Welfare Policymaking in the States: The Devil in Devolution

Now that responsibility for welfare policy has devolved from Washington to the states, Winston examines how the welfare policymaking process has changed. Under the Welfare Reform Act of 1996, welfare was the first and most basic safety net programme to be sent back to state control. Will the shift help or further diminish programmes for low-income people, especially the millions of children who comprise the majority of the poor in the US? In this text Winston probes the nature of state welfare politics under devolution and contrasts it with welfare politics on the national level. She analyses the influence of interest groups and other key actors in the legislative process at both the state and national levels. She compares the legislative process during the 104th Congress (1995-96) with that in three states - Maryland, Texas and North Dakota - and finds that the debates in the states saw a more limited range of participants, with fewer of them representing poor people, and fewer competing ideas.