Speaker addresses welfare reform

By Kirstin Schoeninger
Collegian Reporter
October 18, 2006

Frances Fox Piven, an award-winning professor of sociology and political science, delivered a lecture advocating the liberalization of welfare reform and social programming in the United States at La Salle Oct. 12.

Piven is a distinguished Professor at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She is viewed as one of the leading sociologists in the United States, and is currently the president-elect of the American Sociological Association.

Piven’s speech focused on the history of welfare reform from the 1930s, highlighting the peaks and valleys of American social programs and current issues plaguing the state of welfare.

Addressing students and faculty in the crowded Dan Rodden Theater, Piven began by introducing common misconceptions regarding welfare and its current state in the eyes of the public. Currently, she said, welfare is viewed in a negative light, with popular opinion being that it is overly costly and too easy on the poor. According to Piven, at its peak, welfare cost one percent of the federal budget and aided five million families.

Piven also integrated her personal opinions on the matter. “How a society treats its poorest illuminates the culture of that society,” she said.

A proponent of increasing welfare aid and liberalizing other social programs, Piven said that the issue at hand is much deeper than current political opinions against welfare. Rather, welfare acts as a foil for larger political campaigns which target all social programs and the political culture from which these programs give rise.

Piven also spoke in depth on the history of welfare in the United States. Originating in the 1930s, America became a welfare state in the wake of the Great Depression. Reform was everywhere as Americans used “pocketbook politics” (a term Piven coined), taking their own personal experiences to the polls during election season.

The second wave of reform in social programs came about in the 1960s, Piven said. As a result of the African-American and feminist rights movements, social programming flourished. Medicare, Medicaid and liberalized social security were introduced in this decade, but by the 1970s, the movement had subsided. The greed that characterized the 1980s, paired with the growing strength of big business, put a stronger emphasis on right wing ideology. It began to break down the advances in social programming that had been made decades before, Piven said.

By the 1990s, the conservative ideology that came to target the working class had overtaken even the Democrats, Piven said. She cited the Clinton Administration’s campaign against welfare as the culminating event surrounding the counter-movement on social reform.

Clinton’s signing of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 had detrimental effects on America’s poor, Piven said.

She again voiced her dissent towards modern welfare cuts, emphasizing the rise in poverty levels, especially among children, since the 1996 act was passed.

Piven also discussed the recent rise in faith-based social services and their impact on welfare. Public money is being given to religious organizations, forcing those who would normally receive support from the government to turn to fundamentalist Protestant groups, Piven said.

These government-sponsored religious institutions are quickly becoming a powerful political machine and another tool for right-wing politicians, she said.

Piven ended her speech on a lighter note, saying that there is still hope for a turnaround in the reform of social programs, and it is possible to increase support to the poor through welfare. Despite the developments that have taken place in the last decade to try and eradicate welfare and decrease money spent on social programs, public opinion has remained in support of most social institutions.

Healthcare, social security and unemployment are regarded by most Americans as favorable, Piven said.

New social movements are emerging as well, she said, and these movements are essential in instating reform similar to the changes that occurred in the 1930s and 1960s. Supporting these movements will provide strength to the campaign to increase support for social programs, she said.

Piven’s lecture was sponsored by La Salle University’s Department of Sociology, Social Work, and Criminal Justice.

schoeningerk1@lasalle.edu