Discuss the Piven and Cloward theory that social welfare can be seen as an agent of direct social control
What will be an ideal response?
Feedback: Piven and Cloward argue that (1) public assistance programs serve a social control function in times of mass unemployment by defusing social unrest. During the Great Depression, for example, the government remained aloof from the needs of the unemployed until there was a great surge of political disorder. The function of social welfare, then, is to defuse social unrest through direct intervention of the government. Added proof for the Piven and Cloward thesis is the contraction or even abolishment of public assistance programs when political stability is restored. (2) Another function of welfare is more subtle (and fits more logically as an agent of ideological social control). Even in good times some people live on welfare. By having a category of people on welfare who live in poor conditions and are continually degraded, work is legitimized. Thus, the poor on welfare serve as an object lesson, keeping even those who work for low wages relatively satisfied with their position.
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What will be an ideal response?