Cloward And Piven Book

Advertisement

Decoding the Cloward and Piven Strategy: A Deep Dive into Their Influential Book



Introduction:

For decades, the names Richard Cloward and Frances Fox Piven have resonated within political and sociological circles, primarily due to their controversial yet impactful strategy outlined in their seminal work. This article delves deep into the "Cloward and Piven book," exploring its core arguments, historical context, criticisms, and lasting legacy. We'll unpack the intricacies of their strategy, analyze its effectiveness, and consider its relevance in contemporary political discourse. Get ready to understand the nuances of a strategy that continues to spark debate and inspire discussion.

What is the Cloward and Piven Strategy?

The Cloward and Piven strategy, famously outlined in their 1966 article "A Strategy for Radically Changing the Welfare System" (and elaborated upon in subsequent works), proposed a method to leverage the existing welfare system to force significant political change. Instead of advocating for incremental reforms, they argued for a deliberate and strategic overload of the system. By encouraging mass applications for welfare benefits, they envisioned creating a crisis that would expose the inherent limitations and inequities of the system, ultimately leading to its restructuring and a broader redistribution of wealth.

Key Elements of the Cloward and Piven Book (and Related Works):

While they didn't publish a single book explicitly titled "The Cloward and Piven Strategy," their ideas are extensively discussed across their various publications. The core arguments consistently revolve around several key elements:

Systemic Overload: The central tenet of their strategy is to overwhelm the welfare system with an influx of applicants, exposing its incapacity to handle the increased demand. This would create a crisis, forcing policymakers to address the underlying issues.

Political Mobilization: Cloward and Piven acknowledged that simply overloading the system wasn't sufficient. Their strategy also relied on the potential for political mobilization among those experiencing hardship. This collective action was seen as crucial in pushing for systemic change.

Exposing Inequality: The strategy aimed to expose the deep-seated inequalities embedded within the welfare system and broader society. By demonstrating the system's inability to adequately provide for the needy, they hoped to spark public outrage and demand for reform.

Challenging Conservative Ideology: Cloward and Piven explicitly challenged the prevailing conservative ideology that emphasized individual responsibility and limited government intervention. They argued that systemic issues, not individual failings, were the root cause of poverty and inequality.


Criticisms and Counterarguments:

The Cloward and Piven strategy has faced significant criticism since its inception. Critics argue that:

Unintended Consequences: The strategy's emphasis on overwhelming the system could lead to unintended negative consequences, potentially harming the very people it aims to help. Reduced benefits, longer waiting periods, and increased bureaucratic hurdles could result.

Lack of Realistic Implementation: Critics question the feasibility of mass mobilization and the likelihood of achieving the desired outcome. Political resistance and the inherent complexities of social change are often cited as obstacles.

Moral and Ethical Concerns: Some argue that the strategy is ethically questionable, implying a deliberate creation of chaos to achieve political ends. The potential for harm and exploitation is a major point of contention.

Oversimplification of Complex Issues: Critics point out that the strategy oversimplifies the complexities of poverty and inequality, neglecting the multifaceted nature of these social problems.

The Lasting Impact of Cloward and Piven's Ideas:

Despite the criticisms, Cloward and Piven's ideas have had a lasting impact. Their work helped to:

Raise Awareness of Social Injustice: Their writings contributed significantly to raising public awareness about the inadequacies of the welfare system and the pervasive nature of social inequality.

Influence Activist Movements: Their strategy, despite its controversial nature, has influenced various activist movements and social justice campaigns, inspiring tactics aimed at challenging existing power structures.

Shape Academic Discourse: Cloward and Piven's work remains a significant contribution to sociological and political science literature, stimulating ongoing debate and scholarship.


A Hypothetical Cloward and Piven Book Outline:

Title: Regulating the Welfare State: A Strategy for Systemic Change

I. Introduction:
Defining the problem of systemic poverty and inequality.
Introducing the concept of strategic overload as a means for achieving radical social change.
Overview of the historical context and the limitations of incremental reform.

II. The Pathology of the Welfare State:
Critique of existing welfare systems and their inherent inefficiencies.
Analysis of the political forces that maintain the status quo.
Examination of the ideological underpinnings of conservative approaches to poverty.

III. The Strategy of Mass Enrollment:
Detailed explanation of the Cloward and Piven strategy.
Discussion of the role of political mobilization and grassroots activism.
Exploration of potential challenges and obstacles to implementation.

IV. Case Studies and Examples:
Analysis of historical instances where similar strategies were employed.
Examination of successful and unsuccessful campaigns for social change.
Discussion of lessons learned and strategies for adaptation.

V. Conclusion:
Reiteration of the core arguments and the urgency of systemic change.
Exploration of the potential benefits and risks of the strategy.
A call to action for engaging in political activism and social justice movements.


Detailed Explanation of the Outline Points:

Each section of the hypothetical book would delve deeper into the specific aspects outlined above. For instance, the "Pathology of the Welfare State" section would analyze the historical development of welfare systems, highlighting their structural limitations and biases that perpetuate inequality. The section on "The Strategy of Mass Enrollment" would offer a practical guide, outlining the steps involved in implementing the strategy, addressing potential pitfalls and proposing mitigation strategies. The case studies would provide real-world examples to illustrate the strategy’s potential and limitations, drawing lessons from past campaigns. The conclusion would synthesize the arguments and offer a pathway towards achieving meaningful social and political change.

FAQs:

1. Is the Cloward and Piven strategy ethically justifiable? This is a highly debated question with valid arguments on both sides. The ethical implications depend largely on one's assessment of the potential harms versus the potential benefits of systemic change.

2. Has the Cloward and Piven strategy ever been successfully implemented? While no single instance perfectly mirrors their proposed strategy, various social movements have employed elements of mass mobilization and system overload to achieve significant reforms.

3. What are the main criticisms of the Cloward and Piven strategy? Critics argue it is impractical, ethically problematic, and may harm those it intends to help by overburdening existing systems.

4. What is the historical context of the Cloward and Piven strategy? It emerged during the 1960s civil rights movement and the burgeoning welfare rights movement, a time of significant social and political upheaval.

5. How does the Cloward and Piven strategy relate to other forms of social activism? It shares similarities with other forms of disruptive activism that aim to challenge existing power structures through mass mobilization and civil disobedience.

6. What are the potential unintended consequences of implementing the Cloward and Piven strategy? Increased bureaucracy, longer waiting times, and reduced benefits for all recipients are potential negative outcomes.

7. How does the Cloward and Piven strategy differ from other approaches to social change? It contrasts with incremental reform approaches by advocating for a deliberate crisis to force systemic change rather than gradual adjustments.

8. Is the Cloward and Piven strategy relevant today? The issues of poverty and inequality remain highly relevant, making the underlying principles of their strategy applicable to contemporary social movements.

9. What are some alternative strategies for achieving social justice and economic equality? Many alternative approaches exist, including grassroots organizing, advocacy, legislative lobbying, and community-based initiatives.


Related Articles:

1. The Welfare State in Crisis: An examination of the challenges facing modern welfare systems and the need for reform.

2. The History of Welfare Reform in the United States: A chronological overview of significant legislative changes and their impact.

3. Grassroots Activism and Social Change: Exploring the role of community-based organizing in driving social justice movements.

4. The Politics of Poverty: An analysis of the political forces that shape policies related to poverty and inequality.

5. The Impact of Welfare on Poverty Reduction: Evaluating the effectiveness of various welfare programs in reducing poverty rates.

6. The Role of Mass Mobilization in Social Movements: An examination of how large-scale protests and demonstrations can effect change.

7. Systemic Inequality and its Roots: An analysis of the historical and structural factors that contribute to persistent inequality.

8. Ethical Considerations in Social Justice Movements: A discussion of the moral dilemmas faced by activists pursuing social change.

9. Alternative Models for Social Welfare: An exploration of different approaches to providing social safety nets and support systems.


  cloward and piven book: The Breaking of the American Social Compact Frances Fox Piven, Richard A. Cloward, 1998-09-01 In this text, social critics Francis Fox Piven and Richard Cloward address the tumultuous politics of the 1970s, 80s and 90s that have culminated in an all-out assault on the American social compact.
  cloward and piven book: Regulating the Poor Frances Fox Piven, Richard Andrew Cloward, 1956
  cloward and piven book: Poor People's Movements Frances Fox Piven, Richard Cloward, 2012-02-08 Have the poor fared best by participating in conventional electoral politics or by engaging in mass defiance and disruption? The authors of the classic Regulating The Poor assess the successes and failures of these two strategies as they examine, in this provocative study, four protest movements of lower-class groups in 20th century America: -- The mobilization of the unemployed during the Great Depression that gave rise to the Workers' Alliance of America -- The industrial strikes that resulted in the formation of the CIO -- The Southern Civil Rights Movement -- The movement of welfare recipients led by the National Welfare Rights Organization.
  cloward and piven book: Praxis for the Poor Sanford F. Schram, 2002-01-01 Praxis for the Poor puts the relationship of politics to scholarship front and center through an examination of the work of Frances Fox Piven and Richard Cloward. Piven and Cloward proved that social science could inform social-policy politics in ways that helped energize a movement. Praxis for the Poor offers a critical reflection on their work and builds upon it, demonstrating how a more politically-engaged scholarship can contribute to the struggle for social justice. Necessary reading for political scientists, sociologists, social workers, social welfare activists, policy-makers, and anyone concerned with the plight of the poor and oppressed, Praxis for the Poor shows how social science can play a role in building a better future for social welfare.
  cloward and piven book: Who's Afraid of Frances Fox Piven? Frances Piven, 2011-08-09 The sociologist and political scientist Frances Fox Piven and her late husband Richard Cloward have been famously credited by Glenn Beck with devising the “Cloward/Piven Strategy,” a world view responsible, according to Beck, for everything from creating a “culture of poverty” and fomenting “violent revolution” to causing global warming and the recent financial crisis. Called an “enemy of the people,” over the past year Piven has been subjected to an unprecedented campaign of hatred and disinformation, spearheaded by Beck. How is it that a distinguished university professor, past president of the American Sociological Association, and recipient of numerous awards and accolades for her work on behalf of the poor and for American voting rights, has attracted so much negative attention? For anyone who is skeptical of the World According to Beck, here is a guide to the ideas that Glenn fears most. Who's Afraid of Frances Fox Piven? is a concise, accessible introduction to Piven's actual thinking (versus Beck's outrageous claims), from her early work on welfare rights and “poor people's movements,” written with her late husband Richard Cloward, through her influential examination of American voting habits, and her most recent work on the possibilities for a new movement for progressive reform. A major corrective to right-wing bombast, this essential book is also a rich source of ideas and inspiration for anyone interested in progressive change.
  cloward and piven book: Rich People's Movements Isaac William Martin, 2015-02 Why do protesters sometimes take to the streets to demand lower taxes on the rich? In this urgently relevant study, sociologist Isaac William Martin examines how these protesters used tactics that they learned in movements of the poor and powerless-and sometimes won big.
  cloward and piven book: Challenging Authority Frances Fax Piven, 2008-07-11 Argues that ordinary people exercise extraordinary political courage and power in American politics when, frustrated by politics as usual, they rise up in anger and hope, and defy the authorities and the status quo rules that ordinarily govern their daily lives. By doing so, they disrupt the workings of important institutions and become a force in American politics. Drawing on critical episodes in U.S. history, Piven shows that it is in fact precisely at those seismic moments when people act outside of political norms that they become empowered to their full democratic potential.
  cloward and piven book: Why Americans Don't Vote Frances Fox Piven, Richard A. Cloward, 1988 Examines personal voter registration, describes its supporters, and what is needed to maintain an active electorate.
  cloward and piven book: Disciplining the Poor Joe Soss, Richard C. Fording, Sanford Schram, 2011-11-30 This volume lays out the underlying logic of contemporary poverty governance in the United States. The authors argue that poverty governance has been transformed in the United States by two significant developments.
  cloward and piven book: Why Americans Still Don't Vote Frances Fox Piven, 2000-09-22 Americans take for granted that ours is the very model of a democracy. At the core of this belief is the assumption that the right to vote is firmly established. But in fact, the United States is the only major democratic nation in which the less well-off, the young, and minorities are substantially underrepresented in the electorate. Frances Fox Piven and Richard A. Cloward were key players in the long battle to reform voter registration laws that finally resulted in the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (also known as the Motor Voter law). When Why Americans Don't Vote was first published in 1988, this battle was still raging, and their book was a fiery salvo. It demonstrated that the twentieth century had witnessed a concerted effort to restrict voting by immigrants and blacks through a combination of poll taxes, literacy tests, and unwieldy voter registration requirements. Why Americans Still Don't Vote brings the story up to the present. Analyzing the results of voter registration reform, and drawing compelling historical parallels, Piven and Cloward reveal why neither of the major parties has tried to appeal to the interests of the newly registered-and thus why Americans still don't vote.
  cloward and piven book: Keeping Down the Black Vote Frances Fox Piven, Lorraine Carol Minnite, Margaret Groarke, 2009 Keeping Down the Black Vote offers a controversial examination of how the American political system works to suppress the vote--especially the votes of African Americans and minorities.
  cloward and piven book: Rules for Radicals Saul Alinsky, 2010-06-30 “This country's leading hell-raiser (The Nation) shares his impassioned counsel to young radicals on how to effect constructive social change and know “the difference between being a realistic radical and being a rhetorical one.” First published in 1971 and written in the midst of radical political developments whose direction Alinsky was one of the first to question, this volume exhibits his style at its best. Like Thomas Paine before him, Alinsky was able to combine, both in his person and his writing, the intensity of political engagement with an absolute insistence on rational political discourse and adherence to the American democratic tradition.
  cloward and piven book: Social Reproduction and the City Simon Black, 2020 The transformation of child care after welfare reform in New York City and the struggle against that transformation is a largely untold story. In the decade following welfare reform, despite increases in child care funding, there was little growth in New York's unionized, center-based child care system and no attempt to make this system more responsive to the needs of working mothers. As the city delivered child care services on the cheap, relying on non-union home child care providers, welfare rights organizations, community legal clinics, child care advocates, low-income community groups, activist mothers, and labor unions organized to demand fair solutions to the child care crisis that addressed poor single mothers' need for quality, affordable child care as well as child care providers' need for decent work and pay. Social Reproduction and the City tells this story, linking welfare reform to feminist research and activism around the crisis of care, social reproduction, and the neoliberal city. At a theoretical level, Simon Black's history of this era presents a feminist political economy of the urban welfare regime, applying a social reproduction lens to processes of urban neoliberalization and an urban lens to feminist analyses of welfare state restructuring and resistance. Feminist political economy and feminist welfare state scholarship have not focused on the urban as a scale of analysis, and critical approaches to urban neoliberalism often fail to address questions of social reproduction. To address these unexplored areas, Black unpacks the urban as a contested site of welfare state restructuring and examines the escalating crisis in social reproduction. He lays bare the aftermath of the welfare-to-work agenda of the Giuliani administration in New York City on child care and the resistance to policies that deepened race, class, and gender inequities.
  cloward and piven book: The Handbook of Political Sociology Thomas Janoski, Robert R. Alford, Alexander M. Hicks, Mildred A. Schwartz, 2005-05-23 This Handbook provides a complete survey of the vibrant field of political sociology. Part I explores the theories of political sociology. Part II focuses on the formation, transitions, and regime structure of the state. Part III takes up various aspects of the state that respond to pressures from civil society.
  cloward and piven book: The Politics of Turmoil Richard A. Cloward, Frances Fox Piven, 1975
  cloward and piven book: Social Movements Stanford M. Lyman, 2016-07-27 The aim of this book is to bring together classical, recent and contemporary analyses of the social movement phenomenon. Analysis is represented in several variants of its discursive form: the expository essay, the critique, the general theory, the specific case study and the futuristic meditation.
  cloward and piven book: Revolutionary Rehearsals in the Neoliberal Age Colin Barker, Gareth Dale, Neil Davidson, 2021-07-01 This ambitious volume examines revolutionary situations during a non-revolutionary historical conjuncture--the neoliberal era. The last three decades have seen an increase in the number of political upheavals that challenge existing power structures, many of them taking the form of urban revolts. This book compellingly explores a series of such upheavals--in Eastern Europe, South Africa, Indonesia, Argentina, Bolivia, Venezuela, sub-Saharan Africa (including Congo, Zimbabwe, Burkina Faso) and Egypt. Each chapter studies the ways in which protest movements developed into insurgent challenges to state power, and the strategies that regimes have deployed to contain and repress revolt. In addition to empirical chapters, the book engages in theorization of revolution, dealing with questions such as the patterning of revolution in contemporary history, the relationship between class struggle and social movements, and the prospects of socialist revolution in the twenty-first century.
  cloward and piven book: The Shadow Party David Horowitz, Richard Poe, 2007-04-15 America is under attack. Its institutions and values are under daily assault. But the principal culprits are not foreign terrorists. They are influential and powerful Americans secretly stirring up disunion and disloyalty in the shifting shadows of the Democratic Party. Radical infiltrators have been quietly transforming America's societal, cultural, and political institutions for more than a generation. Now, backed by George Soros, they are ready to make their move. These progressive extremists have gained control over a once-respectable but now desperate and dangerous political party. From their perches in the Democratic hierarchy, they seek to undermine the war on terror, destabilize the nation, and effect radical regime change in America. With startling new evidence, New York Times best-selling authors David Horowitz and Richard Poe shine the light on the Shadow Party, exposing its methods, tactics, and ultimate agenda.
  cloward and piven book: Welfare Gwendolyn Mink, Rickie Solinger, 2003-09 A documentary history of welfare policy in the U.S.
  cloward and piven book: The Oxford Handbook of the Social Science of Poverty David Brady, Linda Burton, 2016 The Oxford Handbook of the Social Science of Poverty builds a common scholarly ground in the study of poverty by bringing together an international, inter-disciplinary group of scholars to provide their perspectives on the issue. Contributors engage in discussions about the leading theories and conceptual debates regarding poverty, the most salient topics in poverty research, and the far-reaching consequences of poverty on the individual and societal level.
  cloward and piven book: Paradigm Lost Stanley Aronowitz, Peter Bratsis, 2002 With increasing globalization, the meaning and role of the nation-state are in flux. At the same time, state theory, which might help to explain such a trend, has fallen victim to the general decline of radical movements, particularly the crisis in Marxism. This volume seeks to enrich and complicate current political debates by bringing state theory back to the fore and assessing its relevance to the social phenomena and thought of our day. Throughout, it becomes clear that, whether confronting the challenges of postmodern and neo-institutionalist theory or the crisis of the welfare state and globalization, state theory still has great analytical and strategic value.
  cloward and piven book: Roots to Power Lee Staples, 2016-02-22 The third edition of the manual for community organizers tells readers how to most effectively implement community action for social change, clearly laying out grassroots organizing principles, methods, and best practices. Written for those who want to improve their own lives or the lives of others, this thoroughly revised how-to manual presents techniques groups can use to organize successfully in pursuit of their dreams. The book combines time-tested, universal principles and methods with cutting-edge material addressing new opportunities and challenges. It covers basic concepts and best practices and offers step-by-step guidelines on things an organizer needs to know, such as how to identify issues, formulate strategies, set goals, recruit participants, and much more. The work focuses on six organizing arenas: turf/geography, failth-based, issue, identity, shared experience, and work-related. It offers new or expanded material addressing community development, use of social media, internal organizational dynamics, electoral organizing, evaluation/assessment, and prevention of burnout for key leaders. There are also nuts-and-bolts articles by experts who address topics such as action research, lobbying, legal tactics, and grassroots fundraising. Numerous case examples, charts, worksheets, and small group exercises enrich the discussion and bring the material to life.
  cloward and piven book: The Battle for Welfare Rights Felicia Ann Kornbluh, 2007 The Battle for Welfare Rights chronicles an American war on poverty fought first and foremost by poor people themselves. It tells the fascinating story of the National Welfare Rights Organization, the largest membership organization of low-income people in U.S. history. It sets that story in the context of its turbulent times, the 1960s and early 1970s, and shows how closely tied that story was to changes in mainstream politics, both nationally and locally in New York City.Welfare was one of the most hotly contested issues in postwar America. Bolstered by the accomplishments of the civil rights movement, NWRO members succeeded in focusing national attention on the needs of welfare recipients, especially single mothers. At its height, the NWRO had over 20,000 members, most of whom were African American women and Latinas, organized into more than 500 local chapters. These women transformed the agenda of the civil rights movement and forged new coalitions with middleclass and white allies. To press their case for reform, they used tactics that ranged from demonstrations, sit-ins, and other forms of civil disobedience to legislative lobbying and lawsuits against government officials.Historian Felicia Kornbluh illuminates the ideas of poor women and men as well as their actions. One of the primary goals of the NWRO was a guaranteed income for every adult American. In part because of their advocacy, this idea had a surprising range of supporters, from conservative economist Milton Friedman to liberal presidential candidate George McGovern. However, by the middle 1970s, as Kornbluh shows, Republicans and conservative Democrats had turned the proposal and its proponents into laughingstocks.The Battle for Welfare Rights offers new insight into women's activism, poverty policy, civil rights, urban politics, law, consumerism, social work, and the rise of modern conservatism. It tells, for the first time, the complete story of a movement that profoundly affected the meaning of citizenship and the social contract in the United States.
  cloward and piven book: Welfare in the United States Premilla Nadasen, Jennifer Mittelstadt, Marisa Chappell, 2013-04-15 Welfare has been central to a number of significant political debates in modern America: What role should the government play in alleviating poverty? What does a government owe its citizens, and who is entitled to help? How have race and gender shaped economic opportunities and outcomes? How should Americans respond to increasing rates of single parenthood? How have poor women sought to shape their own lives and influence government policies? With a comprehensive introduction and a well-chosen collection of primary documents, Welfare in the United States chronicles the major turning points in the seventy-year history of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). Illuminating policy debates, shifting demographics, institutional change, and the impact of social movements, this book serves as an essential guide to the history of the nation's most controversial welfare program.
  cloward and piven book: The New Class War Frances Fox Piven, Richard A. Cloward, 1982
  cloward and piven book: The Decline of American Power Immanuel Wallerstein, 2012-09-04 The internationally renowned theorist contends that the sun is setting on the American empire in this “lucid, informed, and insightful” account (The New York Times). The United States currently finds itself [a] superpower that lacks true power, a world leader nobody follows and few respect, and a nation drifting dangerously amidst a global chaos it cannot control. The United States in decline? Its admirers and detractors alike claim the opposite: America is now in a position of unprecedented global supremacy. But in fact, Immanuel Wallerstein argues, a more nuanced evaluation of recent history reveals that America has been fading as a global power since the end of the Vietnam War, and its response to the terrorist attacks of 9/11 looks certain to hasten that decline. In this provocative collection, the visionary originator of world-systems analysis and the most innovative social scientist of his generation turns a practiced analytical eye to the turbulent beginnings of the twenty-first century. Touching on globalization, Islam, racism, democracy, intellectuals, and the state of the left wing, Wallerstein upends conventional wisdom to produce a clear-eyed—and troubling—assessment of the crumbling international order. “[Wallerstein’s thought] provides a new framework for the subject of European history . . . it is compelling, a new explanation, a new classification, indeed a revolutionary one, of received knowledge and current thought.” —Fernand Braudel
  cloward and piven book: Blitz David Horowitz, 2020-06-16 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER USA TODAY BESTSELLER 'BLITZ, Trump Will Smash the Left and Win', by David Horowitz. Amazon #1 Bestseller. Hot book, great author! — President Donald J. Trump BUCKLE UP—2020 WILL BE THE POLITICAL RIDE OF YOUR LIFE! IN NOVEMBER TRUMP WILL SMASH THE LEFT AND WIN! “We love David Horowitz. He thinks Trump is gonna win in a landslide in November, and he gives reasons why in the book, and he says Republicans are gonna be singing 'Happy Days Are Here Again' once November comes and the election is over and the votes are counted.” — Rush Limbaugh He is one of the bravest guys. He found the real intent [of the Left] was to control America. He has never, ever sat down. A true national treasure.” — Glenn Beck “If you’re interested in debating deranged liberals with facts, you won’t want to miss this latest book.” — Donald Trump, Jr. “BLITZ is a MUST-read for those who want to better understand what is really happening in the ‘idea war’ for the soul of America.” — Governor Mike Huckabee BLITZ reveals the attacks made against Trump have been the most brutal ever mounted against a sitting president of the United States. Blinded by deep-seated hatred of his person and his policies, the left even desperately tried to oust Trump in a failed impeachment bid. Horowitz shows that their very attacks—targeting a man whose mission has been to “Drain the Swamp” and “Make America Great Again” backfired, turning Trump himself into a near martyrwhile igniting the fervor of his “base.” With the 2020 election upon us, New York Times bestselling author David Horowitz chronicles the brutal battles, bitter backlash, and leftwing lies Trump has faced as Democrats repeatedly try to sabotage his presidency. You’ll discover the left’s terrifying socialist and, in some cases, communist agendas as you’ve never seen them before. Trump’s response? In the meantime, he’s going to steamroll this opposition in November using the same playbook he has used to win before. In BLITZ you will find shocking revelations: The 9 biggest dangers to America the left poses—their agenda will blow your mind. Show me the money: naming the billionaires and fat cats really out to get Trump. How patriotism suddenly became “white nationalism” linking Trump to Hitler and the KKK . The growing secularism of the left and how the hate pushed against Christians will backfire. Why every effort to demonize Trump and his supporters is failing like crazy. Obama’s agenda: how the former president casts a much greater shadow over Trump’s political woes than you ever imagined. The Genius: how Trump’s brilliant strategy has worked and will continue to work, making him president again in 2021! The effort to remove and destroy our duly elected President may be the greatest challenge America has faced since the Civil War, explains Horowitz. For the first time BLITZ exposes the left’s strategy to take down Trump, and how Trump not only beat them at their own game, but how he’s turning the tables on them to achieve a stunning reelection win come November. “An indispensable book—BLITZ— explaining why today’s Democrats are so dangerous and why President Trump is their nemesis.” — Mark R. Levin, New York Times bestselling author of Unfreedom of the Press “BLITZ is the latest must-read from Horowitz: insightful, hard-hitting, controversial, and uncompromising. Ignore him at your peril.” — Peter Schweizer, New York Times bestselling author of Clinton Cash and Profiles in Corruption “This is the book your anti-Trump relatives and friends should read...as clear a moral indictment of the anti-Trump left as has been written.” — Dennis Prager, President of PragerU and New York Times bestselling author “Unparalleled insight into the current political climate, how we got here and what it means for 2020 elections.” — Sean Spicer, Host of Spicer & Co., Newsmax TV “Horowitz understands the left's malevolent goals and how to stop them. This is a must read-book!” — Charlie Kirk, New York Times bestselling author of The MAGA Doctrine “[David Horowitz] author and political activist believes President Donald Trump should focus on the issue of keeping Americans safe to help secure his re-election in the fall.” – One News Now
  cloward and piven book: Words of Welfare Sanford Schram, 1995 It has been suggested that policy analysis has come to serve the needs of the state at the expense of the citizens. This book offers a critique of how welfare policy is analyzed and set in the USA, illustrating that how we study issues affects what ultimately gets done about them.
  cloward and piven book: Pimping the Welfare System Kerry C. Woodward, 2013-03-14 Based on ethnographic research in Contra Costa County, California (CCC), Pimping the Welfare System highlights a welfare program implemented after welfare reform that differed in significant ways from the predominant work first approach implemented by most welfare programs. The book argues that by imparting dominant economic, social, and cultural capital, CCC’s welfare program empowered participants and improved their quality of life and life chances. Successfully transmitting these types of capital, however, was dependent upon the discourses, practices, and pedagogy deployed by welfare workers—as well as the policies, practices, and resources of the welfare program. In particular, CCC’s welfare workers encouraged the acquisition and use of dominant capital (that which is desired by the labor market) by acknowledging and respecting the various types of capital welfare participants already had, and by encouraging participants to make strategic choices about deploying different types of capital. This book calls into question monolithic understandings of economic, social, and cultural capital and encourages a new conceptualization of capital that resists framing poor women as fundamentally “lacking.” In addition, it points to ways welfare administrators and welfare workers can develop more empowering programs even within the confines of federal, state, and local regulations.
  cloward and piven book: The Autonomy Myth Martha Albertson Fineman, 2005 An exposé of flaws in American policies regarding the self-reliance of families argues that policymakers have compromised the well-being of everyday individuals by limiting the definition of acceptable family units and placing unrealistic responsibilities on contemporary families, presenting a model for caretaking relationships that provides extra support for children and the elderly. Reprint.
  cloward and piven book: Protest and Opportunities Felix Kolb, 2007 Although grass-roots social movements are an important force of social and political change, they quite often fail to achieve their lofty goals. Similarly, the inability of research to systematically explain the impact of such movements stands in sharp contrast to their emotional appeal. Protest, Opportunities, and Mechanisms attempts to rejuvenate current scholarship by developing a comprehensive theory of social movements and political change. In addition to reviewing the existing literature on the political outcomes of social movements, this volume analyzes the examples of the American civil rights movement and anti-nuclear energy efforts in eighteen countries to forge a new understanding of their momentous impact.
  cloward and piven book: Family Values Melinda Cooper, 2017-02-01 Why was the discourse of family values so pivotal to the conservative and free-market revolution of the 1980s and why has it continued to exert such a profound influence on American political life? Why have free-market neoliberals so often made common cause with social conservatives on the question of family, despite their differences on all other issues? In this book, Melinda Cooper challenges the idea that neoliberalism privileges atomized individualism over familial solidarities, and contractual freedom over inherited status. Delving into the history of the American poor laws, she shows how the liberal ethos of personal responsibility was always undergirded by a wider imperative of family responsibility and how this investment in kinship obligations recurrently facilitated the working relationship between free-market liberals and social conservatives. Neoliberalism, she argues, must be understood as an effort to revive and extend the poor law tradition in the contemporary idiom of household debt. As neoliberal policymakers imposed cuts to health, education, and welfare budgets, they simultaneously identified the family as a wholesale alternative to the twentieth-century welfare state. And as the responsibility for deficit spending shifted from the state to the household, the private debt obligations of family were defined as foundational to socio-economic order. Despite their differences, neoliberals and social conservatives were in agreement that the bonds of family needed to be encouraged — and at the limit enforced — as a necessary counterpart to market freedom. In a series of case studies ranging from Clinton’s welfare reform to the AIDS epidemic, and from same-sex marriage to the student loan crisis, Cooper explores the key policy contributions made by neoliberal economists and legal theorists. Only by restoring the question of family to its central place in the neoliberal project, she argues, can we make sense of the defining political alliance of our times, that between free-market economics and social conservatism.
  cloward and piven book: Merge Left Ian Haney López, 2019-10-01 From the acclaimed author of Dog Whistle Politics, an essential road map to neutralizing the role of racism as a divide-and-conquer political weapon and to building a broad multiracial progressive future Ian Haney López has broken the code on the racial politics of the last fifty years.—Bill Moyers In 2014, Ian Haney López in Dog Whistle Politics named and explained the coded racial appeals exploited by right-wing politicians over the last half century—and thereby anticipated the 2016 presidential election. Now the country is heading into what will surely be one of the most consequential elections ever, with the Right gearing up to exploit racial fear-mongering to divide and distract, and the Left splintered over the next step forward. Some want to focus on racial justice head-on; others insist that a race-silent focus on class avoids alienating white voters. Can either approach—race-forward or colorblind—build the progressive supermajorities necessary to break political gridlock and fundamentally change the country's direction? For the past two years, Haney López has been collaborating with a research team of union activists, racial justice leaders, communications specialists, and pollsters. Based on conversations, interviews, and surveys with thousands of people all over the country, the team found a way forward. By merging the fights for racial justice and for shared economic prosperity, they were able to build greater enthusiasm for both goals—and for the cross-racial solidarity needed to win elections. What does this mean? It means that neutralizing the Right's political strategy of racial division is possible, today. And that's the key to everything progressives want to achieve. A work of deep research, nuanced argument, and urgent insight, Merge Left: Fusing Race and Class, Winning Elections, and Saving America is an indispensable tool for the upcoming political season and in the larger fight to build racial justice and shared economic prosperity for all of us.
  cloward and piven book: The Kids Gabriela Herman, 2017-10-10 PAPERBACK ORIGINAL A stunning new photobook featuring more than fifty portraits of children brought up by gay parents in America, sixth in a groundbreaking series that looks at LGBTQ communities around the world Judges, academics, and activists keep wondering how children are impacted by having gay parents. Maybe it’s time to ask the kids. For the past four years, award-winning photographer Gabriela Herman, whose mother came out when Herman was in high school and was married in one of Massachusetts’ first legal same-sex unions, has been photographing and interviewing children and young adults with one or more parent who identify as lesbian, gay, trans, or queer. Building on images featured in a major article for the New York Times Sunday Review and The Guardian and working with the Colage organization, the only national organization focusing on children with LGBTQ parents, The Kids brings a vibrant energy and sensitivity to a wide range of experiences. Some of the children Herman photographed were adopted, some conceived by artificial insemination. Many are children of divorce. Some were raised in urban areas, other in the rural Midwest and all over the map. These parents and children juggled silence and solitude with a need to defend their families on the playground, at church, and at holiday gatherings. This is their story. The Kids was designed by Emerson, Wajdowicz Studios (EWS).
  cloward and piven book: Unreasonable Devon W. Carbado, 2022-04-05 How the Supreme Court’s decision to treat unreasonable policing as reasonable under the Fourth Amendment has shortened the distance between life and death for Black people The summer of 2020 will be remembered as an unprecedented, watershed moment in the struggle for racial equality. Published on the second anniversary of the global protests over the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, Unreasonable is a groundbreaking investigation of the role that the law—and the U.S. Constitution—play in the epidemic of police violence against Black people. In this crucially timely book, celebrated legal scholar Devon W. Carbado explains how the Fourth Amendment became ground zero for regulating police conduct—more important than Miranda warnings, the right to counsel, equal protection and due process. Fourth Amendment law determines when and how the police can make arrests, and it determines the precarious line between stopping Black people and killing Black people. A leading light in the critical race studies movement, Carbado looks at how that text, in the last four decades, has been interpreted by the Supreme Court to protect police officers, not African Americans; how it sanctions search and seizure as well as profiling; and how it has become, ultimately, an amendment of life and death. Accessible, radical, and essential reading, Unreasonable sheds light on a rarely understood dimension of today’s most pressing issue.
  cloward and piven book: Protest and Democracy Moises Arce, Roberta Rice, 2019-06-15 In 2011, political protests sprang up across the world. In the Middle East, Europe, Latin America, the United States unlikely people sparked or led massive protest campaigns from the Arab Spring to Occupy Wall Street. These protests were made up of educated and precariously employed young people who challenged the legitimacy of their political leaders, exposed a failure of representation, and expressed their dissatisfaction with their place in the aftermath of financial and economic crisis. This book interrogates what impacts--if any--this global protest cycle had on politics and policy and shows the sometimes unintended ways it continues to influence contemporary political dynamics throughout the world. Proposing a new framework of analysis that calls attention to the content and claims of protests, their global connections, and the responsiveness of political institutions to protest demands, this is one of the few books that not only asks how protest movements are formed but also provides an in-depth examination of what protest movements can accomplish. With contributions examining the political consequences of protest, the roles of social media and the internet in protest organization, left- and right-wing movements in the United States, Chile's student movements, the Arab Uprisings, and much more this collection is essential reading for all those interested in the power of protest to shape our world.
  cloward and piven book: Subversion, Inc Matthew Vadum, 2011 In Subversion, Inc., the leading investigator and intellectual unearths ACORN's gnarled roots of leftist radicalism and reveals why this thorn patch of a complex political creature produces the rotten fruits of suppression, oppression, intimidation, thuggery and outright terrorism. The author documents how ACORN's tentacles reach into the highest levels of the U.S. Subversion, Inc. also examines the organization's bipartisan beginnings and its intricate entanglements with President Obama. After Vadum ticks off its historical deceptions, urban terror tactics and unflinching commitment to lootin.
  cloward and piven book: Workfare States Jamie Peck, 2001-02-13 This book examines the political economy of workfare, the umbrella term for welfare-to-work initiatives that have been steadily gaining ground since candidate Bill Clinton's 1992 promise to end welfare as we know it. Peck traces the development, diffusion, and implementation of workfare policies in the United States, and their export to Canada and the United Kingdom. He explores how reforms have been shaped by labor markets and political conditions, how gender and race come into play, and how local programs fit into the broader context of neoliberal economics and globalization. The book cogently demonstrates that workfare rarely involves large-scale job creation, but is more concerned with deterring welfare claims and necessitating the acceptance of low-paying, unstable jobs. Integrating labor market theory, critical policy analysis, and extensive field research, Peck exposes the limitations of workfare policies and points toward more equitable alternatives.
  cloward and piven book: Unwanted Claims Joe Brian Soss, Joe Soss, 1996
  cloward and piven book: This Is an Uprising Mark Engler, Paul Engler, 2016-02-09 There is a craft to uprising -- and this craft can change the world From protests around climate change and immigrant rights, to Occupy, the Arab Spring, and #BlackLivesMatter, a new generation is unleashing strategic nonviolent action to shape public debate and force political change. When mass movements erupt onto our television screens, the media consistently portrays them as being spontaneous and unpredictable. Yet, in this book, Mark and Paul Engler look at the hidden art behind such outbursts of protest, examining core principles that have been used to spark and guide moments of transformative unrest. With incisive insights from contemporary activists, as well as fresh revelations about the work of groundbreaking figures such as Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Gene Sharp, and Frances Fox Piven, the Englers show how people with few resources and little conventional influence are engineering the upheavals that are reshaping contemporary politics. Nonviolence is usually seen simply as a philosophy or moral code. This Is an Uprising shows how it can instead be deployed as a method of political conflict, disruption, and escalation. It argues that if we are always taken by surprise by dramatic outbreaks of revolt, we pass up the chance to truly understand how social transformation happens.