The Politics of Race, Rights, and Needs - and the Perils of a Democratic Victory in Post-Welfare America: Some Reflections on the Work of Felicia Kornbluh

Abstract:     
Welfare is dead; but social rights are coming back. The 2008 election has brought the right to health care, to decent education, even to decently paid work back into circulation. What forms might a rekindled social citizenship take under a Democratic administration? What are its promises and perils? And for those concerned about the perils of exclusion for poor people of color, what might be done to push an Obama administration toward more pro-poor policies? What might a poor people's movement look like in the 2010s; and what can we learn from the strategies, insights and blind spots, the achievements and shortcomings of the Welfare Rights Movement of the 1960s? This review essay offers a few reflections.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 18

Accepted Paper Series