Help with a sociology paper

[Cowboy Killer]

I'm doing a research paper on welfare (as an institution) in the united states and I'm comparing it to another country.... Does anybody have some suggestions on what a good country would be to compare and where I can get statistics and journals and things of that nature?

[More Fire for the People]

Compare United States and Canada because they are so similar. Another good example would be Sweden or Norway with the United States as they have the most extensive welfare states. A counter-example would be South Korea or Ireland which have little welfare support.

[ellipsis]

I was gonna say Canada, too. But you might be able to rattle some cages comparing the US and Cuba.

[Invincible Summer]

If your uni/college has access to it, use socINDEX via Ebscohost search engine, or JSTOR. I usually get most if not all of my journal sources for my papers from these online journal databases.


I would also recommend comparing the US to a more welfare-state country such as Sweden or Norway... or if you can find good data, Cuba as that would just be awesome.

[Cowboy Killer]

Where would be a good place to find statistical data?

[ellipsis]

the state department website has statistical profiles on every country.

[blake 3:17]

Have you read Piven and Cloward? I did a quick google on them, and the American Right and Centre has gone ape shit on them. Regulating the Poor is an excellent history of social assistance in the US. A bit more detail on the AFDC than I really needed, but better too much than too little.

If you were doing Canada I'd suggest looking at:

Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives http://www.policyalternatives.ca/

Income Security Advocacy Centre http://www.incomesecurity.org/resources.html

Both are very political, but considered "respectable", and do get a bit of space in The Mainstream. Not much, but some.

If you want further Canadian resources (on details around regions, forms of welfare, unemployment insurance, maternity leaves, workfare, blah blah) PM me.

[ellipsis]

Also their are some indexes that may be helpful. Human development index may be one of them. There is another where it measure the concentration of wealth within a society, but I can't remember the name and don't want to dig through my college notebooks.