Essay - Reform Book Review on Political Reform Gillon, Steven. (2000) that's...

Reform

Book Review on Political Reform

Gillon, Steven. (2000) That's not what we meant to do: ***** and its Unintended Consequences in the 20th Century. W.W. Norton & Co, 2000.

Welfare reform, the 'ma*****streaming' of the mentally ill and mentally challenged, affirmative action for historically discriminated against groups, greater openness to useful and deserving immigrants suffering political injustice in *****ir native lands, and effective campaign finance re*****ms are all common liberal rallying issues. However, by pairing his analysis of ***** such legally propelled reform measures were supposed to *****, in terms of changing society, with how they actually functioned in the American political reality, Steven M. Gillon places the blame squarely on the heads of legislatures, legislators, the expectations of ***** American polity as well the laws **********, for the failure of *****se movements and the laws they generated to have their intended consequences in American *****.

Gillon blames the dissolution of ***** American family under impoverished conditions upon the terms ***** ***** 1935 laws instituted after the New Deal. The Community *****ental Health Act of 1963 resulted in a flood ***** ***** ill individu*****ls loose in communities with little medical follow-up or support, an unintended consequence of ***** Act. The author blames the failure ***** full integration and racial advancement beginning with ***** vagueness of the Civil Rights Act ***** 1964 and its refusal to fully address the societal needs that ***** likely to result from greater integration. The Immigration Act of 1965 is blamed for the nearly tide of a million legal newcomers most of whom were from Asia or Latin America and brought few personal resources to ***** United States, but strained ***** social ***** netw*****ks. ***** Campaign ***** laws of 1974 did nothing ***** address the inequities they were intended to address in favoring incumbents and the wealthy ***** equally empowering both political parties.

Gilles is not a soci*****l conservative, rather what he sees as so dangerous about all of these examples ***** that all of these ***** were un***** rather than intended. Individuals are ********** entities, and thus laws designed to ***** the social architecture of ***** often have unintended consequences. For instance, the wide-scale integration ***** education of a generation ***** immigrant and lower-class young men that was created by the GI Bills of the 1940's ***** unexpected. Aiding mothers with dependant children was supposed to be cheaper than using charities or aid societies. Thus, welfare reform favoring aid ***** needy children ***** quite a popular stance during the Great Depression, when many families faced the prospect of losing everything ***** possessed, and many women were left widows without ***** ability to work, or employers who were willing ***** hire them to w*****k.

*****, welfare was not intended ***** become a permanent structural support in times of ***** economic prosperity, as individuals ***** were permanently disenfranchised because of systemic societal discrimination began to rely upon the government as a means of never ending support. Also, ***** ***** aid given to ***** who ***** not