Reagan’s California welfare reform enacted neoliberal family-responsibility policies

Evidence

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

Categorization

• XREF: Links to Reagan-era American political history and the poor law tradition that also surfaces in Cooper’s own work and in broader welfare scholarship; connects to Clinton’s 1996 welfare reform. — 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; Family loyalty is central, not marginal, to American neoliberal welfare theory — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 213; Neoliberal welfare reform aimed to convert natural family charity into legal duty — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 241 (+17 more)
• SEED: Angle for an essay on how the US welfare state’s ‘family responsibility’ rules inherited poor-law logic rather than inventing something new.

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
• Neoliberals attacked welfare as a threat to family, race, and dignity #corroborates (0.85) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 178
• Neoliberal welfare attacks racialized dependency and framed the family as women’s natural sphere #expands (0.85) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 175
• Neoliberals endorsed state coercion to enforce kinship obligations over income redistribution #expands (0.80) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 212
• Families and neighborhoods were promoted to replace a dismantled welfare state #corroborates (0.80) — Anton Jäger, Hyperpolitics, 99
• 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
• American neoliberals defended kinship bonds as noncontractual obligations and opposed no-fault divorce #expands (0.80) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 214
• American welfare opponents framed socialized risk as a threat to family morality #corroborates (0.75)
• Early neoliberals framed welfare dependency as a degrading threat to human dignity #expands (0.75) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 176
• Neoliberal paternalism in welfare traces back to 1930s European neoliberals, not 1980s social conservatism #qualifies (0.70) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 216
• State restructuring since Reagan institutionalized non-compassion toward poor black citizens #expands (0.70) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 443
• Neoliberals sought minimal welfare that avoided legitimizing the welfare state #qualifies (0.70) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 206