Social Welfare II: The Politics of Welfare Reform

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Social 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).

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Explaining Welfare Retrenchment An Examination
of Alternative Theories of Welfare Provision
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Welfare

• Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC)
  1935-1996
• Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
  1996-present

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The Decline in Welfare Benefit Levels over Time
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The Decline in Welfare Benefit Levels over Time
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Welfare Reform

• Significant changes in program requirements
• Work requirements
• Cooperation in paternity determination/child
  support
• Sanctions for noncompliance
• Family Cap
• Time limits

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A Puzzle?

• What has caused these dramatic changes in welfare
  provision in the U.S.?

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Traditional 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

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Traditional 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

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Traditional Theories of Welfare State Development

• Modernization (Wilensky)
• development of social welfare linked to
  industrialization
• Social problems
• Economic capacity

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Alternative Theories

• Fiscal Capacity
• Partisan Control
• Public Opinion/Ideology
• The Race to the Bottom
• The Failure of AFDC
• Racial Politics

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What 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

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What 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)

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What 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.?

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What 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

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What is the Race to the Bottom ?
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Is there a Race to the Bottom?
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Is 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?

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The 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)

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The Racial Politics of Welfare Retrenchment
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The 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)

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Race 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

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Race 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

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The Increasing Salience of Race Over Time
(Gilens 2003)
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Survey Experiments and Race of the Target

• Avery and Peffley (2003)

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Survey 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.

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Gilens (APSR 1996)
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Racial 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?

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Racial 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)

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Racial 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

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Racial Politics and Welfare Policy (Soss, et al.
2001)
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Racial Politics and Welfare Policy (Soss, et al.
2001)
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Conclusions

• 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