A deracialization of welfare attitudes?
Americans don’t like welfare programs — maybe never have, probably never will; don’t want to be on it, don’t think much of those who are on it.
For white Americans in particular, attitudes toward welfare and welfare recipients play into racial attitudes. Those who are less favorably disposed toward blacks tend to be less favorably disposed toward welfare as well. But the mid-1990s welfare reform has created a new information environment, with many more Americans than before considering it a success and relaxing reservations about it. A question, then, is whether the lessened hostility toward welfare has “de-racialized” welfare attitudes. Has the link between assessments of welfare and racial attitudes weakened in the wake of welfare reform?
That question is the focus of a recent study by Joshua Dyck and Laura Hussey (“The End of Welfare as We Know It?” Public Opinion Quarterly 72 (Winter 2008). Here, in case you’re too lazy to click on the link just above, is their answer:
When white Americans think about welfare, they are likely to think about black Americans. The most prominent explanation for this phenomenon offered has been media coverage—newsmakers have presented welfare as an overwhelmingly black and overwhelmingly bad social program. Most of the data used in studies that reach these conclusions, however, predate welfare reform. Since passage of the Persona) Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA), welfare has lost its place among America’s most controversial issues. While there are many critics of the reform, many more declare it a success, and these elites are both Republican and Democrat. Opinion polls indicate that a majority of the public is favorably inclined toward the passed reforms. In this paper, we provide systematic evidence that the information environment surrounding welfare policy has changed. Given this, we pose the following research question: do negative attitudes about blacks continue to color people’s willingness to spend money on welfare programs? We address this question by examining the predictors of opposition to welfare spending in the 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004 American National Election Studies. The evidence suggests that despite the changing information environment, welfare attitudes are as strongly racialized in 2004, as they were a decade earlier.
In short, Americans now have fewer reservations about welfare than they did before welfare reform, but their assessments are just as structured by racial attitudes as ever.
Comments
I wonder why they don’t get angry at whites on welfare? Hmmnnnn…
Wall Street-the new welfare.
Posted by: Me Me | February 5, 2009 08:41 PM
Very interesting. I worked on welfare policy for four years (2000-2003) and there seemed to be a feeling that once “reform” was passed there was now room to say “see, welfare was fixed, so now we need to expand the benefits and get more of those eligible on it.” In fact, lots of Republican Governors seemed very willing to expand access to food stamps shortly after the reforms of the late 1990s. This may have been because once attention turned away from welfare, they saw it would be to their benefit to make sure that the reforms they pushed for wouldn’t be portrayed as causing hardship during the economic downturn. In addition, they themselves began to advocate for “reformed” welfare as an important part of job supports. Thus, you had the ironic picture of Republican states patting themselves on the back in the press for increasing the rate of people eligible served by their state’s Food Stamp Program.
(Cocktail party note for the wonk set: Since there are no food “stamps” per se anymore, the program has been renamed Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or …. “SNAP”…. ughh….so far it hasn’t caught on.)
Posted by: Doug Hess | February 6, 2009 09:42 AM
«Americans don’t like welfare programs — maybe never have, probably never will; don’t want to be on it, don’t think much of those who are on it.»
During the New Deal, welfare (and unions and worker rights) was carefully designed to exclude many if not most blacks, and the irish/italian/… working classes were the main beneficiaries and were enthusiastic supporters of taxation on the rich to fund social insurance programs for themselves.
Then in the 1960-1970s the irish/italian/… working class begun to feel they had made it and were fully vested, and that their wealth (houses in the suburbs with white picket fences for example) were being threatened by the scummy underclass of pillaging and burgling dark skinned crowds, and were easily persuaded that their class interests as nouveau rentiers were aligned with those of the truly wealthy, that they were being exploited extortion ate taxation to the benefit of laughing dark skinned welfare queens and strapping young bucks, and they voted to cut severely the social insurance programmes and political structures that had made their lives better. They got what they wished for…
Posted by: Blissex | February 6, 2009 01:25 PM
For more in this vein, see Soss and Schram, “Welfare reform as a failed political strategy: Evidence
and explanations for the stability of public opinion,” available here: http://www.brynmawr.edu/Acads/GSSW/schram/research
Posted by: S Pimpare | February 6, 2009 02:25 PM
There’s also research showing that whites see white welfare recipients as the “deserving poor” - only receiving benefits because of bad luck or dire circumstance. But, whites are more likely to see blacks as the “undeserving” poor who are on the dole because of a lack of a work ethic.
Posted by: King Politics | February 12, 2009 11:05 AM
test
Posted by: Henry | February 15, 2009 11:31 AM
Hey there. The citation I tried to share with you earlier but couldn’t was the 1997 study by Peffler, Hurwitz, and Sniderman called “Racial Stereotypes and Whites’ Political Views of Blacks in the Context of Welfare and Crime.”
They sampled whites who embraced and rejected negative stereotypes pertaining to “most blacks” work ethics and hostility, and they found that while those who embraced stereotypes were more negative toward blacks in both contexts, that when presented with contradicting evidence, that they show supportive tendencies toward welfare and crime outcomes.
Posted by: Dee | February 15, 2009 03:25 PM
See also Peffley, Hurwitz, and Sniderman, 1997, “Racial Stereotypes and Whites’ Political Views of Blacks in the Context of Welfare and Crime.”
Pretty much backs up what you guys say with the bonus that, when presented with contradictory evidence, the whites sampled were more likely to support welfare and crime initiatives.
Posted by: Dee | February 15, 2009 03:37 PM