The Disabled State

'The concern with "welfare cheats" is not a new one. The author reaches back several centuries to trace the fascinating history of this and other aspects of welfare policy in Germany, England, and the United States. What she finds are elaborate tests to weed out fraudulent applicants (beggars with faked afflictions) and changing criteria to distinguish the able from the "disabled." Author note: Deborah A. Stone is Associate Professor of Political Science a the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is author of The Limits of Professional Power: National Health Care in the Federal Republic of Germany.'--from books.google.com.hk.