scholarly journals How Johnson Fought the War on Poverty: The Economics and Politics of Funding at the Office of Economic Opportunity

2014 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 351-388 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martha J. Bailey ◽  
Nicolas J. Duquette
Keyword(s):  
New Deal ◽  
War On Poverty ◽  
Economic Opportunity ◽  
Johnson Administration ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Office Of Economic Opportunity ◽  
Economic Opportunity Act ◽  
Political Variables ◽  
Economics And Politics

This article presents a quantitative analysis of the geographic distribution of spending through the 1964 Economic Opportunity Act (EOA). Using newly assembled state- and county-level data, the results show that the Johnson administration directed funding in ways consistent with the War on Poverty's rhetoric of fighting poverty and racial discrimination: poorer areas and those with a greater share of nonwhite residents received systematically more funding. In contrast to New Deal spending, political variables explain very little of the variation in EOA funding. The smaller role of politics may help explain the strong backlash against the War on Poverty's programs.

scholarly journals A High-Wire Crusade: Republicans and the War on Poverty, 1966

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 382-405
Author(s):  
Mark McLay
Keyword(s):  
New Deal ◽  
Republican Party ◽  
War On Poverty ◽  
Economic Opportunity ◽  
Great Society ◽  
Elementary And Secondary Education ◽  
Education Act ◽  
Economic Opportunity Act ◽  
Antipoverty Programs ◽  
The New Deal

Abstract:During 1966, the Republican Party launched a largely successful challenge to Lyndon Johnson’s “War on Poverty.” Republican candidates pursued an anti–War on Poverty midterm strategy, which made antipoverty programs the symbol of Great Society liberalism, rather than its more popular programs, such as Medicare or the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Moreover, in Congress and on the campaign trail, Republicans offered well-crafted alternatives—such as their “Opportunity Crusade”—to offset charges of negativism and elitism that had dogged the Grand Old Party (GOP) since the creation of the New Deal in the 1930s. Significantly, while the War on Poverty survived the year, the Republican minority was unexpectedly successful in making important changes to the Economic Opportunity Act during the antipoverty legislation’s renewal. Overall, the Republican challenge to the War on Poverty in 1966, boded ill for the program’s longevity when the GOP finally secured the levers of power.

Mississippi Republicans and the Politics of Poverty

2020 ◽  
pp. 150-175
Author(s):  
Emma J. Folwell
Keyword(s):  
Republican Party ◽  
Color Blindness ◽  
War On Poverty ◽  
Economic Opportunity ◽  
Massive Resistance ◽  
Richard Nixon ◽  
Office Of Economic Opportunity ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Way

Chapter six explores the impact of the election of Richard Nixon on the war on poverty. It uncovers the conversations in the new Republican administration regarding the fate of the war on poverty, from questions over whether to rename the Office of Economic Opportunity to the appointment of Don Rumsfeld as OEO director. The chapter then moves on to discuss the way in which the evolution of massive resistance after 1965 and white opposition to the war on poverty shaped and contributed to emerging strands of conservative Republicanism in Mississippi. It places Mississippi’s “conservative color-blindness” in the broader context of the rise of the sunbelt South. Finally, the chapter illustrates the ways in which grassroots conservative groups—particularly women—were central to forging an ostensibly race neutral war against the war on poverty that was vital to the growing Mississippi Republican Party.

The Mainline Churches and Head Start in Mississippi: Religious Activism in the Sixties

1995 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-250 ◽  
Author(s):  
James F. Findlay
Keyword(s):  
Head Start ◽  
Mississippi River ◽  
Farm Workers ◽  
War On Poverty ◽  
Economic Opportunity ◽  
Preschool Program ◽  
The Sixties ◽  
Lower Mississippi River ◽  
Religious Activism ◽  
Economic Opportunity Act

One of the most innovative provisions of the Economic Opportunity Act, passed by Congress in August 1964 as the heart of Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty, was funding for a preschool program for the youngest of America's poor, known as Head Start. Many children were qualified for Head Start in Mississippi, the poorest state in the nation. This was especially so in the northwest quadrant of that state. The area, known locally as “the Delta,” was dominated by the floodplain of the lower Mississippi River, a largely rural, cotton-based economy, and tens of thousands of desperately poor, largely black, farm workers.

The Institutional Architecture of Progressive Democracy

2019 ◽  
pp. 113-148
Author(s):  
Blake Emerson
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Public Participation ◽  
New Deal ◽  
Social Background ◽  
Economic Opportunity ◽  
The Social ◽  
Tennessee Valley ◽  
Office Of Economic Opportunity ◽  
The New Deal ◽  
Second Reconstruction

This chapter describes examples of Progressive administration from the New Deal and the Second Reconstruction. This account explores the tension between public deliberation in the administrative process and efficient delivery of the services that make democracy possible. During the New Deal, the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Agricultural Adjustment Administration engaged in highly deliberative forms of land use planning. But these deliberative procedures tended to exclude low-income and minority farmers. The Farm Security Administration, by contrast, provided desperately needed goods and services to poor farmers, but did not generally engage them in administrative policymaking. As the New Deal drew to a close, the Progressive emphasis on participatory modes of administration were codified in a thin form in the Administrative Procedure Act. At the same time, the social impacts of the New Deal agricultural agencies created some of the conditions for the Second Reconstruction. During the Second Reconstruction, civil rights agencies attempted to combine public participation and efficient bureaucracy in new institutional forms. The Department of Health, Education, and Welfare developed broad understandings of the social background for segregation that enabled courts to integrate schools in the South. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission deliberated with civil rights groups and the courts to develop the disparate impact theory of discrimination. The Office of Economic Opportunity instituted radical forms of public participation in implementing the “maximum feasible participation” requirement of the Economic Opportunity Act.

The American Poverty Programme 1969–71

1974 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Holman
Keyword(s):  
War On Poverty ◽  
Economic Opportunity ◽  
Office Of Economic Opportunity ◽  
Access To Documents ◽  
American Poverty

Studies of the American ‘War on Poverty’ have concentrated on the period 1964–8 during which it attracted much attention due, firstly, to its optimistic claims to abolish poverty and, secondly, to the militant tactics used by some of its participants. Little note has been given to the years 1969–71, yet during this period significant changes occurred. In the Spring term of 1972 I was able to visit a number of the programme's projects and to study at the headquarters of the Office of Economic Opportunity. Having had access to documents with a limited circulation I am thus able to describe developments in the later period in a way which, to my knowledge, has not been published previously in Britain.

War on Dependency: Liberal Individualism and the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964

1992 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-231 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gareth Davies
Keyword(s):  
National Income ◽  
War On Poverty ◽  
Economic Opportunity ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Lyndon Johnson ◽  
Economic Opportunity Act ◽  
Rehabilitative Services ◽  
Liberal Individualism ◽  
Economic Adviser

In 1964 President Lyndon Johnson, professing himself alarmed by the seemingly “endless growth of relief rolls,” declared “war” on poverty. Walter Heller, his chief economic adviser, had recently remarked that it would be quite possible to eliminate the symptoms of poverty by simply redistributing two percent of the national income. Johnson, however, preferred to attack thesourcesof deprivation, claiming that the range of rehabilitative services provided by his Economic Opportunity Act would allow the poor to engineer their own paths to affluence.

Thoughts on poverty and its elimination

1972 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Morton S. Baratz ◽  
William G. Grigsby
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Public Assistance ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Other ◽  
War On Poverty ◽  
Economic Opportunity ◽  
Total Employment ◽  
Economic Opportunity Act ◽  
American Household

Efforts to eliminate poverty as a major domestic problem in the United States have a long history. The attack was significantly heightened in 1964 with the passage of the Economic Opportunity Act, the statute designed as the foundation of the so-called war on poverty. In the succeeding years which have encompassed two national Administrations, one Democratic and the other Republican, a variety of means have been brought to bear on the problem. Public-assistance expenditures have spiralled upward and substantial amounts of money and manpower have been funnelled into preexisting and new programmes to increase total employment, improve housing, provide more and better health care, equalize opportunities and outcomes across ethnic and racial groupings, and bring legal justice, safety and security to those who have heretofore lacked the financial means for full enjoyment of these values. Still other anti-poverty programmes are under active consideration, most notably President Nixon's proposal to put an income floor under every American household.

What's Happening to Profits at Cazenovia Creations?

2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret Garnsey ◽  
Andrea Hotaling
Keyword(s):  
Financial Analysis ◽  
Financial Statements ◽  
Internal Controls ◽  
Net Income ◽  
Database Query ◽  
Microsoft Access ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Query Tool ◽  
Transaction Level

ABSTRACT In this case, students assume the role of an accounting professional asked by a client to investigate why net income is not as strong as expected. The students must first analyze a set of financial statements to identify areas of possible concern. After determining the areas to investigate, the students use a database query tool to see if they can determine causes by examining transaction level data. Finally, the students are asked to professionally communicate their findings and recommendations to their client. The case provides students with experience in using query-based approaches to answering business questions. It is appropriate for students with basic query and financial analysis skills and knowledge of internal controls. A Microsoft Access database with transaction details for the final seven months of the current year as well as financial statements for the current and prior year are provided.

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