God And the Welfare State - 9780262042369

When the Bush administration's faith-based initiative was introduced in 2001 as thenext stage of the "war on poverty," it provoked a flurry of protest for violating the church-statedivide. Most critics didn't ask whether it could work.God and the Welfare State is the first book totrace the ideas behind George W. Bush's faith-based initiative from their roots in Catholic naturallaw theory and Dutch Calvinism to an American think tank, the Center for Public Justice. ComparingBush's plan with the ways the same ideas have played out in Christian Democratic welfare policies inEurope, the author is skeptical that it will be an effective new way to fight poverty. But he takesthe animating ideas very seriously, as they go to the heart of the relationship among religion,government, and social welfare.In the end Daly argues that these ideas--which are now entrenched infederal and state politics--are a truly radical departure from American traditions of governance.Although Bush's initiative roughly overlaps with more conventional conservative efforts tostrengthen private power in economic life, it promises an unprecedented shift in the balance ofpower between secular and religious approaches to social problems and suggests a broader templatefor "faith-based governance," in which the state would have a much more limited role in socialpolicy.