New spaces for the local welfare state? The case of General Relief in Los Angeles County

Abstract

The current 'hollowing out' and devolution of the national welfare state produces new spaces for the local welfare state, theoretically allowing more leeway to dismantle, privatize, further devolve, or even experiment with new local bureaucratic structures. At the same time, national devolution places greater burdens on local resources. Over the past twenty years, a series of theoretical frameworks have been proposed to understand local welfare strategies under these concomitant opportunities and pressures, including street-level bureaucracy, shadow and workfare states. Despite the usefulness of these frameworks, they have rarely been applied to the long-term evolution of specific local programmes. A particularly glaring omission is General Assistance (GA), which constitutes a major component of many local welfare states. To address this gap, we examine the past twenty years of General Relief (GR) policies in Los Angeles County. GR is a locally funded mandatory programme that provides aid of last resort f...