Problems with the Welfare State
Abstract
THE JOURNAL OF APPLIED BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE Vol. 20/No. 1/1984 Problems with the Welfare State Poverty in America: The Welfare Dilemma by Ralph Segalman and Asoke Basu Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1981, 446 pages, $35.00 (cloth) Reviewed by John B. Williamson Ralph Segalman is a professor of sociology at California State University, Northridge, California 91330 and the author of Conflicting Rights: Social Legislation and Policy and Dynamics of Social Behavior and Development. Asoke Basu is a professor of sociology at California State University, Haywood, California 94542 and the author of Elementary Statistical Theory in Sociology and Culture, Politics and Critical Academics. John B. Williamson is a professor of sociology at Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts 02167 and author of Strategies Against Poverty in America (Schenkman, 1975). This monograph is an extended essay on the nature of the poverty problem in America today that does an admirable job of pulling together the now very extensive literature on the topic. I consider it well organized, clearly written, and exten- sively documented. The book appropriately opens with a discussion of alternative definitions of poverty. The authors criticize those who define poverty in relative terms, stating that in any but "an illusory utopia