A01=Brian Steensland
Activism
African Americans
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
Amendment
Americans
Author_Brian Steensland
automatic-update
Basic income
Capitalism
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=JBFC
Category=JBFD
Category=JKS
Category=JKSB
Civil society
Consideration
COP=United States
Criticism
Culture of poverty
Deliberation
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
Domestic policy
Economic citizenship
Economic growth
Economic security
Economist
Employment
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Government
Guaranteed minimum income
Ideology
Income
Individualism
Inflation
Institution
Insurance
Language_English
Legislation
Male unemployment
Milton Friedman
Minimum wage
Negative income tax
Obstacle
PA=Available
Payment
Payroll
Policy
Political campaign
Political strategy
Politician
Politics
Pollution
Poverty
Poverty in the United States
Poverty reduction
Price_€20 to €50
Provision (contracting)
PS=Active
Public sphere
Requirement
Social issue
Social movement
Social policy
softlaunch
State government
Structural unemployment
Subsidy
Tax
Tax rate
The New York Times
Transfer payment
Unemployment
Unemployment benefits
Wage
War on Poverty
Welfare
Welfare fraud
Welfare reform
Welfare rights
Welfare state
Work behavior
Work ethic
Workfare
Workforce
Working class
Working poor
Product details
- ISBN 9780691177977
- Dimensions: 152 x 235mm
- Publication Date: 31 Oct 2017
- Publisher: Princeton University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
- Language: English
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
Today the United States has one of the highest poverty rates among the world's rich industrial democracies. The Failed Welfare Revolution shows us that things might have turned out differently. During the 1960s and 1970s, policymakers in three presidential administrations tried to replace the nation's existing welfare system with a revolutionary program to guarantee Americans basic economic security. Surprisingly from today's vantage point, guaranteed income plans received broad bipartisan support in the 1960s. One proposal, President Nixon's Family Assistance Plan, nearly passed into law in the 1970s, and President Carter advanced a similar bill a few years later. The failure of these proposals marked the federal government's last direct effort to alleviate poverty among the least advantaged and, ironically, sowed the seeds of conservative welfare reform strategies under President Reagan and beyond. This episode has largely vanished from America's collective memory. Here, Brian Steensland tells the whole story for the first time--from why such an unlikely policy idea first developed to the factors that sealed its fate.
His account, based on extensive original research in presidential archives, draws on mainstream social science perspectives that emphasize the influence of powerful stakeholder groups and policymaking institutions. But Steensland also shows that some of the most potent obstacles to guaranteed income plans were cultural. Most centrally, by challenging Americans' longstanding distinction between the "deserving" and "undeserving" poor, the plans threatened the nation's cultural, political, and economic status quo.
Brian Steensland is assistant professor of sociology at Indiana University.
