Background

Gilbert Yale Steiner was born on March 11, 1924, in New York City, New York, United States. He was a son of Isidor Aaron Steiner, and Fannie Steiner (maiden name Gelbtrunk).

Education

Gilbert Yale Steiner received his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees at Columbia University in 1945 and 1948 respectively. It was followed by a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Illinois two years later.

Career

The start of Gilbert Yale Steiner’s career can be counted from his military service at the United States Army from 1943 to 1946.

As to his career as a political scientist, it reflected an evolution from relatively narrow concerns to broader ones that grew out of them, and it can be divided into an earlier and a later phase. In the earlier phase, from 1950 to 1966, Steiner taught and did research as a member of the faculty of the University of Illinois. During that period, he studied questions of local interest but broader resonance such as legislative redistricting and legislative bargaining in Illinois, and in the government of Chicago.

Some of his publications during this first phase were co-written with Samuel Kimball Gove or Rubin Goodman Cohn. ‘The 1960 Legislative Politics in Illinois’, co-authored with Gove, examined the influences of such forces as a governor, a mayor, and legislative committees in the passage of legislation.

In 1966 Steiner was appointed senior fellow at the Brookings Institute in Washington, District of Columbia. It was during this time that he began to publish, under the Brookings aegis, the works of import for a wider audience: thoughtful monographs on welfare policy and family policy. The ‘Social Insecurity: The Politics of Welfare’ was an early attempt to reconceive the welfare system. Its recommendations included making financial aid rather than social rehabilitation the goal of welfare.

In 1976, with the assistance of Pauline H. Milius, Gilbert Yale Steiner wrote ‘The Children's Cause’, an examination of the ways in which governmental childcare bureaucracies had failed to meet the needs of children, owing, the authors felt, to the lack of an underlying, coherent social theory. Another volume by Steiner, ‘The Futility of Family Policy’, followed in 1981. The book in which he asserted that the government’s role should be limited to poor or dysfunctional families was met favorably by critics.

In addition to his educational activity at the Brookings Institute, Steiner taught political science as a visiting professor at the University of California at Berkeley, Brigham Young University, and others. He also worked as a consultant to the Bush Foundation and the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation.

Gilbert Yale Steiner retired from the Brookings Institute in the capacity of the director of its Governmental Studies Program.

Achievements

• Gilbert Yale Steiner was an accomplished political expert, educator, and author who produced many comprehensive volumes on the subject.
  
  As a director of the Governmental Studies Program of the Brookings Institute, Steiner contributed to its development inviting quality academics to the institution.
  
  Steiner was a recipient of the fellowships from the Social Science Research Council and Ford Foundation.

Works

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  • Constitutional Inequality: the Political Fortunes of the Equal Rights Amendment

    (The book traces the history of the Equal Rights Amendment...)

    1985
  • The Abortion Dispute and the American System

    (The volume presents the essays of the participants of the...)

    1983
  • The State of Welfare

    (The book examines the state of public welfare in the Unit...)

    1971
  • The Congressional Conference Committee Seventieth to Eightieth Congresses 1951
  • The Futility of Family Policy 1981
  • Legislation by Collective Bargaining: The Agreed Bill in Illinois Unemployment Compensation Legislation 1951
  • Social Insecurity: the Politics of Welfare 1966
  • Welfare Options and Welfare Politics 1969
  • The Children's Cause 1976

Membership

Gilbert Yale Steiner was a member of the boards of directors of the Foundation for Child Development, Manpower Demonstration and Research Corporation, and the Governance Institute.

Connections

Gilbert Yale Steiner married Louise King on July 27, 1950. The family produced three children named Charles King, Daniel Tod, and Paula Amy.

Father:

Isidor Aaron Steiner

Mother:

Fannie Steiner

Spouse:

Louise King

Son:

Daniel Tod Steiner

Son:

Charles King Steiner

Daughter:

Paula Amy Steiner