On Human Rights
Author: James Griffin
What is a human right? How can we tell whether a proposed human right really is one? How do we establish the content of particular human rights, and how do we resolve conflicts between them? These are pressing questions for philosophers, political theorists, jurisprudents, international lawyers, and activists. James Griffin offers answers in his compelling new investigation of human rights.
The term "natural right", in its modern sense of an entitlement that a person has, first appeared in the late Middle Ages. When during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the theological content of the idea was abandoned in stages, nothing was put in its place. The secularized notion that we were left with at the end of the Enlightenment is still our notion today: a right that we have simply in virtue of being human. During the twentieth century international law has contributed to settling the question which rights are human rights, but its contribution has its limits.
The notion of a human right that we have inherited suffers from no small indeterminateness of sense. The term has been left with so few criteria for determining when it is used correctly that we often have a plainly inadequate grasp on what is at issue. Griffin takes on the task of showing the way towards a determinate concept of human rights, based on their relation to the human status that we all share. He works from certain paradigm cases, such as freedom of expression and freedom of worship, to more disputed cases such as welfare rights - for instance the idea of a human right to health. His goal is a substantive account of human rights - an account with enough content to tell us whether proposed rights reallyare rights. Griffin emphasizes the practical as well as theoretical urgency of this goal: as the United Nations recognized in 1948 with its Universal Declaration, the idea of human rights has considerable power to improve the lot of humanity around the world.
It is our job now - the job of this book - to influence and develop the unsettled discourse of human rights so as to complete the incomplete idea.
New interesting book: Project Management or Industrial and Organizational Psychology
Social Policy and Social Programs: A Method for the Practical Public Policy
Author: Donald E Chambers
This popular and practical text explores the basics of social policy and program analysis, including how to design new programs or evaluate and improve upon existing ones. It provides readers with the criteria for judging the effectiveness of current programs and outlines methods for analyzing social services such as counseling and therapeutic services, supportive assistance, and “hard benefits” such as food stamps, cash, and housing vouchers.
Highlights of the New Edition —
- The most up-to-date information on current social programs
- A new section on the revolutionary move towards privatization of social welfare services in the past decade discussing its advantages and disadvantages
- A new section on the recent devolution of social welfare responsibilities from the federal government onto the states with its accompanying difficulties and benefits for financing and service delivery
- A new section on “faith-based” service delivery, and the new “charitable choice” idea
- A new section on the development of “for-profit” service delivery agencies and systems
- Updated sources and references with the latest research, including new data on poverty, poverty lines, TANF, Medicare/Medicaid, and child welfare legislation.
- Examination of the dramatic changes that have been made in the U.S. welfare system, especially those that have weakened the basic safety net: medical care, child welfare, and immigration law and practices
What reviewers are saying —
“The value of the text for me is that it does not focus on a particular area or issue, but provides the skills futuresocial workers need to evaluate areas of interest or need in practice.” — Iris Phillips, University of Southern Indiana
“Overall the students find the writing clear and concise and the concepts engaging and useful. The policy framework provided by the author is one of their favorite frameworks for policy analysis.” — Roger E. Boyd, Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville
“I love the book and have used it for more than 5 years. That is the longest I have used any text in my teaching career.” — Ruth White, Seattle University
Table of Contents:
Pt. 1 Creating the Context for Social Policy Analysis: The Social Problem Context 1
1 Analyzing the Social Problem Background of Social Policies and Social Programs 7
Pt. 2 A Style of Policy Analysis for the Practical Public Policy Analyst 31
2 An Overview of a Style of Policy Analysis: A Value-Critical Approach 33
3 The Analysis of Policy Goals and Objectives in Social Programs and Policies 46
4 Who Gets What: The Analysis of Types of Benefits and Services 72
5 Who Gets What, How Much, and Under What Conditions: Analysis of Eligibility Rules 90
6 Analysis of Service-Delivery Systems and Social Policy and Program Design 124
7 How Do We Pay for Social Welfare Policies and Programs? Analysis of Financing 160
8 Analysis of Interactions among Policy Elements 205
Pt. 3 Analysis of Social Policies and Social Programs Using Basic Concepts and Evaluation Criteria: An Example 213
9 An Example of Social Policy and Social Program Analysis: Selected Features of Federal Child Welfare Legislation since 1970 Concerned with Child Abuse 215
Index 239
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