Welfare and Foreign Aid Practices in the Contemporary United States: a Governmental Study (original) (raw)

This article aims to expose the main governmental shifts in recent American history (1961-2000) by examining two programs: the Assistance to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) and the Agency for International development (US-AID). Through the exploration of primary and secondary sources, we analyse the production, organisation and circulation of governmental practices in the realms of both domestic and foreign policy. In the American context, practices of government typically revolve around freedom, efficiency models and individual responsibility. Throughout the analysis, we find that the general critiques which have guided reforms and experiments in both areas converge around the same elements. This testifies to the fact that the reflexions and technical models directed at the optimal management of populations are more far-reaching than they first appear. Moreover, the historical transformations in welfare and foreign aid practices bear out the increasingly disciplinary nature of the administration and objectification of the poor, both within the United States and internationally.

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Not for Widows Only: Institutional Politics and the Formative Years of Aid to Dependent Children

American Sociological Review, 1996

We argue and demonstrate that Aid to Dependent Children (ADC), the central welfare program in the United States, marked a fundamental departure from previous U.S. efforts to aid families without breadwinning fathers. In addition, we elaborate an institutional politics theory of public social provision. This theory proposes that institutional conditions limit public social provision and that reform-oriented regimes and state bureaucrats are the main forces behind social spending. We appraise this theory with a historical analysis of ADC's creation and its development from the Great Depression until after World War II and with multiple regression analyses of state- level variation in the quality of ADC programs. Our results indicate that the institutional politics theory explains much of the historical development of ADC and cross-state variation in ADC programs.

Introduction to "The Origins of the Welfare State: Global and Comparative Approaches"

2016

Stefano Agnoletto, Brian J Griffith, and Cristina Palmieri, eds. "The Origins of the Welfare State: Global and Comparative Approaches" Zapruder World: An International Journal for the History of Social Conflict 3 (2016) ISSN: 2385-1171 View Volume: http://www.zapruderworld.org/volume-3/ "This volume of Zapruder World focuses on the global and comparative history of the welfare state. The articles in this third volume fit squarely into the philosophy of our action-oriented journal. They aim not only to interact with historiographical debates or to merely question aspects of mainstream literature on the topic, but they also seek to interrogate the welfare state in order to map the terrain with an eye to action and political alternatives. We all face the dominance of neoliberal ideologies in our daily lives, seeing the consequences of attacks against public programs in areas such as health, education, income-transfers, housing, etc. Moreover, as scholars, we aim to consciously denaturalize "liberal thought," which consistently downplays the role of welfare legislation and institutions. At the same time, we have sought to avoid any celebratory language regarding the welfare state in itself. By advocating for a critical appraisal of history as a space for conflict, this volume of Zapruder World challenges liberal-conciliatory descriptions of the past. We believe that an open debate on the origins of the welfare state, as well as a greater awareness of the transformations of both the notion of the welfare state and its material organization, provide the necessary standpoint to critically reconsider its role for the future. Finally, the articles in this volume challenge the dominant focus on the "crisis" of the welfare state, inviting scholars and activists to reflect on the many alternatives offered by the welfare state in responding to the needs of people in different geographical locations and at different historical periods."

The Failed Welfare Revolution: America’s Struggle over Guaranteed Income Policy

American Journal of Sociology, 2009

announced his Family Assistance Plan (FAP) in August 1969, the administration sought to curry public favor for the plan and guide it through Congress. Frustration with the existing system ran high and the initial public reaction to the FAP was positive. During the early months of consideration, the meaning of Nixon's proposal was widely debated and its legislative prospects were far from clear. One could have supposed-as people did-that the FAP would receive support from Democrats because it was an expansion of welfare state protection, from Republicans because it was associated with Milton Friedman and had been proposed by a president from their own party, from the southern states because they stood to receive the greatest fiscal benefit from the legislation, from the working class because they would receive income supplements on top of their earned income, and from welfare rights groups because they had been calling for this type of legislation. The reality turned out to be more complex. One contemporaneous commentator, noting the surprising policy stances taken by many groups, observed that the debate over the FAP "revealed a state of ideological anarchy." 1 In the spring of 1970, the FAP passed in the House of Representatives by a large majority and headed into the Senate, which was considered the more liberal chamber of Congress. However, the plan stalled in a Senate committee for the rest of the year. This meant that new legislation needed to be proposed at the start of the 1971 congressional session. This chapter traces the debate over Nixon's first version of the FAP, which extended through the end of 1970. Understanding the trajectory of Nixon's legislation requires looking at the interplay between cultural conceptions of the poor, the policy preferences and legislative influence of various stakeholder groups, and the broader institutional context in which the policy debates took place. The distinction between the deserving and undeserving poor defined the cultural context for the whole debate. While administration officials had developed an alternative template for understanding poverty and social provision during the lead-up to Nixon's announcement, neither the president nor members of his administration utilized this new template. Instead, their language hewed closely to dominant understandings of poverty and American social policy. On the basis of the administration's rehabilitationist framing, the proposal received a considerable amount of conservative support. However, the fact that the design of the plan actually blurred the distinction between deserving and undeserving

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