Social Security and the Politics of Deservingness

This book seeks to understand the politics of deservingness for future Social Security reforms through an interpretive policy analysis of the 2005 Social Security privatization debates. What does it mean for politics and policymaking that Social Security recipients are widely viewed as deserving of the benefits they receive? In the 2005 privatization debates, Congress framed Social Security in exclusively positive terms, often in opposition to welfare, and imagined their own beloved family members as recipients. Advocates for private accounts sought to navigate the politics of deservingness by dividing the we of social insurance to a me of private investment and a them of individual rate of return in order to justify the introduction of private accounts into Social Security. Fiscal stress on the program will likely bring Social Security to the policy agenda soon. Understanding the politics of deservingness will be central to navigating those debates.

This book provides an insightful analysis of the ways in which social security policy is framed. Careful analysis and discussion of the debates in Congress reveal a clear pattern of race and gender. The perceptive use of data from the Congressional debates sheds a revealing light on how hidden assumptions frame debates on this key area of social security. This approach is a valuable reminder to all social security scholars and students to look beneath the surface. (Jackie Gulland, European Journal of Social Security, Vol. 19 (4) , 2017)

Autorentext
Susanne N. Beechey is Assistant Professor of Politics, Whitman College, USA.

Inhalt
Chapter One: Introduction .- Chapter Two: Social Security Today .- Chapter Three: The Politics of Deservingness .- Chapter Four: My Family Member as the Deserving Face of Social Security .- Chapter Five: Challenging the Politics of Deservingness .- Chapter Six: Social Security Tomorrow.