Overview

With the passage of the Social Security Act in 1935, the US government ushered in a new era of social welfare policies, to counteract the devastation of The Great Depression. While political philosophers generally view the welfare state to be built on values of equality and human dignity, America's politicians, beginning with Franklin D. Roosevelt, argued on different grounds. From the beginning, Roosevelt based his defense of the welfare state on the individualist, or Lockean premises inherent in America's political culture. As a result, he not only encouraged the United States' commitment to individualism, but also contributed to distinctively harsh American stigmatization of welfare recipients.In The Transformation of American Liberalism, George Klosko explores how American political leaders have justified social welfare programs since the 1930s, ultimately showing how their arguments have contributed to notably ungenerous programs. Students of political theory note the evolution of liberal political theory between its origins and major contemporary theorists who justify the values and social policies of the welfare state. But the transformation of liberalism in American political culture is incomplete. Individualist values and beliefs have exerted a continuing hold on America's leaders, constraining their justificatory arguments. The paradoxical result may be described as continuing attempts to justify new social programs without acknowledging incompatibility between the arguments necessary to do so and American culture's individualist assumptions. An important reason for the striking absence of strong and widely recognized arguments for social welfare programs in American political culture is that its political leaders did not provide them.

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9780199973415

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.. .fresh, creative, and meticulously researched... Klosko s thoughtful and stimulating book offers many ingredients for the kind of discourse that could move US social policy in a more encompassing and caring direction. --Current History George Klosko has produced an elegant blend of political philosophy and history that explains in an accessible but rigorous way how certain core ideas have affected the justifications for the programs that comprise the American welfare state. This process, he persuasively argues, has given our welfare state its distinctive shape. --Edward Berkowitz, Professor of History and Public Policy, George Washington University The question George Klosko addresses in this absorbing book is why American social welfare programs are so different from those in other advanced countries and why some programs enjoy wide acceptance whereas others are under constant attack. The answer he develops is that the dominant political culture in the US has always been Lockean individualism, and that political leaders, when trying to justify new programs, never clearly and forthrightly presented an alternative perspective. His argument, presented in lucid, jargon-free prose and deeply researched, is compelling and illuminating. It was an eye-opener for me, as it will be for many others. --Nicholas Wolterstorff, Noah Porter Professor of Philosophical Theology, Yale University and Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, University of Virginia George Klosko has produced an elegant blend of political philosophy and history that explains in an accessible but rigorous way how certain core ideas have affected the justifications for the programs that comprise the American welfare state. This process, he persuasively argues, has given our welfare state its distinctive shape. --Edward Berkowitz, Professor of History and Public Policy, George Washington University The question George Klosko addresses in this absorbing book is why American social welfare programs are so different from those in other advanced countries and why some programs enjoy wide acceptance whereas others are under constant attack. The answer he develops is that the dominant political culture in the US has always been Lockean individualism, and that political leaders, when trying to justify new programs, never clearly and forthrightly presented an alternative perspective. His argument, presented in lucid, jargon-free prose and deeply researched, is compelling and illuminating. It was an eye-opener for me, as it will be for many others. --Nicholas Wolterstorff, Noah Porter Professor of Philosophical Theology, Yale University and Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, University of Virginia

George Klosko has produced an elegant blend of political philosophy and history that explains in an accessible but rigorous way how certain core ideas have affected the justifications for the programs that comprise the American welfare state. This process, he persuasively argues, has given our welfare state its distinctive shape. --Edward Berkowitz, Professor of History and Public Policy, George Washington University The question George Klosko addresses in this absorbing book is why American social welfare programs are so different from those in other advanced countries and why some programs enjoy wide acceptance whereas others are under constant attack. The answer he develops is that the dominant political culture in the US has always been Lockean individualism, and that political leaders, when trying to justify new programs, never clearly and forthrightly presented an alternative perspective. His argument, presented in lucid, jargon-free prose and deeply researched, is compelling and illuminating. It was an eye-opener for me, as it will be for many others. --Nicholas Wolterstorff, Noah Porter Professor of Philosophical Theology, Yale University and Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, University of Virginia

"""...fresh, creative, and meticulously researched... Klosko s thoughtful and stimulating book offers many ingredients for the kind of discourse that could move US social policy in a more encompassing and caring direction."" --Current History ""George Klosko has produced an elegant blend of political philosophy and history that explains in an accessible but rigorous way how certain core ideas have affected the justifications for the programs that comprise the American welfare state. This process, he persuasively argues, has given our welfare state its distinctive shape."" --Edward Berkowitz, Professor of History and Public Policy, George Washington University ""The question George Klosko addresses in this absorbing book is why American social welfare programs are so different from those in other advanced countries and why some programs enjoy wide acceptance whereas others are under constant attack. The answer he develops is that the dominant political culture in the US has always been Lockean individualism, and that political leaders, when trying to justify new programs, never clearly and forthrightly presented an alternative perspective. His argument, presented in lucid, jargon-free prose and deeply researched, is compelling and illuminating. It was an eye-opener for me, as it will be for many others."" --Nicholas Wolterstorff, Noah Porter Professor of Philosophical Theology, Yale University and Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, University of Virginia ""Klosko should be applauded for being so forthright about the misleading arguments upon which the new American state has been built. He observes very early on that its founders were following the advice of Old Nick, Machiavelli, that ""he who desires or attempts to reform the government of a state, and wishes to have it accepted and capable of maintaining itself to the satisfaction of everybody, must at least retain the semblance of the old forms; so that it may seem to the people that there has been no change in the institutions, even though they are entirely different from the old ones"" (7)."" - Paul Moreno, Hillsdale College, THE REVIEW OF POLITICS"

...fresh, creative, and meticulously researched... Klosko s thoughtful and stimulating book offers many ingredients for the kind of discourse that could move US social policy in a more encompassing and caring direction. --Current History George Klosko has produced an elegant blend of political philosophy and history that explains in an accessible but rigorous way how certain core ideas have affected the justifications for the programs that comprise the American welfare state. This process, he persuasively argues, has given our welfare state its distinctive shape. --Edward Berkowitz, Professor of History and Public Policy, George Washington University The question George Klosko addresses in this absorbing book is why American social welfare programs are so different from those in other advanced countries and why some programs enjoy wide acceptance whereas others are under constant attack. The answer he develops is that the dominant political culture in the US has always been Lockean individualism, and that political leaders, when trying to justify new programs, never clearly and forthrightly presented an alternative perspective. His argument, presented in lucid, jargon-free prose and deeply researched, is compelling and illuminating. It was an eye-opener for me, as it will be for many others. --Nicholas Wolterstorff, Noah Porter Professor of Philosophical Theology, Yale University and Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, University of Virginia Klosko should be applauded for being so forthright about the misleading arguments upon which the new American state has been built. He observes very early on that its founders were following the advice of Old Nick, Machiavelli, that he who desires or attempts to reform the government of a state, and wishes to have it accepted and capable of maintaining itself to the satisfaction of everybody, must at least retain the semblance of the old forms; so that it may seem to the people that there has been no change in the institutions, even though they are entirely different from the old ones (7). - Paul Moreno, Hillsdale College, THE REVIEW OF POLITICS

Author Information

George Klosko is the Henry L. and Grace Doherty Professor of Politics at the University of Virginia. He is the editor of The Oxford Handbook of Political Philosophy and has authored books, including The Development of Plato's Political Theory, Second Edition (Oxford, 2006); Democratic Procedures and Liberal Consensus (Oxford University Press, 2000); and Political Obligations (Oxford University Press, 2005).

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