You know that the world, the country, the society you live in is filled with social problems. But what is a social problem? Does drug abuse qualify? Certainly. Is driving a car a social problem? Of course not. Yet automobiles kill more Americans each year than drugs do. Drugs injure the health of thousands of people yearly; auto drivers injure millions. The point is that the criteria for deciding what is a social problem may not be as self-evident as they first seem. This study of social problems will help the reader to understand the factors that lie behind the many specific social problems of our society. It also explores the ways they are treated, why we often fail in solving them, and under what conditions we may find more effective solutions. Each chapter contains a number of short illustrations and one main example. How different theories deal with different social problems is shown through the study of poverty; the study of power - through the example of the mobilization of migrant workers; the study of how consensus changes - through the discussion of racial problems. In an analytic rather than descriptive treatment, Social Problems uses core concepts of sociological and political science theory - organization, goal-setting, power, for example - to explain the dynamics of our social problems and social programs. The reader will gain an analytic grasp of the forces working behind the ever changing and numerous details. - Dust jacket.