STATE FORMATION AND SOCIAL-POLICY IN THE UNITED-STATES

Americans distrust state power, yet analytically speaking the United States has always had ''a state''. Historical changes in the U.S. state -from a federal, non-bureaucratic ''state of courts and parties'' in the nineteenth century, to a federal, partially bureaucratized, and interest-group oriented polity in the twentieth century- can help us to understand the distinctive stages and patterns of American social policy. The United States did not develop a European-style welfare state for workers or all citizens. Instead, U.S. social policy between the 1870s and the 1920s focused on protecting first veteran soldiers and then mothers. From the 1930s onward, the emphasis shifted especially toward social provision for retired workers. U.S. political institutions have encouraged generous social spending for some groups, but not for the poor.