A Political History of the American Welfare

How did American welfare policy move from the ambitious and altruistic goals of LBJ's Great Society of the 1960s to the punitive and penurious provisions of the Personal Responsibility and Work Reconciliation Act of 1996? This book explores the power of ideology and rhetoric in the transformation of the American liberal welfare state. Based on historical analysis, detailed public policy critique, and original interview data, the story that unfolds is one of both personality and politics. Author Brendon O'Connor places the American welfare policy debate in wider perspective, showing how America's particular use of ideas and conceptions of economics and politics worked to reshape the national perception of poverty, morality, and economic responsibility over time.

Brendon O'Connor is a lecturer in the School of Politics and Public Policy at Griffith University in Australia.

Acknowledgments	p. vii
Introduction	p. 1
The Liberal Welfare System
Liberalism and Welfare: The Ideological and Political Roots of the American Welfare System	p. 19
The Liberal Consensus and the Great Society	p. 49
The Seeds of Doom for Liberalism	p. 71
The Conservative Attack on Welfare Liberalism
The Neoconservatives	p. 93
Reagan's Conservatives: The Supply-Siders, George Gilder, and Charles Murray	p. 111
The New Right	p. 137
A Populist Backlash?	p. 157
The Emergence of a Conservative Welfare System
Bill Clinton's Third Way Welfare Politics: Innovation, Compromise, and Capitulation	p. 185
Newt Gingrich, the Contract with America, and Justifying the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996	p. 205
Conservative Welfare Policy in Practice	p. 223
Conclusion	p. 239
Postscript 2002	p. 245
Bibliography	p. 259
Index	p. 285
About the Author	p. 293
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A Political History of the American Welfare System When Ideas Have Consequences

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Author Biography

Table of Contents

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