ALERT: Before you purchase, check with your instructor or review your course syllabus to ensure that you select the correct ISBN. Several versions of Pearson's MyLab & Mastering products exist for each title, including customized versions for individual schools, and registrations are not transferable. In addition, you may need a CourseID, provided by your instructor, to register for and use Pearson's MyLab & Mastering products. Packages Access codes for Pearson's MyLab & Mastering products may not be included when purchasing or renting from companies other than Pearson; check with the seller before completing your purchase. Used or rental books If you rent or purchase a used book with an access code, the access code may have been redeemed previously and you may have to purchase a new access code. Access codes Access codes that are purchased from sellers other than Pearson carry a higher risk of being either the wrong ISBN or a previously redeemed code. Check with the seller prior to purchase. -- A brief text presenting conflicts and controversies surrounding social welfare policy. This book is part of the Connecting Core Competencies Series. This series helps students understand and master CSWE's core competencies with a variety of pedagogy highlighted competency content and critical thinking questions for the competencies throughout. Essentials of Social Welfare: Politics and Public Policy (a briefer version of Social Welfare: Politics and Public Policy, 7/e) introduces the major social welfare policies and programs in the United States and encourages readers to think about conflicts in social welfare today. It emphasizes the current political aspects of policymaking and major social welfare programs. In this book, social welfare policy is portrayed as the ever-evolving result of public conflict over social problems, the resources Americans choose to allocate to those problems, the debate over whether these problems can best be solved through government, and the political choices involved in reaching even tentative consensus. Teaching & Learning Experience Personalize Learning - MySocialWorkLab delivers proven results in helping students succeed, provides engaging experiences that personalize learning, and comes from a trusted partner with educational expertise and a deep commitment to helping students and instructors achieve their goals. Improve Critical Thinking - Includes critical thinking questions in margins and end of chapter review questions that 'build' on each other. Engage Students - MySocialWorkLab engages students with videos, cases, and licensing-type core competency questions. Explore Current Issues - Includes the most recent data on healthcare reform, the midterm elections, and public policy changes, and more. Apply CSWE Core Competencies - Integrates the 2008 CSWE EPAS throughout - highlights competencies and practice behaviors and includes expensive pedagogy. MySocialWorkLab adds value with core competency videos and hundreds of competency-based questions. Support Instructors - An Instructor's Manual and Test Bank, Computerized Test Bank (MyTest), MySocialWorkLab with Pearson eText, Blackboard Test Item File, and PowerPoint presentations are included in the outstanding supplements package. Note: MySocialWorkLab does not come automatically packaged with this text. To purchase MySocialWorkLab, please visit: www.mysocialworklab.com or you can purchase a valuepack of the text + MySocialWorkLab (at no additional cost). VP: 0205042554