In the Fair Hearing Room: Resistance and Confrontation in the Welfare Bureaucracy

42 Pages Posted: 22 Jun 2006

See all articles by Vicki Lens

Vicki Lens

Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College, CUNY

Abstract

This article explores how welfare clients use and experience the fair hearing system, the administrative mechanism for challenging denials or reductions of aid in public welfare bureaucracies in the United States. Drawing on data from in-depth interviews with clients, it explores how old-style procedural protections like fair hearings are being used to challenge new-style welfare reforms. This research found that clients use fair hearings as a form of resistance and self-assertion, hoping that it will protect them from a bureaucracy perceived as arbitrary and capricious. Like many citizens, they are as concerned with being heard by their governmental institutions as they are with the outcome of their case, and want to find within the machinery of government a forum where they can obtain recompense and respect. However, the legalistic and rule-bound nature of hearings makes it difficult for clients to present their claims, and meaningful participation is often denied them.

Keywords: administrative hearings, welfare reform

JEL Classification: I38, D73

Suggested Citation

Lens, Vicki, In the Fair Hearing Room: Resistance and Confrontation in the Welfare Bureaucracy. Law and Social Inquiry, Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=911220

Vicki Lens (Contact Author)

Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College, CUNY ( email )

2180 Third Avenue
New York, NY 10035
United States

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