Course Description

Social legislation can be thought of as a species of legislation, one that the legislature enacts to respond to social problems. More important, such legislation is a policy preference: the legislature reflects its and its constituents’ will within the context of societal values, norms and political-economic constraints. These policy choices, moreover, do not exist within an institutional vacuum, as they are frequently modified through judicial review and regulations. This modification process is another way of thinking about the implementation of legislative goals, which underscores the link between the enactment of social legislation and its enforcement via courts – which interpret legislative intentions – and regulatory agencies – which carry out legislative objectives.

The course will address substantive issues associated with selected social welfare legislation: income maintenance, child welfare, sexual orientation, disability, civil rights, and the malpractice related to nursing homes. We will examine the basic structure of this legislation and explore how this structure betrays assumptions about legislative goals and anticipated beneficiaries. In addition, through class discussions and assignments and in the course of examining the connection between legislative goals and their implementation through courts and administrative agencies, students will develop fundamental competency in legal analysis and legal research.

Issues of diversity, social and economic justice, and values and ethics will be addressed in different parts of the course, as described below. The factors that influence how one gains access to the legislative process and the impact of this process on different populations provide one analytical lens. The legislative process, as a legal mechanism, is often presumed to operate mechanically and without bias, but reality suggests that access often depends on one’s resources (economic, political, social) and/or on one’s racial and ethnic background or the centrality of the issues under consideration to mainstream players in the legislative process. When these dynamics converge, access becomes especially problematic. Social Work advocacy must resolve the value and ethical dimension of this problem, if intervention is to be effective. Legislation on topics, such as income maintenance, sexual orientation, civil rights, or the elderly also betray a subtext of value assumptions about poverty, sexuality, race relations, and dependency. We will explore these premises for what they tell us about law making and to isolate the implications for promoting social change. Finally, we will also work critically with the idea that social legislation has instrumental aims, such as the promotion of social justice for society’s historically disenfranchised groups.

Required Texts

1. Ruth Colker, Hybrid: Bisexuals, Multiracials, and Other Misfits under American Law, (New York: New York University Press, 1996)
2. Will Richan, Lobbying for Social Change, (New York: Haworth Press, 1996)
3. Theda Skopol, Boomerang: Health Care Reform and the Turn Against Government, (New York : W.W. Norton & Co., 1997)
4. Robert Singh, The Congressional Black Caucus: Racial Politics in the U.S. Congress, (Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, Inc., 1997)
5. Steven Waldman, The Bill: How the Adventures of Clinton's National Service Bill Reveal What is Corrupt, Comic, Cynical, and Noble about Washington, (New York: Viking Penguin, 1995)

Recommended Texts

1. Elizabeth Drew, Showdown: The Struggle Between the Gingrich Congress and the Clinton White House, (New York: Simon & Shuster, 1996)
2. Karen Foerstel, Climbing the Hill: Gender Conflict in Congress, (Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc., 1996)
3. Otto Hetzel, Legislative Law and Process, (Charlottesville: LEXIS Publishing, 2001)
4. Charles W. Johnson, How Our Laws are Made, (Collingdale: Diane Publishing Co., 1999)
5. Abner Mikva, An Introduction to Statutory Interpretation and the Legislative Process, (New York: Aspen Law and Business, 1997)
6. William Keefe, The American Legislative Process: Congress and the States, (Paramus: Prentice-Hall, 2000)

Learning Objectives

The class sessions, readings and assignments are designed to enable students to:

1. assess the interaction between the social environment and the legislative process and the impact on the scope of social legislation;
2. evaluate the ability of the legislative process to address social problems, particularly in relation to historically disenfranchised minorities, such as women and communities of color;
3. analyze the factors that contribute to enactment of effective social legislation, with special attention to legislation dealing with wealth status (i.e., poverty and class), minority status (i.e., racial and ethnic, as well as marginalized groups, such as sexual minorities);
4. apply knowledge about the legislative process to strategies for promoting social change, with special attention to how issues of class affect access to mechanisms for change and other factors that influence access, such as race and ethnicity;
5. hone skill in legal analysis; and
6. develop rudimentary competency in legal research.

(September 5, 2001) Introduction to course objectives; structure of course, etc.

PART ONE: THE LEGAL SYSTEM AND POLICY PROCESSES

(September 12) Making sense of the legislative process:

(September 19) An introduction to policy making and policy analysis:

The topics in this section of the course will afford an opportunity to examine specific examples of social legislation. Our concern is not only the process by which this legislation was produced but the implementation dimension as well; and chief among the implementation concerns is the impact of social legislation on different racial and ethnic groups or on social and political minorities. The social values that inform the legislation, and the consequences for both implementation and social change, will also be examined.

(October 10) Income Maintenance: the instrumental aims of the "welfare reform" legislation and its impact; the racial and class-based subtext of the legislation

Robert Singh, The Congressional Black Caucus: Racial Politics in the U.S. Congress, (Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, Inc., 1997)

Theda Skopol, Boomerang: Health Care Reform and the Turn Against Government, (New York : W.W. Norton & Co., 1997)

This section will focus on integrating what we’ve learned about the legislative process for the purpose of discovering the implications for using that process to enact more responsive social legislation. The ethical dimension of this enterprise will also be examined. Finally, we will examine the importance of using this process to promote change that will enhance the life opportunities of historically underrepresented or disenfranchised racial, ethnic, or political groups.

(December 5) Legislative requirements and limits on social change: The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, Pub. L. No. 104-194

(December 12) Lobbying strategies and techniques: roles of lobbyist; getting into and through the legislative process; strategies for framing issues; presenting testimony

Collectively, the course requirements illustrate the vagaries of the legislative process, with special attention to the impact on the development and implementation of social legislation and its impact on disadvantaged groups and marginalized issues. Moreover, students are introduced to the activity of policy research and analysis and invited to investigate how these activities facilitate their ability to make sense of social legislation and to promote social change. The array of activities below enable students to demonstrate analytical competence with respect to the concepts discussed in the course and to show their understanding of the linkages among the components of the legislative process. They should emerge from the course with a deeper and more complex understanding of the myriad factors that contribute to access to the legislative process and to the formulation and implementation of social legislation.

1. Class participation; it’s a seminar and there’s a premium on participation. It’s important to be able to demonstrate the connections you are making between legislation and its impact on society, generally, and on disadvantaged groups, specifically. I’d also like you to be able to argue the implications of differential access and its consequences for framing social legislation that deals with issues of diversity and matters of social and economic justice.

2. Competency in the use of the computer to locate policy and legal sources for social legislation, with special attention to acquiring facility with the world wide web resources. To this end, you should submit a list of five URLs, along with a brief summary of the nature of the site. This assignment can be done in conjunction with #3 below.

3. Select one issue or problem and discuss the following:

                    c) proposed changes in this legislation, with supporting reasons.

5. Assume responsibility for leading discussion of at least one of the topics to be addressed in part two of the course. This leadership assumes your readiness to identify the salient features of the legislation under discussion and to take the lead in raising and responding to questions. This is not a written assignment; but I want you to be prepared in terms of giving the topic some thought and being aware of the key contemporary legislation.

6. Needless to say, attendance is expected, and I should be given notice of your intention to be absent.
 
 

Office Hours and Contact Information

I am available at the times posted on my office door, as well as by appointment. I can be reached at (610) 520-2636 or (610) 316-8169 (home) or via email at ralbert@brynmawr.edu. This course syllabus, along with the class roster and selected web links can be found at the web page for the course: http://www.brynmawr.edu/Acads/GSSW/Albert/305-home.html
 
 
 

September 5, 2001