The Drawing Board
/ SUPRA Postgraduate Essay Prize Winner
Welfare Reform in Australia and the United States: Tracing the Emergence
and Critiques of the New Paternalism and Mutual Obligation
Kate Green, University
of Sydney
ABSTRACT
Over the past thirty years, there has
been a gradual shift toward the adoption of ‘new right’ ideologies
in post-industrial advanced capitalist welfare state policies. Although
the concept of the welfare state emerged out of capitalism’s structural
inability to provide for the lower classes, this notion has been re-conceptualised
to now include discourse about recipients’ obligations to the state.
This paper traces the emergence and critiques of this concept of mutual
obligation by focusing on the lead-up and response to the 1997 Social
Security Amendment (Work-for-the-Dole) Act in Australia and the 1996
Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act
in the U.S.
A native of Philadelphia, Kate Green
lived in NSW for two and a half years. She was awarded a Master of Arts
in Social Policy with Merit from the University of Sydney in May 2002.
Kate has since returned to the U.S. and currently works with Chicago Legal
Advocacy for Incarcerated Mothers.
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