Frances Fox Piven Research Articles

Cities in Recession: Critical Responses to the Urban Policies of the New Right

PART ONE: THE POLITICS AND ECONOMICS OF THE NEW RIGHT - Ivan Szelenyi Introduction: Urban Policies of the New Right -- Critical Responses The New Class War in the United States - Frances Fox Piven and Richard A Cloward Business Rationality and Barriers to Recapitalization - Donald Tomaskovic-Devy and S M Miller PART TWO: LEFT RESPONSES TO THE DECLINE OF PUBLIC HOUSING, PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION AND URBAN JOBS The Decollectivization of Consumption - Michael Harloe and Chris Paris Housing and Local Government Finance in England and Wales, 1979-1981 Urban Transportation for Whom? Determinants and Consequences of Transit Change in the United States and Germany - Glenn Yago Transnational Capitalism and Urban Crisis - Richard Child Hill The Case of the Auto Industry and Detroit PART THREE: LEFT RESPONSES TO THE POLICIES OF URBAN AUSTERITY The Social Democratic State in a Radical Region - Philip Cooke and Gareth Rees Development Agencies, Industrial Change and Class Relations in South Wales Austerity and the Politics of Resistance - Brian Elliott and David McCrone The Working Class and the State - Jean Lojkine The French Experience in Socialist and Communist Municipalities The Turn to the Left among Italian Cities and Urban Public Policy - Michael Aiken and Guido Martinotti PART FOUR: A THIRD PARADIGM FOR URBAN SOCIOLOGY American Urban Theories and Urban Areas - Herbert J Gans Some Observations on Contemporary Ecological and Marxist Paradigms

Why Democratic Pluralism Reduces Inequality in the United StatesDilemmas of Pluralist Democracy: Autonomy vs. Control. By Robert A. Dahl The New Class War: Reagan's Attack on the Welfare State and Its Consequences. By Frances Fox Piven and Richard A. Cloward Who Rules America Now: A View for the '80s. By G. William Domhoff Setting National Priorities: The 1984 Budget. By

Why Democratic Pluralism Reduces Inequality in the United States<i>Dilemmas of Pluralist Democracy: Autonomy vs. Control</i>. By Robert A. Dahl <i>The New Class War: Reagan's Attack on the Welfare State and Its Consequences</i>. By Frances Fox Piven and Richard A. Cloward <i>Who Rules America Now: A View for the '80s</i>. By G. William Domhoff <i>Setting National Priorities: The 1984 Budget</i>. By

The Impact of Political Participation on Social Policy Adoption and Expansion: A Cross-National, Longitudinal Analysis

The role of politics in national social policy developments has been a frequent subject of comparative policy research. Empirical attempts to isolate the relative impact of political forces on social policy outcomes, however, have produced contradictory results. In some analyses, a nation's level of economic development and the age of its social security system are reported to be more consistent and better predictors of social policy efforts than political variables.' In other studies, political forces, ideologies, and institutions are said to be key elements of the social policy process.2 The findings of these research efforts have been inconsistent because different sets of countries and time frames have been analyzed and different methodologies and statistical procedures have been employed. In addition, political forces have consistently been defined in very limited terms. The usual practice has been to define politics only as conventional political activity and to measure it in terms of type of party system, degree of interparty competition, or level of voter participation. Such descriptions and operationalizations assume that citizens exert an influence on policymaking only through democratic constitutional channels of participation. Yet, historical accounts suggest that more unconventional forms of political activity, such as displays of citizen unrest and organized protest movements, have been significant social policy stimulants within particular countries.3 The impact of such unconventional types of political activity has been investigated in some empirical studies; again, the findings have been ambiguous. For example, Frances Fox Piven and Richard Cloward present data in their research to support the argument that, in the United States, citizen protests led to increased enrollments in welfare programs.4 In a recent exchange, Robert Albritton challenges these conclusionss and is, in turn, disputed by the first two authors.6 In another analysis of welfare activities in the American states, Edward Jennings examines the impact of more generalized citizen unrest and finds some relationship between protest and program enrollments; however, he adds that other factors, such as institutionalization, must also be considered.' In still other analyses, social unrest is identified as an important determinant of social welfare policies and is operationalized in a more structured fashion. Peter Flora, for example, cites the significance of labor movements and organized left-wing parties in his examination of the introduction of social insurance systems in western Europe. Again, the

Book reviews : The New Class War: Reagan's Attack on the Welfare State and its Consequences Frances Fox Piven and Richard A. Cloward Pentheon Books, New York, 1982, US $4.95 paper

Book reviews : The New Class War: Reagan's Attack on the Welfare State and its Consequences Frances Fox Piven and Richard A. Cloward Pentheon Books, New York, 1982, US $4.95 paper

Struggles one

Frances Fox Piven and Richard Cloward are internationally known writers on the politics of welfare. To many people in the USA however, they are better known as activists. They were centrally involved in the Welfare Rights Movement in the late sixties, and continue their organising today around issues like voter registration, which they consider one of the crucial areas for left political mobilisation in the USA. Outside of America they are best known as the authors of a number of books and collection of essays including, Regulating the Poor: The Functions of Public Welfare, Pantheon, 1971, Poor People's Movements: Why They Succeed, Why They Fail, Pantheon, 1977, and most recently The New Class War: Reagan's Attack on the Welfare State, Pantheon, 1982. Piven and Cloward were interviewed in New York City in May 1983. Here, we asked how they responded to suggestions that they have shifted away from the per spective developed in Regulating the Poor and queried them on the potential for collective action against Reagan's cutbacks.

Reviews and notes

Farewell to the Working Class: An Essay on Post‐Industrial Socialism by Andre Gorz, Boston: South End Press, 1982, $7.50, 152 pp. Robert Lekachman. Greed Is Not Enough. (New York: Pantheon, 1982). Debunking is not Enough Frank Ackerman, Reaganomics: Rhetoric vs. Reality. (Boston: South End, 1982). Frances Fox Piven and Richard Cloward. The New Class War. (New York: Pantheon, 1982). Power and the Intellectuals Paul Hollander, Political Pilgrims (New York, Oxford University Press, 1981) Regis Debray, Teachers, Writers, Celebrities (London, New Left Books, 1981) Alvin Gouldner, The Future of Intellectuals and The Rise of the New Class (New York, Seabury Press, 1979 (Note — Oxford University Press has picked up the imprint and published this work in paperback in 1982) Barry Bluestone and Bennett Harrison, The Deindustrialization of America: Plant Closings, Community Abandonment, and the Dismantling of Basic Industry (New York: Basic Books, 1982). Doreen Massey and Richard Meegan, The Anatomy of Job Loss: The How, Why, and Where of Employment Decline (London and New York: Methuen, 1982).

Frances Fox Piven and Richard A. Cloward. The Neur Class War: Reagan's Attack on the Welfare State and Its Consequences. New York: Pantheon Books, 1982

Frances Fox Piven and Richard A. Cloward. The Neur Class War: Reagan's Attack on the Welfare State and Its Consequences. New York: Pantheon Books, 1982

Kennedy, Johnson, and the War on Poverty

When President Lyndon B. Johnson declared metaphorical war on poverty in 1964, he set in motion an important, complex, and controversial phase in the history of reform in the United States, whose shockwaves were still being felt in the early 1980s, a time of counterreformation. Although poverty reform in the 1960s influenced the historical profession no less than some others-in the rise of social history, for example-historians concentrated their research efforts on the more distant past. Analysis of the history, workings, consequences, and lessons of the War on Poverty remained largely the business of social scientists, who turned it into a sizable industry. The passage of time and the growing availability of primary sources now invite historical investigation, which has no more apposite starting point than the War on Poverty's genesis. Social scientists explain the War on Poverty's creation in essentially three different ways. Daniel P. Moynihan in his Maximum Feasible Misunderstanding does not treat motive systematically or explicitly, but he builds a powerful implicit argument that the War on Poverty grew out of the rising influence of social science itself. In particular, Moynihan attributes the Community Action Program, which became central to the War on Poverty, to reform-minded, though unscientific, sociologists. A second school of thought emphasizes interest groups and political calculation. Among those who take this approach, Frances Fox Piven and Richard Cloward have probably been most widely read. President John F. Kennedy and President Johnson, they argue, launched the War on Poverty in order to attract a high percentage of black votes in the 1964 election. Third, the War on Poverty's birth has been explained through the cyclical theory of reform. After a period of dormancy, James Sundquist maintains, the reform impulse once again swept through the American political system, bringing with it a national effort to eradicate poverty. '

The Structure of Belief Systems Among Contending ERA Activists

The structures of beliefs on feminist policy preferences are compared for activists who led campaigns supporting and opposing a Massachusetts referendum on equal rights for women (ERA) in 1976. Beliefs of opposing activists demonstrate asymmetric structures. The preferences for feminist policies of ERA proponents show significantly greater constraint, consensus, and position extremity than do those of ERA opponents. These findings are explained in terms of differences in the group processes among activists within social movements that assert new claims and responsibilities compared with those that defend old rights and privileges. Are there systematic differences in the patterns of policy preferences held by social movement activists supporting and opposing change? For almost twenty years, Tilly has elaborated systematic differences at the structural level which distinguish proactive movements supporting change from reactive movements opposing. This paper extends that discussion by arguing that the organization of proactive and reactive belief systems differs systematically as well. Data to test this thesis are preferences on feminist policies held.by activists working for and against an Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the state constitution of Massachusetts in 1976. *An earlier version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, 1980. Preparation of the paper was made possible by a postdoctoral grant, #1F32 MHO7811-01 from the National Institute of Mental Health to the first author. Data collection and analysis were funded by a faculty grant to both authors from Wellesley College and continued support from its Center for Research on Women and the Wellesley College Computer Center. We thank Henry Noerenberg, our collaborator on the Massachusetts state survey, and Andrea Levere, who conducted most of the interviews with Massachusetts activists. We have benefited from the comments of Myra Ferree, Charles Judd, Robert Mitchell, Tahi Mottl, and Frances Fox Piven. ? 1982 The University of North Carolina Press. 0037-7732/82/030657-75$01.90

Book reviews

Financing Mining Projects in Developing Countries. Marian Radetzki and Stephen Zorn, London: Mining Journal Books. 1979. 184pp. £7.50 pb New Patterns of World Mineral Development. Raymond F Mikesell, British‐North American Committee. 1979.97 pp. £2.25 Mining Ventures in Developing Countries, Part I: interests, bargaining processes, Legal concepts. Vol I. Christian Kirchner et al, Frankfurt: Alfred Metzner Verlag. 1979. 193 pp. £23.60 Governments and Mining Companies in Developing Countries. James H Cobbe, Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press (distributed in the UK by Ernest Benn). 1979. 324 pp. $20 The Domestication of Women: discrimination in developing. societies Barbara Rogers, London: Kogan Page. 1980.200pp. £8.95 Dialectics of Third World Development. Edited by Ingolf Vogeler and Anthony De Souza, New Jersey: Allanheld, Osman. 1980.349 pp. np Third World Coalition in International Politics. Robert A Mortimer, London: Praeger. 1980. 148 pp. £12.25 Poor People's Movements: why they succeed, how they fail. Frances Fox Piven and Richard A Cloward, Oxford: Blackwell. 1978. 381 pp. £10.00 The Political and Social Economy of Commodity Control. Christopher P Brown, London: Macmillan. 1980. 375pp. £20.00 Tides Among Nations. Karl W Deutsch, London: Collier Macmillan. 1979. 342pp. £11.25 The Dangers of Nuclear War. Edited by F Griffiths and J C Polanyi, University of Toronto Press, 1979. 197pp. $5.95 Restraints on Wan studies in the limitation of armed conflict. Edited by Michael Howard, Oxford University Press. 1980.173pp. £6.50 Merchants of Grain. Dan Morgan, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. 1979. 387pp. £10.00 Macro Models for Developing Countries. Lance Taylor Maidenhead, England: 1979. 271pp. £12.00 Towards a New Strategy for Development. A Rothko Chapel Colloquium, Oxford: Pergamon. 1979. 365pp. £11.25. £4.50pb Eritrea: the unfinished revolution. Richard Sherman, New York: Praeger (distributed in the UK by Holt‐Saunders). 1980. 197pp. £13.00 Fantastic Invasion: dispatches from contemporary Africa. Patrick Marnham, London: Jonathan Cape. 1980. 271pp. £6.50 Economic Development and Urban Migration: Tanzania 1900–1971. R H Sabot, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1979. 279pp. £12.50 Christianity and Traditional Religion in Western Zimbabwe, 1859–1923. Ngwabi Bhebe, London: Longman. 1979. 190pp. £7.95 The Changing Middle Eastern City. Edited by G H Blake and R I Lawless, London: Croom Helm. 1980. 273pp. £14.85 Meaning and Order in Moroccan Society: three essays in cultural analysis. Clifford Geertz, Hildred Geertz and Lawrence Rosen, Cambridge University Press. 1979. 510pp. £19.50 Zaire: the political economy of underdevelopment. Edited by Guy Gran, New York: Praeger (distributed in the UK by Holt‐Saunders). 1979. 334pp. £14.75 Zimbabwe: a country study. Howard Simson Uppsála: Scandinavian Institute of African Studies. 1979. 91pp. SKr 10 Multinationals and Development in Black Africa: a case study in the Ivory Coast. J Masini, M Ikonicoff, C Jedlicki, L Lanzasotti Farnborough, England: Saxon House. 1979. 181pp. £9.00 The International Division of Labour and Multinational Companies. ECSIM, Farnborough, England: Saxon House. 1979. 152pp. £8.50 Politics in Sri Lanka, 1947–1979. A Jayaratnam Wilson, London: Macmillan. 1979 (second edition). 320pp. £15.00. £5.95 pb Caste and Family in the Politics of the Sinhalese, 1947–1976. Janice Jiggins, Cambridge University Press. 1979. 189pp. £12.50 Decision of Palestine: how the US came to recognise Israel Evan M Wilson, Stanford: Hoover Institution Press. 1979. 244p. $14.95 Congress and Israel: foreign aid decisionmaking in the House of Representatives, 1969–1976. Marvin C Feuerwerger Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. 1979. 235pp. £15.50 A Turning Wheel: thirty years of the Asian revolution. Robert Shaplen, New York: Random House. 1979. 398pp. $15.00 The Centralist Tradition of Latin America. Claudio Véliz, Princeton University Press. 1980. 355pp. £12.50. £5.40 pb Development, Reform, and Malnutrition in Chile. Peter Hakim and Giorgio Solimano, Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. 1978. 91pp. £7.00 The New Authoritarianism in Latin America. Edited by David Collier, Princeton University Press. 1979. 456pp. £15.10. £3.65 pb Tropical Enterprise: Standard Fruit and. Steamship Company in Latin. America Thomas L Karnes, London: American University Publishers Group. 1979.332pp. £12.00

&lt;bold&gt;Poor People's Movements: Why They Succeed, How They Fail&lt;/bold&gt;. By Frances Fox Piven and Richard A. Cloward. New York: Pantheon Books, 1977. 381 pp. $12.95

&lt;bold&gt;Poor People's Movements: Why They Succeed, How They Fail&lt;/bold&gt;. By Frances Fox Piven and Richard A. Cloward. New York: Pantheon Books, 1977. 381 pp. $12.95

Social Amelioration through Mass Insurgency? A Reexamination of the Piven and Cloward Thesis

Frances Fox Piven and Richard A. Cloward (1971, 1977) have argued that mass insurgency in the United States, occurring especially between 1964 and 1969, produced a series of responses by government, one of the most significant being massive expansion of welfare rolls. Using data on which they base their claim, this study examines the hypothesis that there is a positive association between social disorders and welfare caseload increases. The conclusion is that associations specified by Piven and Cloward are not supported by the data and a plausible rival hypothesis is offered to explain the massive increases in welfare caseloads.

公的扶助論の課題 : ピヴンとクロワードの共著『貧困者統制』によせて

公的扶助論の課題 : ピヴンとクロワードの共著『貧困者統制』によせて

Poor People's Movements: Why They Succeed, How They Fail. By Frances Fox Piven and Richard A. Cloward. (New York: Pantheon Books, 1977. Pp. xiv + 381. $12.95.)

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Disunity and Unity of the Working Class: Reply to Piven and Cloward

Our article, Mobilizing the Poor: Road to a Dead End (Social Problems, December, 1978), was an examination of the conclusions drawn by Frances Fox Piven and Richard Cloward from their analysis of poor people's movements. They maintain that the most effective strategy available to the poor today for improving their condition' is independent mobilization and the use of disruptive tactics. We argue that (1) independent activities of poor people will fail to improve their status significantly and (2) substantial improvement in their status is most likely to be achieved as a result of certain kinds of activity within organized labor. In their response Piven and Cloward assert that our assessment of their work and our alternative strategy are merely reiterations of doctrinal injunctions by left-intellectuals who are disappointed with historical developments in the class struggle; that we ignore the gains and longrange implications of various 20th century mass movements; that the blacklash induced by several of these movements was an unavoidable by-product of necessary tactics; and that we have ignored realities in the situation of organized labor which do not augur a turn to the left. More generally, they claim that we misrepresent their work. The essential issue2 on which we are divided is what course of action, based on historical experience, can be recommended to that small number of activists who are committed to achieving progressive social change? Where should they concentrate their work, and what should they do to maximize results and to increase their strength? Mass movements for social change have not originated in the ranks of labor since the 1930s, nor has organized labor been eager to support such movements. Blacks, women, welfare clients, and other deprived people have all organized to improve their lot. One certainly can't blame them: they are among those who have the least share of the fruits of American society.3 And there is nothing in orthodox Marxist theory to suggest that such groups won't or shouldn't assert a claim on society. What Marxist theory indicates and we believe experience shows, is that these groups lack the social power possessed by organized labor to achieve the change they seek. This power is not at their disposal for a number of reasons such as: the demands of the oppressed often appear to threaten the employed working class; the oppressed write off the possibility of an alliance with organized labor; the existing institutional patterns referred to by Piven and Cloward. Whatever the reasons, the consequence is a turn to the group with the power to grant concessions-the capitalist class. Of necessity these concessions are limited in scope and duration and granted largely at the expense of the organized working class.

Mobilizing the Poor: Road to a Dead End

This paper is addressed to the recommendation that the most effective strategy available to the poor for improving their condition is independent mobilization and the use of disruptive tactics. The most prominent exponents of this position are Frances Fox Piven and Richard Cloward. We examine their analysis of “poor people's movements” with particular emphasis on their account of the National Welfare Rights Organization and its failure. We conclude that (1) independent activities of poor people will fail to improve their status significantly and (2) for substantial improvement, it will be necessary to carry out activity within organized labor. We examine our rationale for this conclusion and the prospect for its success.

Frances Fox Piven and Richard A. Cloward. &lt;italic&gt;Poor People's Movements: Why They Succeed, How They Fail&lt;/italic&gt;. New York: Pantheon Books. 1977. Pp. xiv, 381. $12.95

Frances Fox Piven and Richard A. Cloward. &lt;italic&gt;Poor People's Movements: Why They Succeed, How They Fail&lt;/italic&gt;. New York: Pantheon Books. 1977. Pp. xiv, 381. $12.95

Book Reviews

Book Reviews

Paternalism Among Social Agency Employees

EMPLOYEES IN SOCIAL AGENCIES first came under critical scrutiny in the 1960s as we searched for the causes of civil disorder. It was argued then and is still argued now that social agency employees have a paternalistic attitude toward those they serve-the poor. According to some observers, staff members in social agencies regard their clients as irresponsible and thus in need of being treated like children.' Regulating the poor, Frances Fox Piven and Richard A. Cloward have argued so forcefully, is the aim not only of welfare legislation but of welfare administration as well.2 Paternalism toward the poor can take various forms. It need not

Radical Social Work. Edited by Roy Baily and Mike. Brake, with an introductory chapter by Richard A. Cloward and Frances Fox Piven. New York: Pantheon Books, 1976. 181 pp. $8.95

Radical Social Work. Edited by Roy Baily and Mike. Brake, with an introductory chapter by Richard A. Cloward and Frances Fox Piven. New York: Pantheon Books, 1976. 181 pp. $8.95