The paternalism of welfare made caseworker discretion degrading rather than helpful.

Evidence

In this case the discretionary opportunities of case workers had already become so limited by the social context in which aid was provided that it was probably beneficial to further routinize the aid process. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 1422

Categorization

• XREF: Links to your literature on how institutional context bakes degrading assumptions into routine encounters before any individual bias enters.