Doctoral Dissertation Research: Policy, Culture, and Welfare Reform

这个博士论文项目通过展示“福利”的定义如何影响美国公共援助项目的形式和命运来研究福利政策制定的过程。福利涉及美国人生活的许多方面，包括职业道德、同情心、个人主义和家庭的重要性。该理论认为，国家层面的利益集团试图支持福利的某些方面，而不是其他方面，以努力建立政治辩论的条件，并最终决定政策结果。这一政策制定过程是在美国福利改革最激进、争议最大的时期展开的：约翰逊、尼克松和卡特政府期间围绕保障收入计划的斗争。遵循第一个PI的文化分析方法，该项目概述了这一时期政策框架的产生、选择和制度化。此外，它还说明了大众话语中使用的框架、具体福利政策的制定和保障收入计划的政治命运之间的相互作用。然后将调查结果与1988年和1996年的福利改革尝试进行比较。这一过程将利用从三个总统图书馆、组织档案和媒体收集的文件，结合20世纪60年代和70年代已有的采访记录，以及作为该项目的一部分将进行的新的回顾性采访来分析。

This doctoral dissertation project examines the process of welfare policy-making by showing how the definition of "welfare" affects the form and fate of public assistance programs in America. Welfare touches on many aspects of American life, including the importance of the work ethic, compassion, individualism, and the family. The theory suggests that national-level interest groups attempt to favor some of these aspects of welfare over others in an effort to establish the terms of political debate and ultimately determine policy outcomes. This policy framing process unfolded during the nation's most radical and contested period of welfare reform: the struggle over guaranteed income programs during the Johnson, Nixon, and Carter administrations. Following the first PI's approach to cultural analysis, the project outlines the production, selection, and institutionalization of policy frames during this period. In addition, it illustrates the interaction between the frames used in popular discourse, the formulation of specific welfare policies, and the political fate of guaranteed income programs. Findings then will be compared to more recent welfare reform attempts in 1988 and 1996. This process will be analyzed using documents collected from three presidential libraries, organizational archives, and the media, in conjunction with pre-existing interview transcripts conducted during the 1960s and 1970s, and new retrospective interviews to be conducted as part of this project.