In the United States, rates of divorce and out-of-wedlock childbirth are climbing so dramatically that over half of the next generation is likely to spend part of its childhood in single-mother families. As many as half of these families will live in poverty, caused in large measure by the failure of current government regulations to secure adequate child support from absent parents and to assure minimum support when parents cannot provide it. Assuring Child Support introduces the Child Support Assurance System, a remedy to this problem that is both feasible and affordable, a practical reform that is within the nation's grasp. "An extremely well-written and provocative book." —Eastern Economic Journal

This insightful and original book is the first to examine the relationship between families and the state in the United States, both in theory and in practice, using child support policy as a lens of analysis. Josephson cogently presents the origins, evolution, and organization of federal child support programs and persuasively demonstrates how some child support enforcement policies, rather than increasing women's access to economic resources, expand government and social control over the beneficiaries. Drawing on the literature of both feminist political theory and public policy implementation, Josephson analyzes the impact of family law and social welfare policies through several empirical case studies. This is important reading for anyone interested in political theory, public policy, and women's relationship to the state.