1. THIS MORNING:
1. Some remarks and data pertaining to the "welfare system"
2. The argument for government revisited



2. WELFARE AS A "CONSTRUCTED" PUBLIC ENEMY:
1. Welfare reforms that Congress enacted last year were based largely on the beliefs discussed Wednesday's notes.
1. Dana, Theresa, and others tend to dominate our perceptions
2. The reforms
1. State control fits with public philosophy
2. Aid to Families With Dependent Children is no longer an entitlement.
3. Work and education requirements
3. The "welfare mess" is partially "constructed."
1. Constructed means that certain opinion leaders (both in and out of government) create images of the poverty in a way that serves their interests, but does not represent a single, objective reality.
4. Beliefs about welfare serve various (unintended) public functions:
1. it further reinforces and justifies distrust of government.
2. certain groups use the "welfare mess" as a vehicle to attack government programs that threaten their interests.
1. Example: by souring public opinion about government groups can successfully challenge regulations such as health and safety standards that are unrelated to anti-poverty programs.
3. anger at the poor keeps the lower and working classes, blacks and whites divided and demobilized.



3. WELFARE-THE OTHER SIDE OF THE STORY:
1. Welfare is not the most expensive or wasteful category of public spending.
1. The graphs that I want to display show that spending for the most notorious welfare program, Aid to Families With Dependent Children, was not as generous or out of control as commonly believed.
2. Poverty is caused mostly by socio-economic circumstances, not personal irresponsibility or government ineptitude.
3. Welfare rolls contain mostly individuals genuinely in need of assistance.
1. Benefits mostly targeted at children or disabled.
4. Social welfare system has and can succeed in solving problems.
1. See attached figures.
2. Welfare programs explain movement of aged from most impoverished category to relatively well off.

1. SOME BOTTOM LINE GENERALIZATIONS:
1. Government can be an effective tool to solve problems that by nature cannot be solved by private enterprise or the market place.
2. Given some of the evidence presented throughout the semester one can even say that far from being too big and powerful, government lacks the capacity to solve problems.
1. Surprisingly, welfare remains a problem because it has not received enough attention.
3. Hence, the political system needs to be reformed but not in a way that weakens public power.
1. Instead, reforms should
1. first be based on a realistic understanding of how the system works and what's really wrong with it;
2. and second, make is more capable of dealing with national problems while at the same time enhancing democracy via enlightened understanding and popular control.



2. NEXT TIME:
1. Course evaluation and third test.
1. Reading: finish There Are No Children Here; pages in Dynamics of Democracy that have been listed in the notes.

Go to notes page

Go to Political Science 105 page