1983 Gamson 社会福利政策的媒体报道.pdfVIP

The Political Culture of Social Welfare Policy WILLIAM A. GAMSON AND KATHRYN E. LASCH By 1969, welfare had become a major issue in American politics. The number of welfare recipients had doubled during the decade and welfare roles were rising at the rate of 1 million persons annually. Existing programs were under attack from those of many different political tendencies—each, of course, emphasizing different interpretations of what was going on and why. In the summer of 1969, the fledgling Nixon administration, amidst great fanfare, announced a plan for sweeping welfare reform. This Family Assistance Plan (FAP) represented a classic Nixon ploy. Critics to the left were confounded by the inclusion of a guaranteed minimum income provision; conservative critics were lured by the promise of putting welfare recipients to work and dismantling welfare bureaucracy. Indeed, the initial reaction suggested that the Family Assistance Plan had found a broad consensus and would lead to the most sweeping welfare reform since the early New Deal. In the next 2 years, this ball unraveled. The apparent consensus proved illusory, the FAPs chief backers within the administration lost influence, and, ultimately, Nixon turned his attention elsewhere, letting welfare reform languish. This interesting story continues, but it is not the story that concerns us and it has been told elsewhere (see Bowler 1974, Heffernan 1974, and Marmor and Rein 1972). The story of this aborted effort at welfare reform unfolded in a particular symbolic environment. Political discourse surrounding the welfare issue draws on a catalogue of available idea elements,