Stigmatized or Politically Disillusioned Recipients? Policy Feedback and the Dampening Effect of Means-Tested Programs on Recipients' Participation
Year: 2013
Type: preprint
Abstract: Means-tested social welfare programs, which are programs that provide cash or services to recipients based on a test of need determined by income and assets, are a largely unacknowledged but significant part of many Americans’ lives. Policy feedback research has broken new ground exploring the ways receiving social programs may shape recipients’ views about government and themselves, ultimately affecting their political participation. One of the central findings of this research is that specific policy designs lead to political learning about government responsiveness that reduce a recipient’s assessment of the efficacy of petitioning government and their subsequent participation. This paper challenges this conclusion, hypothesizing that all means-tested programs, in contrast to their non-means-tested counterparts, diminish participation. In challenging this longstanding theory, I also call for greater specification and testing of policy feedback effects and the mechanisms behind them. Ultimately, I find little support that specific policy designs lead to political learning about government responsiveness. Instead, the data suggests we should be more attentive to the stigmatizing effect of receiving a means-tested program, which is contributing to means-tested recipients diminished participation.
Source: SSRN Electronic Journal
Author: Alexis Walker
Institution: Cornell University
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2914758431