The key players in social policy making 585Bureaucratic discretion may also serve more positive ends. Political scientist Daniel
P. Carpenter reported that many bureaucratic agencies in the late nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries developed political autonomy and strong reputations that allowed
them to analyze and solve problems, create new programs, and plan and administer
programs efficiently.^29 Many of the same insights apply to agencies that deliver social
policies today, such as the Social Security Administration, which has a very strong base
of popular and political support.The states
Social policy has always been strongly influenced by our system of federalism. As long
as welfare has existed in the United States, it has been administered at the state and
local levels, with varying degrees of national control. The 1996 welfare reform bill,
Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), gave more power to the states and
eliminated all national guarantees. Medicaid is administered at the state level (with
federal assistance), and education is almost completely controlled by local and state
governments. One sticking point with health care reform in 2009–2010 was the extent
to which policy would be centered in the states or have a stronger national component.
Many Democrats argued for a national “public option,” while Republicans favored a
more limited approach in which insurance companies would be allowed to compete
across state lines. The stronger national approach failed, but the new law clearly
signaled a shift to a more national role in health care. Education policy is another area
where the trend has been toward more involvement of the national government rather
than more power returning to the states. But even with the national accountability
mechanisms and testing requirements established by President Bush’s No Child
Left Behind Act and the incentives provided by President Obama’s Race to the Top
program, education policy remains largely a state and local affair. President Trump’s
education policy has been consistent with maintaining the central role for state and
local government, calling for cuts in many federal programs but big increases in
spending for public and private school choice programs.^30Welfare offices can be alienating
places in which it is very difficult to
navigate through the bureaucracy.
Here, dozens of people wait to speak
to counselors in this Lawrenceville,
Georgia, welfare office.Full_17_APT_64431_ch16_572-613.indd 585 16/11/18 11:28 AM