The roots and goals of social policy 577Administration, a broader program, employed at least one-third of the nation’s
unemployed.- Social Security, including the familiar retirement policy, also supported the states
with funds to spend on unemployment compensation, disability programs, and
support for dependent children of single mothers. This New Deal–era program
was the precursor of the central welfare program, Aid to Families with Dependent
Children (AFDC), which existed until 1996. - The National Labor Relations Act guaranteed the right to organize a union and set
regulations for collective bargaining between management and labor.^12
The role of the federal government in social policy was forever changed. Although
some aspects of the New Deal, such as the jobs programs, were never repeated on such
a broad scale, most of its other programs became the cornerstone of social policy for
subsequent generations.The Great Society
The next major expansion of social policy came during the Great Society of President
Lyndon Johnson in the mid-1960s. In Chapter 5, we discussed one pillar of this social
agenda: the civil rights movement, which culminated with the passage of the Civil
Rights Act in 1964 and the Voting Rights Act in 1965. The other important aspect
of Johnson’s Great Society included the War on Poverty and programs concerning
health, education, and housing. Johnson’s “unconditional” War on Poverty brought
economic development and jobs to depressed areas, especially the inner cities, by
creating the Office of Economic Opportunity, the Jobs Corps, the Neighborhood Youth
Corps, Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA, a domestic counterpart to the Peace
Corps), and the Model Cities program. Other programs focused on helping children,
including Head Start, which provided preschool education and enrichment for poor
children; the Child Nutrition Act of 1966; and an expanded school lunch program.
Johnson’s administration also greatly expanded the food stamp program; developed
more public housing; created the new cabinet-level department of Housing and Urban
Development; and got more involved in an area that typically had been left to the statesGreat Society
The wide-ranging social agenda
promoted by President Lyndon
Johnson in the mid-1960s that aimed
to improve Americans’ quality of
life through governmental social
programs.Before the New Deal programs in the
1930s, poverty relief was provided
mainly by private charities. Here,
future First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt
serves meals to unemployed women
and their children in a New York
restaurant.Full_17_APT_64431_ch16_572-613.indd 577 16/11/18 11:28 AM