Family loyalty is central, not marginal, to American neoliberal welfare theory
Evidence
At different times and in different contexts, each of the key figures of American neoliberalism can be found invoking the idea that the “natural obligations” of family should serve as a substitute for the welfare state, indeed that the “altruism” of the family represents a kind of primitive mutual insurance contract that we would do well to revive today. From here derives the notion, now pervasive in American welfare practice, that the state has the right to identify and enforce legal obligations of marital support and child custody even when the parties concerned do not consent to or recognize this relationship. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 213
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to the reader’s familiarity with Foucault’s Birth of Biopolitics lectures and later scholarship on neoliberalism and family. — connects to: American neoliberals defended kinship bonds as noncontractual obligations and opposed no-fault divorce — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 214; Neoliberal paternalism in welfare traces back to 1930s European neoliberals, not 1980s social conservatism — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 216; American welfare opponents framed socialized risk as a threat to family morality (+10 more)
- QUESTION: How does the state actually enforce family support obligations against non-consenting parties today, and how did this evolve from poor law?
Broader Connections
- Decades of neoliberal reform reinstated the family as first-line welfare provider
#corroborates(0.90) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 260 - American welfare opponents framed socialized risk as a threat to family morality
#corroborates(0.85) - Reagan’s California welfare reform enacted neoliberal family-responsibility policies
#exemplifies(0.80) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 242 - Neoliberals opposed no-fault divorce to force families to absorb social costs
#expands(0.80) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 241 - Neoliberal paternalism in welfare traces back to 1930s European neoliberals, not 1980s social conservatism
#expands(0.75) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 216 - Neoliberals gendered welfare dependency as emasculating female domestic servitude
#expands(0.75) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 177 - Neoliberals attacked family welfare in the North but the same welfare in the South
#qualifies(0.75) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 409 - Neoliberal ‘freedom’ prioritized cross-border capital mobility over domestic welfare.
#complicates(0.70) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 423