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Lessons of Welfare: Policy Design, Political Learning, and Political Action
Abstract
This article explores the links between welfare participation and broader forms of political involvement. Adopting a political learning perspective, I present evidence that policy designs structure clients' program experiences in ways that teach alternative lessons about the nature of government. Through their experiences under a given policy design, welfare clients develop program-specific beliefs about the wisdom and efficacy of asserting themselves. Because clients interpret their experiences with welfare bureaucracies as evidence of how government works more generally, beliefs about the welfare agency and client involvement become the basis for broader political orientations. I conclude that the views of government that citizens develop through program participation help explain broader patterns of political action and quiescence.
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“Means‐tested programs will, because of their inherent need to verify eligibility, be more burdensome than a universal program designed to be accessible to nearly everyone (Soss 1999).”
From Human Capital and Administrative Burden: The Role of Cognitive Resources in Citizen‐State Interactions (2020) · cites this paper as Soss 1999
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Metadata
- Authors
- Soss, J.
- Affiliations
- American University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Soss, Joe
- ORCID
- Soss, Joe
- Venue
- American Political Science Review
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 1999-06
- Volume
- 93
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 363-380
- ISSN
- 0003-0554 (ISSN-L)
- 1537-5943
- OpenAlex
- W2052125222
- Cited by
- 815
- References
- 70
- Citations by year
- 2026: 43 · 2025: 57 · 2024: 44 · 2023: 55 · 2022: 60 · 2021: 50 · 2020: 77 · 2019: 66 · 2018: 41 · 2017: 39 · 2016: 29 · 2015: 43 · 2014: 33 · 2013: 22 · 2012: 23
- FWCI
- 24.32
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- American Political Science Review (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Social Policy and Reform Studies
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Electoral Systems and Political Participation
- Social Sciences › Public Administration › Public Policy and Administration Research
- Keywords
- welfare participation, political learning, welfare clients, political participation, political action, client participation, welfare bureaucracy, political orientation
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