Book review of Shifting the Color Line: Race and the American Welfare State. Robert C. Lieberman. Reviewed by Jill Quadagno, Florida State Universit

Quadagno, Jill

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The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare Volume 26 Issue 4 December Article 14 December 1999 Review of Shifting the Color Line: Race and the American Welfare State. Robert C. Lieberman. Reviewed by Jill Quadagno, Florida State University Jill Quadagno Florida State University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/jssw  Part of the Race and Ethnicity Commons, Social Welfare Commons, and the Social Work Commons Recommended Citation Quadagno, Jill (1999) "Review of Shifting the Color Line: Race and the American Welfare State. Robert C. Lieberman. Reviewed by Jill Quadagno, Florida State University," The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare: Vol. 26 : Iss. 4 , Article 14. Available at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/jssw/vol26/iss4/14 This Book Review is brought to you by the Western Michigan University School of Social Work. For more information, please contact wmu-scholarworks@wmich.edu. 184 Journal of Sociology & Social Welfaresystems approach" in developing cultural awareness and cross-cultural competence, especially in serving immigrant popula-tions. It is important to highlight the impact of level of accul-turation and of client-worker match upon social service delivery.In conclusion, the book offers a comprehensive literature re-view relevant to various human services disciplines. There aresubstantial changes from the earlier (2nd) edition including newand updated information. It contributes an unique ethnographicperspective useful for helping workers achieve cultural aware-ness and service competence.Yuhwa Eva LuNew York UniversityRobert C. Lieberman, Shifting the Color Line: Race and the Ameri-can Welfare State. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press,1998. $45.00 hardcover.Ever since Gunnar Myrdal identified the dilemma createdby the conflict between an ideology that emphasized liberty andequality and the reality of racial domination, social scientists havesought to understand the association between race and Americanpolitics. In Shifting the Color Line, Robert Lieberman adds a newchapter to this historical saga. He makes a forceful and convincingcase that race has inhibited the development of a strong, unitaryand centralized welfare state and that the fragmented welfarestate, in turn, has reshaped the politics of race and the place ofAfrican Americans in the United States. His institutionalist thesisreflects a subtle variation on the argument initially advancedby Gosta Esping-Anderson that welfare states not only reflectexisting patterns of stratification but also are themselves agentsof social stratification.In his first chapter, Lieberman explores the events that led tothe creation of the Social Security Act of 1935, probing the role ofrace, class and region in the development of this legislation. He ex-plains how the New Deal programs were structurally organizedto sort African Americans into the locally administered welfareprograms and out of the national social insurance programs. Al-though this chapter recounts a familiar story, it provides a crucialunderpinning for his subsequent analysis of the effect of thisBook Reviews 185institutional arrangement on three key programs, Old Age Insur-ance, Aid to Dependent Children and Unemployment Insurance.In each case he asks whether African Americans were treatedequally under programmatic structures or whether they weresubject to discrimination. His answers to this questions highlightan interesting paradox about American political development.No program has experienced a more revolutionary transfor-mation than Old Age Insurance. When OAI was first legislated,it did not cover agricultural laborers or domestic servants, thusautomatically excluding three-fifths of all black workers in theU.S. at that time. As the program matured, however, it was recastinto a racially-inclusive welfare benefit. According to Lieberman,OAI's transformation was the result of its institutional structure.OAI was administered by a centralized national bureaucracy thatwas autonomous from local political influences. Eligibility criteriawere established by federal authorities, not local politicians andwelfare workers, and eligible workers received social securitybenefits as a statutory right. As a result, the program was ableto transcend the local racial state in the South. As benefits wereextended to a wider array of occupational groups, OAI automat-ically became more inclusive. Indeed, by the 1960s it could bedescribed as the only color blind social program in the nation.Aid to Dependent Children also began as a racially exclusiveprogram but, unlike OAI, decisions about eligibility and benefitlevels were left to states and local welfare authorities. This insti-tutional design gave local politicians and bureaucrats substantialinfluence on the program's development. As a result, in the SouthAfrican Americans failed to receive benefits in proportion to need,while in the North ADC became entwined in local patronagepolitics. In northern cities, Lieberman argues, the racially-biaseddispersion of benefits through patronage networks created a con-tinuing attachment among African Americans to local politicalinstitutions. The long-range consequence was a white backlashagainst public assistance and the isolation of African Americansfrom the political and economic mainstream.Perhaps the least examined program of the American welfarestate is Unemployment Insurance. Like OAI UI initially excludedagricultural workers and domestic servants, a restriction thatmeant that benefits were reserved for a population that was186 Journal of Sociology & Social Welfareprimarily white. Because African Americans historically havehad higher rates of unemployment than white workers, UI mighthave alleviated racial inequality. Instead, in Lieberman's view, theprogram exacerbated it. Structural limitations made the programincapable of protecting workers against chronic joblessness andfrequent and extended periods without work. Equally important,UI has become a substitute for a national employment policy, lim-iting the nation's ability to address the more intractable problemsof the underclass.At times Lieberman's application of an institutionalist per-spective is rather heavy-handed and unconvincing. For example,as he surely understand, AFDC's means-tested structure was onlyone of many complex factors that created a backlash against theprogram. Indeed, a number of programs targeted to the poor, suchas Medicaid, have remained remarkably impermeable to budgetcuts. In the case of each program, one wonder what factors, otherthan program structure, were responsible for its developmentaltrajectory. Still, Lieberman's analysis provides yet another lensfrom which to view the development of the American welfarestate, one that can be usefully combined with alterative perspec-tives to provide a thorough explanation for the impact of the NewDeal on racial stratification in the United States.Jill QuadagnoFlorida State UniversityMary C. Comerio, Disaster Hits Home: New Policy for Urban HousingRecovery. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1998.$39.96 hardcover.It is widely recognized that a home is more than a roof overone's head. It is the center of a web of human relations. In DisasterHits Home: New Policy for Urban Housing Recovery, Mary C. Come-rio makes a compelling argument that housing is more than a keysector in the nation's financial infrastructure. It is fundamental tothe social infrastructure of our cities. People choose housing notby price alone but also by the quality of schools, proximity to jobs,availability of transportation, and access to parks, shopping andother social amenities (health care, child care, recreation facilities,churches). Understanding the nature of urban housing stock and

Review of \u3cem\u3eShifting the Color Line: Race and the American Welfare State.\u3c/em\u3e Robert C. Lieberman. Reviewed by Jill Quadagno, Florida State University

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Review of \u3cem\u3eShifting the Color Line: Race and the American Welfare State.\u3c/em\u3e Robert C. Lieberman. Reviewed by Jill Quadagno, Florida State University

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