The Welfare Reform Debate

In important respects, the welfare state has not succeeded in mending social and economic divisions and has not developed a broad base of support. This is especially true of means-tested income transfer programs, such as AFDC. Sheldon Danziger and Robert Plotnick, in an important article, review twenty years of antipoverty policy and find that neither income transfers nor economic growth are enough to alter levels of pretransfer poverty. ¹ Hence, the primary approaches of both liberals and conservatives have not succeeded in reducing poverty. Reflecting these failures, AFDC, the beleaguered symbol of “welfare,” has been at the center of public debate.