Clinton’s 1996 reform, not Reagan’s federal push, enacted the welfare overhaul

Evidence

Clinton’s welfare reform act is infamous for installing both workfare and marriage promotion at the heart of American social policy. It is less well known that PRWORA essentially federalized a principle of poor relief dating right back to the old poor law tradition—the principle, that is, of private family responsibility for the welfare of dependents. Even less well known is the fact that Ronald Reagan first initiated this project as Governor of California in the 1970s, when he sought to revive the state’s old poor law rules for compelling family members to look after impoverished relatives. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 211 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

The neoliberal critique of welfare had a profound influence on the subsequent history of American social policy and informed both direct efforts to revive the poor laws and much more general interventions into the realm of fiscal and monetary policy, all of which had the effect of transferring economic responsibility to the family. As Governor of California in the late 1960s and 1970s, Ronald Reagan was one of the first to implement the desiderata of the neoliberals with respect to welfare reform. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 242 (#contradicts, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Clinton’s welfare reform federalized old poor law family-responsibility principles — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 211; Reagan’s California welfare reform enacted neoliberal family-responsibility policies — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 242; Clinton’s 1996 welfare reform federalized Reagan-era family-responsibility policy — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 245

Related

• Clinton’s 1996 welfare reform federalized Reagan-era family-responsibility policy (similarity 0.95)
• Clinton’s welfare reform federalized old poor law family-responsibility principles (similarity 0.94)
• Reagan’s California welfare reform enacted neoliberal family-responsibility policies (similarity 0.87)
• Neoliberal welfare reform aimed to convert natural family charity into legal duty (similarity 0.81)
• Family responsibility for welfare traces to the Elizabethan poor laws of 1601 (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Clinton’s welfare reform federalized old poor law family-responsibility principles #corroborates (0.85) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 211
• Reagan’s California welfare reform enacted neoliberal family-responsibility policies #contradicts (0.80) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 242