparative social policy research.' - Stephan Leibfried, University of Bremen, Germany Contemporary accounts of welfare state change have produced conflicting findings and incompatible theoretical explanations. to a large extent this is due to a 'dependent variable problem' within comparative research, whereby there is insufficient consideration of how to conceptualize, operationalize and measure change.

Social Welfare

Download Social Welfare PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Cengage Learning
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 344 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Social Welfare by : Andrew W. Dobelstein

Download or read book Social Welfare written by Andrew W. Dobelstein and published by Cengage Learning. This book was released on 2003 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This text offers a clear explanation of policy analysis. SOCIAL WELFARE: POLICY AND ANALYSIS, Third Edition, shows students how to apply the methods and processes of policy analysis to current American welfare programs. The description of welfare programs provides a basic introduction to the field and the explanations of how the programs have developed make them more understandable to social welfare students.

Flat Broke with Children

Download Flat Broke with Children PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780195176018
Total Pages : 308 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (76 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Flat Broke with Children by : Sharon Hays

Download or read book Flat Broke with Children written by Sharon Hays and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2004-11-04 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This text explores the impact of recent welfare reform on motherhood, marriage, and work in women's lives. It also focuses on what welfare reform reveals about work and family life, and its impact on us all.

The Policy-Based Profession

Download The Policy-Based Profession PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Pearson College Division
ISBN 13 : 9780205592364
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (923 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Policy-Based Profession by : Philip R. Popple

Download or read book The Policy-Based Profession written by Philip R. Popple and published by Pearson College Division. This book was released on 2007-08-20 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This social welfare policy text, written specifically for use within the field of social work, shows students the crucial connection between social policy and the everyday practice of social work. The Fourth Edition of "The Policy-Based Profession" provides students with a process for analyzing policies that will help them as they enter a career in social work. It offers a detailed foundation for policy analysis, including chapters on historical policy analysis, social/economic analysis, and political analysis. This text brings students up to date on the latest developments in welfare reform, mental health managed care, the campaign to restructure Social Security, reactions to current immigration issues, current threats to workers' pensions, program and policy responses to the problems of substance abuse, and the use of family preservation as an approach to child protection.

The Poverty of Welfare Reform

Download The Poverty of Welfare Reform PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780300064810
Total Pages : 196 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (648 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Poverty of Welfare Reform by : Joel F. Handler

Download or read book The Poverty of Welfare Reform written by Joel F. Handler and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 1995-01-01 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Once again, America is getting tough on welfare. Democrats and Republicans at both the national and state levels seem to have agreed that paying public funds to the poor--particularly to single mothers and their children--perpetuates dependency and undermines self-sufficiency and the work ethic. In this book Joel Handler, a national expert on welfare, points out the fallacies in the current proposals for welfare reform, arguing that they merely recycle old remedies that have not worked. He analyzes the prejudice that has historically existed against "the undeserving poor" and shows that the stereotype of the inner-city woman of color who has children in order to stay on welfare is untrue. Most welfare mothers are in the labor market, says Handler; however, the work that is available to them is most often low-wage, part-time employment with no benefits. Efforts to move large numbers of welfare recipients to full-time employment are not likely to be successful, especially since most of the welfare programs for single mothers are at the state and local levels, and these governments are reluctant to spend the extra money needed to institute work or other reform programs. Handler suggests that national reform efforts should focus less on welfare and blaming the victim and more on increasing labor markets and reducing poverty through legislation that promotes, for example, the Earned Income Tax Credit and universal health care benefits. Welfare reform, by itself, does nothing to improve the job market, and unless there are more jobs paying more income, we will have done nothing to lessen poverty or reduce welfare.

Welfare Reform and Sexual Regulation

Download Welfare Reform and Sexual Regulation PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1139465546
Total Pages : 33 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (394 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Welfare Reform and Sexual Regulation by : Anna Marie Smith

Download or read book Welfare Reform and Sexual Regulation written by Anna Marie Smith and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2007-07-09 with total page 33 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Inspired by the political interventions of feminist women of color and Foucauldian social theory, Anna Marie Smith explores the scope and structure of the child support enforcement, family cap, marriage promotion, and abstinence education measures that are embedded within contemporary United States welfare policy. Presenting original legal research and drawing from historical sources, social theory, and normative frameworks, the author argues that these measures violate the rights of poor mothers. Drawing on several historical precedents the author shows that welfare policy has consistently constructed the sexual conduct of the racialized poor mother as one of its primary disciplinary targets. The book concludes with a vigorous and detailed critique of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's support for welfare reform law and an outline of a progressive feminist approach to poverty policy.

Beyond the Welfare State?

Download Beyond the Welfare State? PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Penn State Press
ISBN 13 : 9780271018614
Total Pages : 252 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (186 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Beyond the Welfare State? by : Christopher Pierson

Download or read book Beyond the Welfare State? written by Christopher Pierson and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 1998 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1991, Beyond the Welfare State? has been thoroughly revised and updated for this new edition, which draws on the latest theoretical developments and empirical evidence. It remains the most comprehensive and sophisticated guide to the condition of the welfare state in a time of rapid and sometimes bewildering change. The opening chapters offer a scholarly but accessible review of competing interpretations of the historical and contemporary roles of the welfare state. This evaluation, based on the most recent empirical research, gives full weight to feminist, ecological, and "anti-racist" critiques and also develops a clear account of globalization and its contested impact upon existing welfare regimes. The book constructs a distinctive history of the international growth of welfare states and offers a comprehensive account of recent developments from "crisis" to "structural adjustment." The final chapters bring the story right up to date with an assessment of the important changes effected in the 1990s and the prospects for welfare states in the new millennium.

Welfare Magnets

Download Welfare Magnets PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Brookings Institution Press
ISBN 13 : 9780815720485
Total Pages : 196 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (24 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Welfare Magnets by : Paul E. Peterson

Download or read book Welfare Magnets written by Paul E. Peterson and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2010-12-01 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The best way of handling the question of how much to give the poor, politicians have discovered, is to avoid doing anything about it at all," note Paul Peterson and Mark Rom. The issue of the minimum people need in order to live decently is so difficult that Congress has left this crucial question to the states—even though the federal government foots three-fourths of the bill for about 15 million Americans who receive cash and food stamp benefits. The states differ widely in their assessment of what a family needs to meet a reasonable standard of living, and the interstate differences in welfare benefits cannot be explained by variations in wage levels or costs of living. The states with higher welfare benefits act as magnets by attracting or retaining poor people. In the competition to avoid becoming welfare havens, states have cut welfare benefits in real dollars by more than one-third since 1970. The authors propose the establishment of a minimum federal welfare standard, which would both reduce the interstate variation in welfare benefits and stem their overall decline. Peterson and Rom develop their argument in four steps. First they show how the politics of welfare magnets works in a case study of policymaking in Wisconsin. Second, they present their analysis of the overall magnet effect in American state politics, finding evidence that states with high welfare benefits experiencing disproportionate growth in their poverty rates make deeper welfare cuts. Third, they describe the process by which the current system came into being, identifying the reform efforts and political crises that have contributed to the centralization of welfare policy as well as the regional, partisan, and group interests that have resisted these changes. Finally, the authors propose a practical step that can go a long way toward achieving a national welfare standard; then assess it's cost, benefits, and political feasibility.

Generation Unbound

Download Generation Unbound PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Brookings Institution Press
ISBN 13 : 0815725590
Total Pages : 227 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (157 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Generation Unbound by : Isabel V. Sawhill

Download or read book Generation Unbound written by Isabel V. Sawhill and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2014-09-25 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over half of all births to young adults in the United States now occur outside of marriage, and many are unplanned. The result is increased poverty and inequality for children. The left argues for more social support for unmarried parents; the right argues for a return to traditional marriage. In Generation Unbound, Isabel V. Sawhill offers a third approach: change "drifters" into "planners." In a well-written and accessible survey of the impact of family structure on child well-being, Sawhill contrasts "planners," who are delaying parenthood until after they marry, with "drifters," who are having unplanned children early and outside of marriage. These two distinct patterns are contributing to an emerging class divide and threatening social mobility in the United States. Sawhill draws on insights from the new field of behavioral economics, showing that it is possible, by changing the default, to move from a culture that accepts a high number of unplanned pregnancies to a culture in which adults only have children when they are ready to be a parent.

Both Hands Tied

Download Both Hands Tied PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226114074
Total Pages : 240 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (261 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Both Hands Tied by : Jane L. Collins

Download or read book Both Hands Tied written by Jane L. Collins and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2010-05-15 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Both Hands Tied studies the working poor in the United States, focusing in particular on the relation between welfare and low-wage earnings among working mothers. Grounded in the experience of thirty-three women living in Milwaukee and Racine, Wisconsin, it tells the story of their struggle to balance child care and wage-earning in poorly paying and often state-funded jobs with inflexible schedules—and the moments when these jobs failed them and they turned to the state for additional aid. Jane L. Collins and Victoria Mayer here examine the situations of these women in light of the 1996 national Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act and other like-minded reforms—laws that ended the entitlement to welfare for those in need and provided an incentive for them to return to work. Arguing that this reform came at a time of gendered change in the labor force and profound shifts in the responsibilities of family, firms, and the state, Both Hands Tied provides a stark but poignant portrait of how welfare reform afflicted poor, single-parent families, ultimately eroding the participants’ economic rights and affecting their ability to care for themselves and their children.

Lifting Up the Poor

Download Lifting Up the Poor PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 0815796137
Total Pages : 193 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (157 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Lifting Up the Poor by : Mary Jo Bane

Download or read book Lifting Up the Poor written by Mary Jo Bane and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2003-10-10 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: People who participate in debates about the causes and cures of poverty often speak from religious conviction. But those convictions are rarely made explicit or debated on their own terms. Rarely is the influence of personal religious commitment on policy decisions examined. Two of the nation's foremost scholars and policy advocates break the mold in this lively volume, the first to be published in the new Pew Forum Dialogues on Religion and Public Life. The authors bring their faith traditions, policy experience, academic expertise, and political commitments together in this moving, pointed, and informed discussion of poverty, one of our most vexing public issues. Mary Jo Bane writes of her experiences running social service agencies, work that has been informed by "Catholic social teaching, and a Catholic sensibility that is shaped every day by prayer and worship." Policy analysis, she writes, is often "indeterminate" and "inconclusive." It requires grappling with "competing values that must be balanced." It demands judgment calls, and Bane's Catholic sensibility informs the calls she makes. Drawing from various Christian traditions, Lawrence Mead's essay discusses the role of nurturing Christian virtues and personal responsibility as a means of transforming a "defeatist culture" and combating poverty. Quoting Shelley, Mead describes theologians as the "unacknowledged legislators of mankind" and argues that even nonbelievers can look to the Christian tradition as "the crucible that formed the moral values of modern politics." Bane emphasizes the social justice claims of her tradition, and Mead challenges the view of many who see economic poverty as a biblical priority that deserves "preference ahead of other social concerns." But both assert that an engagement with religious traditions is indispensable to an honest and searching debate about poverty, policy choices, and the public purposes of religion.

The Politics of Disgust

Download The Politics of Disgust PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : NYU Press
ISBN 13 : 0814773419
Total Pages : 210 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (147 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Politics of Disgust by : Ange-Marie Hancock

Download or read book The Politics of Disgust written by Ange-Marie Hancock and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2004-12-01 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the 2006 Race, Ethnicity, and Politics Organized Section Best First Book Award from the American Political Science Association Winner of the 2006 W.E.B. DuBois Book Award from the National Conference of Black Political Scientists Ange-Marie Hancock argues that longstanding beliefs about poor African American mothers were the foundation for the contentious 1996 welfare reform debate that effectively "ended welfare as we know it." By examining the public identity of the so-called welfare queen and its role in hindering democratic deliberation, The Politics of Disgust shows how stereotypes and politically motivated misperceptions about race, class and gender were effectively used to instigate a politics of disgust. The ongoing role of the politics of disgust in welfare policy is revealed here by using content analyses of the news media, the 1996 congressional floor debates, historical evidence and interviews with welfare recipients themselves. Hancock's incisive analysis is both compelling and disturbing, suggesting the great limits of today's democracy in guaranteeing not just fair and equitable policy outcomes, but even a fair chance for marginalized citizens to participate in the process.