Title: Social Welfare II: The Politics of Welfare Reform
1Social Welfare II The Politics of Welfare Reform
- Social Construction of Target Populations
Implications for Politics and Policy, Anne
Schneider and Helen Ingram, (June 1993). - Race Coding" and White Opposition to Welfare,
Martin Gilens. The American Political Science
Review (Sep., 1996). - Setting the Terms of Relief Explaining State
Policy Choices in the Devolution Revolution, Joe
Soss Sanford F. Schram Thomas P. Vartanian
Erin O'Brien American Journal of Political
Science, (Apr., 2001).
2Explaining Welfare Retrenchment An Examination
of Alternative Theories of Welfare Provision
3Welfare
- Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC)
1935-1996 - Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
1996-present
4The Decline in Welfare Benefit Levels over Time
5The Decline in Welfare Benefit Levels over Time
6Welfare Reform
- Significant changes in program requirements
- Work requirements
- Cooperation in paternity determination/child
support - Sanctions for noncompliance
- Family Cap
- Time limits
7A Puzzle?
- What has caused these dramatic changes in welfare
provision in the U.S.?
8Traditional Theories of Welfare State Development
- Accumulation of Knowledge
- role of knowledge, information in the development
of social welfare policy - as we have learned more about the scope and
permanence of poverty, social welfare effort has
increased
9Traditional Theories of Welfare State Development
- Evolution of Citizenship (T.H. Marshall)
- definition of citizenship inevitably proceeds
through stages - Civil - basic freedoms and rights
- Political - political enfranchisement
- Social - broad range of socioeconomic rights
10Traditional Theories of Welfare State Development
- Modernization (Wilensky)
- development of social welfare linked to
industrialization - Social problems
- Economic capacity
11Alternative Theories
- Fiscal Capacity
- Partisan Control
- Public Opinion/Ideology
- The Race to the Bottom
- The Failure of AFDC
- Racial Politics
12What is the Race to the Bottom ?
- Welfare Magnet Hypothesis
- Predicts that poor persons will migrate from
states with low welfare benefits to those with
more generous welfare policies
13What is the Race to the Bottom ?
- Benefit Competition Hypothesis
- Predicts that states regularly compete with
surrounding states to offer the least generous
welfare assistance to try to discourage poor
people from moving to their state (and thus avoid
becoming welfare magnets)
14What is the Race to the Bottom ?
- Benefit Competition Hypothesis
- Potentially explains differences between U.S.
welfare state compared to other Western
democracies - Leads to less than desirable benefit levels
- Used to justify call for uniform benefit levels
set be federal government - What about decline in welfare generosity over
time within U.S.?
15What is the Race to the Bottom ?
- Residency requirements
- The race to the bottom began in earnest after the
1969 Supreme Court decision which declared
residency requirements unconstitutional
16What is the Race to the Bottom ?
17Is there a Race to the Bottom?
18Is there a Race to the Bottom?
- Welfare magnet effect
- Mixed evidence
- Benefit competition effect
- Most studies find a neighbor effect
- Wide variation in magnitude of the effect
- Decrease in neighbor benefit of 1 estimated to
lead to decrease in a states benefit of anywhere
between .06 1.00 - Not enough to explain most of the benefit decline
- Can this explain welfare reform?
19The Racial Politics of Welfare Retrenchment
- Schneider and Ingram Policy outputs a function
of two important characteristics of the target
population - The social construction of the target population
(Deserving vs. Undeserving) - The political power of the target population
(weak vs. strong)
20The Racial Politics of Welfare Retrenchment
21The Racial Politics of Welfare Retrenchment
- Social Constructions
- Not all groups have a clear s.c.
- Much of the politics of agenda setting concerns
efforts to define and re-define prevailing social
constructions of target populations - Often through re-defining the target population
(example Aids)
22 23Race and Support for WelfareThe Individual Level
- Evidence suggests that two racial attitudes among
whites interact to affect attitudes about
welfare - Race of the target
- Stereotypes about black work ethic
-
24Race and Support for WelfareThe Individual Level
- Evidence suggests that perceptions of the target
population for welfare programs have changed over
the last few decades - Negative stereotypes of black/minority work ethic
remain widespread -
25The Increasing Salience of Race Over Time
(Gilens 2003)
26Survey Experiments and Race of the Target
27Survey Experiments and Race of the Target
- Avery and Peffley (2003)
- The results consistently showed that respondents
who viewed the black image were more likely to - Blame the woman for her condition
- Think that she is less likely to look for a new
job. - Believe that most people could get by without
welfare.
28Gilens (APSR 1996)
29Racial Politics and Welfare Policy
- Does this translate into public policy outcomes?
- Does the percentage of welfare recipients that
are black in a state lead to decreased welfare
generosity in that state?
30Racial Politics and Welfare Policy
- Studies Finding a Relationship Between Racial
Composition of Welfare Rolls and Welfare Benefits - Orr (1976)
- Wright (1977)
- Plotnick and Winters (1985)
- Brown (1995)
- Moffit, Ribar and Wilhelm (1998)
- Howard (1999)
- Bailey and Rom (2003)
31Racial Politics and Welfare Policy
- Magnitude of Racial Effect (From 1995)
- State A (Average State)
- African-American 33
- Maximum (monthly) AFDC Benefit 600
- State B (High African American)
- African-American 83
- Maximum (monthly) AFDC Benefit 400
- State C (Low African American)
- African-American 1
- Maximum (monthly) AFDC Benefit 728
32Racial Politics and Welfare Policy (Soss, et al.
2001)
33Racial Politics and Welfare Policy (Soss, et al.
2001)
34Conclusions
- The effect of race raises important questions
about the structure and future of U.S. public
assistance - Desirability of devolution vs. national standards
- Increasing racialization of welfare
(significance of social construction of target
population) - Debates over representation