Policy for the "deserving' but politically weak: The 1996 Welfare Reform Act and battered women


There is a theoretical framework by which we can understand why certain policy tools (how a policy is actually set up) are chosen over other available tools.  That theory, policy design theory (Schneider and Ingram, 1997), suggests that the relative political power and social construction of target populations will lead to specific tools.  The more positive and powerful is a target group the more likely it is that the policy tools chosen will be substantive (versus rhetorical) and provide benefits (versus burdens). 

In this article, for which I was lead author, we analyze the Family Violence Option of the Personal Reponsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996 (commonly referred to as "welfare reform") using battered women as the target population.  Battered women can be viewed as positively constructed and relatively powerless politically.  The theory argues such target groups will likely receive policy tools that are largely rhetorical though positive in tone.

The Family Violence Option purports to provide benefits to battered women in that it allows for exceptions to the restrictions imposed in the  welfare reform act.  However, we found in our research that it is an ineffective tool because it doesn't provide real solutions for battered women in poverty and has no funding mechanism for implementation.

Therefore, we argue that the FVO was, as the policy design model suggests, a rhetorical (hollow) benefit.R