Who shot FAP? The Nixon welfare plan and the transformation of American politics

Abstract

This essay takes the battle over President Nixon’s proposals for welfare reform as a lens through which to understand political change at the end of the 1960s. In explaining the rise and fall of the Family Assistance Plan, it argues that scholars should take their attention away from President Nixon and place it on the times during which he governed, especially on grassroots protest, the response to it, and the complexities of the Republican coalition. It adds to the research on the 1960s an appreciation of the changing role of liberal Republicans. It adds to the study of domestic policy an understanding of how the Vietnam war shaped policy at home. It adds to political history an account of welfare politics amidst the conservative renaissance of the early 1970s.