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Regulating the Poor: The Functions of Public Welfare [Paperback]

Frances Fox Piven , Richard Cloward
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)

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Book Description

September 28, 1993
Marshaling a vast array of research, Frances Fox Piven and Richard A Cloward persuasively demonstrate how public relief has been used to avert civil chaos during economic downturns and to exert pressure on the work force during periods of stability. Their analysis ranges from the early history of poor relief through the inception of welfare during the Great Depression to its massive erosion during the Reagan and Bush years. The authors provide a conceptual framework that sharply illuminates the problems current and future administrations will encounter as they attempt to rethink the welfare system. Admirably specific yet vast in its implications, Regulating the Poor is indispensable reading for anyone who cares about the American social contract.

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Originally published in 1971, this social science classic outlines the social functions of welfare programs.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Uncompromising and provocative....By mixing history, political interpretation and sociological analysis, Piven and Cloward provide the best explanation to date of our present situation...no future discussion of welfare can afford to ignore them."--Peter Steinfels, The New York Times Book Review

Product Details

  • Paperback: 544 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage; 2 Upd Sub edition (September 28, 1993)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0679745165
  • ISBN-13: 978-0679745167
  • Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 1.1 x 8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 15.7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #84,590 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
(11)
4.3 out of 5 stars
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
36 of 39 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Welfare as a Government Tool of Control March 26, 2006
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
i can pretty much guarantee that after reading this book, one will never quite look at welfare in the same way as before. The main premise of this book is that government provides aid for the poor to control political unrest and to control labor.

The book starts off by tracing the history and development of welfare in western civilization. Prior to the early 16th century, caring for the poor was considered to be primarily the responsibility of the church or of those of the more prosperous who tried to purchase their salvation through almsgiving. Leaving charity to the church meant that few received aid and those not necessarily according to their need. This increased social unrest so governments began to be involved in providing for the poor. This was done for two primary reasons: 1.) To control social order and 2.) To extol the virtue of labor even at the lowest wages by making the treatment of the destitute so punitive and degrading that the no one wants to descend into beggary and pauperism.

The book details such early government programs as workhouses, labor yards, and poor law subsidies whereby parish churches were required to care for the poor in their area.

In the united States, welfare was addressed somewhat differently. Poverty in the U.S. was regarded as the obvious consequence of sloth and sinfulness. Relief was scattered and fragmentary-each township or county provided for its hungry in whatever manner it saw fit-giving of food, incarceration in almshouses, or indentured service. Poor relief was a local, not a state or national responsibility.

During the great Depression, unemployment became so widespread that the government was forced to develop programs to assist the poor and the unemployed.
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27 of 33 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A revealing examination of an insidious system March 9, 2004
Format:Paperback
Authors Richard Cloward and Frances Fox Piven blew the cover off the public welfare system with this book over thirty years ago. I have yet to read any satisfactory rebuttal to their theory over the intervening decades. How best to keep the poor poor? How best to placate them? How best to control the labor pool of American society? Not with riot gear and tear gas (although we haven't been above using that). The best way is with money. Just a little, of course.

As the title suggests, the welfare system has played many roles. Certainly, there were good intentions. But Cloward and Piven, as good historians and theoreticians, examined its cumulative effects. Their determination is, in essence, that the American welfare system has served as a stabilizing force--as in retaining the status quo--of that class who relies on it.

I am way oversimplifying the case here: there is a lot more to it.

No matter which side of the fence you're on regarding the welfare system, Cloward and Piven's REGULATING THE POOR has a solid base in history, statistics, and policy-making that makes their thesis unshakeable. Like I said, over thirty years later, no one has even put a dent in it.

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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars No Flies On Frank September 24, 2007
Format:Paperback
A widespread view today identifies the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt as responsible for creating a permanent welfare state in America. Priven and Cloward demonstrate that FDR's social programs created to assist the poor were part of a long line of programs that in fact exercised social control of the chronically poor and the destitute, and that each one has maintained this stratum of society as a constant in an otherwise economically sound society. The authors look back to Colonial times and then on through the FDR administration to circa 1980 (when this book was published) examining each governmental program both on its successes and failures. This is a damning indictment of the results of them all. It uses scholarly methodology to support its message and conclusions. It should be required reading for all public and private entities engaged in social assistance programs at every level, and for the governmental authorities creating and regulating them. I unequivocally recommend this book.
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12 of 15 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A genuine classic on public welfare and its functions December 24, 2007
Format:Paperback
This book by Frances Fox Piven and Richard Cloward came out over three decades ago. And it is still powerful reading and powerful analysis. I would not expect everyone to agree with the authors' contentions, but once having read this book, you will be challenged in your understanding of welfare policy. Indeed, both many liberals and many conservatives alike are apt to be irritated by this book.

In short, the key point the authors make is that welfare policies are designed to pacify rebellious out of work people. Once they are pacified, welfare is reduced. And while welfare programs are operating, there will be a tendency to make benefits low so that recipients are impelled back into the work force, even for low wages. The authors put it this way (page xiii): "Historical evidence suggests that relief arrangements are initiated or expanded during the occasional outbreaks of civil disorder produced by mass unemployment, and are then abolished or contracted when political stability is restored. We shall argue that expansive relief policies are designed to mute civil disorder, and restrictive ones to reinforce work norms."

The book itself spends a great deal of time on two American case studies: the New Deal and the Great Society. Again, they argue that in neither case was government very generous, that in both instances programs were designed to push people into the job market and reinforce work norms.

The authors use an early historical example to set the stage for their analysis, by going back to England of the 16th century and thereafter. They contend that the early examples of welfare as a force to quiet rebellious masses and discipline them toward norms supportive of work. And this sometimes meant government money.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars Sheeple of socialism!
Francis Fox Piven is distorted it was Ike Eisenhower who was for civil rights! And LBJ and Kennedy originally voted against it ! So as far as democrats being original, they aren't! Read more
Published 2 months ago by S. Kunkel
4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Theory Presented
Although published decades ago, the book posits a theory that is still applicable today. For those wanting some insights into federal govenment discretionary spending rationale,... Read more
Published 5 months ago by reza
4.0 out of 5 stars Keeping the down and out, well, in their place...
Frances Fox Piven and Richard Cloward wrote this classic study of public welfare systems in the early `70's. Read more
Published 6 months ago by John P. Jones III
5.0 out of 5 stars Worth reading then and especially now
I read this book back in the early 70's and it impacted my life. It was relevant then and is especially relevant now.
Published 8 months ago by Flying Dutchman
5.0 out of 5 stars Nothing Has Changed
This is a must read. I learned:

That English people considered poverty a crime.
Africans in the U. S. never received their share of depression relief money. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Timothy
5.0 out of 5 stars Socialist scum!
Knowing the way to collapse the economy and put everyone on government assistance, how many current politicians want to have complete control over us...MAKES ME SICK! Read more
Published on February 13, 2010 by Lewis Soldatek
4.0 out of 5 stars For anyone who is not afraid of the REAL TRUTH about Welfare
When I first read this book several years ago, it was like learning that there's no Santa Claus or Easter Bunny. It completely shook my sense of social and political reality. Read more
Published on March 24, 2000 by Colleen Jackson
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