Reconsidering Social Welfare Policy: Introduction

The Yale Law and Policy Review makes an important and timely contribution by devoting these two issues of its fourth volume to the renewed national debate over the Great Society and the course of social welfare policy in the United States in the years ahead. The dialogue in these pages comes at a time when President Reagan, in his State of the Union Address for 1986, has registered concern over the condition of America's families and the problem of chronic welfare dependency, and has launched a search for new initiatives by directing the White House Domestic Council to report to him by December 1, 1986, with recommendations for "immediate action to meet the financial, educational, social and safety concerns of poor families."