Joe Soss

Richard C. Fording

Sanford F. Schram

Sanford Schram

Disciplining the Poor explains the transformation of poverty governance over the past forty years—why it happened, how it works today, and how it affects people. In the process, it clarifies the central role of race in this transformation and develops a more precise account of how race shapes poverty governance in the post–civil rights era. Connecting welfare reform to other policy developments, the authors analyze diverse forms of data to explicate the racialized origins, operations, and consequences of a new mode of poverty governance that is simultaneously neoliberal—grounded in market principles—and paternalist—focused on telling the poor what is best for them. The study traces the process of rolling out the new regime from the federal level, to the state and county level, down to the differences in ways frontline case workers take disciplinary actions in individual cases. The result is a compelling account of how a neoliberal paternalist regime of poverty governance is disciplining the poor today.

Neoliberal Paternalism and the Persistent Power of Race

Disciplining the Poor

As Frances Fox Piven and Richard Cloward argued in the early seventies, in a capitalist economy, social welfare policies alternatingly serve political and economic ends as circumstances dictate. In moments of political stability, governments emphasize a capitalistic work ethic (even if it means working a job that will leave one impoverished); when times are less politically stable, states liberalize welfare policies to recreate the conditions for political acquiescence. Sanford Schram argues in this new book that each shift produces its own path dependency even as it represents yet another iteration of what he (somewhat ironically) calls "ordinary capitalism," where the changes in market logic inevitably produce changes in the structure of the state. In today's ordinary capitalism, neoliberalism is the prevailing political-economic logic that has contributed significantly to unprecedented levels of inequality in an already unequal society. As the new normal, neoliberalism has marketization of the state as a core feature, heightening the role of economic actors, especially financiers, in shaping public policy. The results include increased economic precarity among the general population, giving rise to dramatic political responses on both the Left and the Right (Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party in particular). Schram examines neoliberalism's constraints on politics as well as social and economic policy and gives special attention to the role protest politics plays in keeping alive the possibilities for ordinary people to exercise political agency. The Return of Ordinary Capitalism concludes with political strategies for working through--rather than around--neoliberalism via a radical, rather than status-quo-reinforcing, incrementalism.

Neoliberalism, Precarity, Occupy

The Return of Ordinary Capitalism

Philip T. Neisser

The relationship between politics and storytelling is one with a well-established lineage, but public policy analysis has only recently begun to develop its own appreciation of the power of narrative to explain everything from political traditions to cyberspace. This unique collection of original essays helps further that project by surveying stories of and about all kinds of American politics—from welfare, race, and immigration; to workfare, jobs, and education; to gay rights, national security, and the American Dream in an age of economic globalization.

Narrative in Contemporary U.S. Politics and Public Policy

Tales of the State

"This book analyzes data from a variety of sources to understand the mainstreaming of racism today. The book puts this research in a historical context. Today with issues of globalization, immigration and demographic diversification achieving greater public salience, racism is more likely to manifest itself more in the form of a generalized ethnocentrism that expresses "outgroup hostility" toward a diverse set of groups, including Latinos and Muslims as well as African Americans. Both changes in structure and agency have facilitated the mainstreaming of racism today. Changes in the "political opportunity structure," as witnessed by the rise of the Tea Party Movement, facilitated the mainstreaming of white extremists into the Republican Party and lay the basis for an electoral politics focused on giving voice to white people more generally acting on their outgroup hostility. Changes in the political structure were matched by the appearance of a charismatic leader in the person of Donald Trump who made great use of a transformed media landscape to stoke white people's outgroup hostility. Trump won the presidency most strategically deploying his demagoguery to mobilize white non-voters in swing states, with the end result greatly accelerating the mainstreaming racism and placing it at the center of policymaking in the White House. With the extensive empirical evidence provided, this book documents how the mainstreaming of racism today began before Trump started to run for the presidency but then increased under his leadership and it likely to be a troubling presence in U.S. politics for some time to come. The findings provided create the basis for suggestions on how to push racism back to the margins of American politics"--

The Mainstreaming of Racism in American Politics

Hard White

Humorous and witty recollections of the author's journey from insecure graduate student to noted activist/scholar.

Sanford F. Schram

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