The Invention of “Welfare” in America

1998 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 399-418 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael B. Katz ◽  
Lorrin R. Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Young Women ◽  
Women Of Color ◽  
Public Assistance ◽  
Bill Clinton ◽  
Code Word ◽  
The Political ◽  
Public Benefits ◽  
Richard Nixon ◽  
Unmarried Mothers ◽  
Political Left

In the early 1970s, President Richard Nixon referred to Aid to Families with Dependent Children as “the program we all normally think of when we think of ‘welfare.’” When President Bill Clinton promised to “end welfare as we know it” in the early 1990s, everyone knew that he meant AFDC. “Welfare” had become a code word for public assistance given mainly to unmarried mothers, mostly young women of color. Few terms evoked as much hostility among Americans as “welfare.” No other public benefits carried its stigma. The political left, right, and center all attacked it.

Battles over Abortion and Reproductive Rights

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suzanne Staggenborg ◽  
Marie B. Skoczylas
Keyword(s):  
Young Women ◽  
Women Of Color ◽  
Reproductive Rights ◽  
The United States ◽  
Gender And Sexuality ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
Symbolic Politics ◽  
Cultural Climate ◽  
History Of

This chapter examines the history of feminist struggles for abortion and reproductive rights in the United States. It analyzes why these issues continue to mobilize participants in opposing movements. Symbolic politics are an important reason for the longevity of the conflict, and issues of abortion and reproduction are connected to concerns about gender and sexuality. Movement/countermovement dynamics also help to keep the conflict alive; when one side wins a victory, the other side gains impetus for mobilization, and the opposing movements follow one another into new arenas. Feminist strategies and frames have continued to adapt to changes in the political and cultural climate. As different constituents organize, including young women and women of color, they contribute new frames and tactics to the struggle for abortion and reproductive rights.

Social Support, Well-Being, and Risk Behaviors in Young Women of Color

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Courtney L. Whitt ◽  
Stephanie L. Donnelly ◽  
Greer Findura ◽  
Guerda Nicolas
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Risk Behaviors ◽  
Young Women ◽  
Women Of Color ◽  
Well Being

Nation, Locality and Radical Identity

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malcolm Petrie
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
The Political ◽  
Central Control ◽  
Election Campaigns ◽  
Labour Movement ◽  
General Elections ◽  
Political Left ◽  
National Model ◽  
Selection Of

Concentrating upon the years between the 1924 and 1929 general elections, which separated the first and second minority Labour governments, this chapter traces the rise of a modernised, national vision of Labour politics in Scotland. It considers first the reworking of understandings of sovereignty within the Labour movement, as the autonomy enjoyed by provincial trades councils was circumscribed, and notions of Labour as a confederation of working-class bodies, which could in places include the Communist Party, were replaced by a more hierarchical, national model. The electoral consequences of this shift are then considered, as greater central control was exercised over the selection of parliamentary candidates and the conduct of election campaigns. This chapter presents a study of the changing horizons of the political left in inter-war Scotland, analysing the declining importance of locality in the construction of radical political identities.

The State as an Actor

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georg Menz
Keyword(s):  
Service Sector ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Regulatory Capture ◽  
Banking Institutions ◽  
Political Left ◽  
Central Actor ◽  
Capitalist State ◽  
State Of Affairs ◽  
Rules Of The Game

Despite the state being such a central actor in establishing and policing the rules of the game of any given political economy, its role is often neglected. In this chapter, we briefly review relevant state theories and explore changes to the nature and appearance of the capitalist state. The awesome increase in the political fire power of the financial service sector has unfortunately led to regulatory capture. The state can no longer be considered a neutral umpire, being heavily influenced by the prerogatives of major banking institutions. This state of affairs corrupts the hopes that liberals place in the self-policing powers of the marketplace and reflects certain fears on the political left regarding the pernicious effects of ‘financialization’.

Are misinformation, antiscientific claims, and conspiracy theories for political extremists?

2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 583-605
Author(s):  
Adam M. Enders ◽  
Joseph E. Uscinski
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Political Orientations ◽  
Conspiracy Beliefs ◽  
Political Left ◽  
Identity Based ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Political Groups ◽  
Representative Samples

Extremist political groups, especially “extreme” Republicans and conservatives, are increasingly charged with believing misinformation, antiscientific claims, and conspiracy theories to a greater extent than moderates and those on the political left by both a burgeoning scholarly literature and popular press accounts. However, previous investigations of the relationship between political orientations and alternative beliefs have been limited in their operationalization of those beliefs and political extremity. We build on existing literature by examining the relationships between partisan and nonpartisan conspiracy beliefs and symbolic and operational forms of political extremity. Using two large, nationally representative samples of Americans, we find that ideological extremity predicts alternative beliefs only when the beliefs in question are partisan in nature and the measure of ideology is identity-based. Moreover, we find that operational ideological extremism is negatively related to nonpartisan conspiracy beliefs. Our findings help reconcile discrepant findings regarding the relationship between political orientations and conspiracy beliefs.

Stepping Outside the Echo Chamber: Is Intellectual Humility Associated with Less Political Myside Bias?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shauna Marie Bowes ◽  
Thomas H Costello ◽  
Caroline Lee ◽  
Stacey McElroy-Heltzel ◽  
Don E. Davis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Salient Feature ◽  
Political Polarization ◽  
The Political ◽  
Intellectual Humility ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
Political Left ◽  
Echo Chamber ◽  
Left And Right ◽  
Myside Bias ◽  
Psychological Features

In recent years, an upsurge of polarization has been a salient feature of political discourse in America. A small but growing body of research has examined the potential relevance of intellectual humility (IH) to political polarization. In the present investigation, we extend this work to political myside bias, testing the hypothesis that IH is associated with less bias in two community samples (N1 = 498; N2 = 477). In line with our expectations, measures of IH were negatively correlated with political myside bias across paradigms, political topics, and samples. These relations were robust to controlling for humility. We also examined ideological asymmetries in the relations between IH and political myside bias, finding that IH-bias relations were statistically equivalent in members of the political left and right. Notwithstanding important limitations and caveats, these data establish IH as one of a small handful psychological features known to predict less political myside bias.

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