Welfare Programs

Paper Summary:

This paper compares the welfare programs under former President Johnson's "War on Poverty" to today's politically conservative approach to welfare programs. The paper contends that, while President Johnson's programs were committed to the maximum feasible participation of the poor, today's welfare policies have caused a narrowing rather than an expansion of the citizenship of the poor. The paper concludes by suggesting that the challenge for anti-poverty and labor activists now is to create a coordinated response that harnesses the progressive possibilities of the War on Poverty to contest the disenfranchisement and further impoverishment of poor mothers and their communities.

From the Paper:

"For a short time, the War on Poverty expanded the local citizenship. Today, this differs from the disenfranchisement and urban disinvestment of today's policies. Commitment to maximum feasible participation of the poor has disappeared from the welfare policies of the 1980s and 1990s. Emphasis on community action and comprehensive, multiservice, community-based approaches to fighting poverty has receded from public discourse. So have calls for local community control over the assessment of community needs and the design and implementation of antipoverty programs. Contemporary welfare reform shifts control over funds for social support to the individual states, but it does not require or invite the active participation of community residents and welfare recipients in program design, resource allocation, and implementation. However, certain features that were prominent in the Community Action title of the Economic Opportunity Act have gained renewed popularity in the contemporary conservative political climate: namely, community service and decentralization."

More papers on Welfare Programs:

• Essay # 36719 : "Social Welfare Programs"
• Essay # 31969 : "Welfare Programs"
• Essay # 47021 : "Current Welfare Programs"

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