Table of Contents
- The Cloward-Piven Theory
- Cloward-Piven Steps
- Cloward-Piven Aftermath
- Lesson Summary
The Cloward-Piven Theory
The Cloward-Piven Theory is a strategy devised in the 1960s to successfully provide welfare and attempt to solve political problems. The main steps of this strategy are to:
- Overload a system
- Create mass panic and hysteria as the system is overloaded
- Oversee the destruction of the system
- Replace the former system with a new system
The Cloward-Piven Strategy of solving political problems can be compared to a forest fire. Although these fires result in widespread destruction, eventually a forest is regrown with young trees that are stronger than the old ones had been. Another comparison that may help illustrate the benefits of the Cloward-Piven Strategy is a ''scorched earth'' campaign. In this war strategy, leaders destroy everything they own in a given location, not just military installments or resources. The general idea is that without economic support, the enemy military will not be able to take advantage of their resources. Thus, the opposing army will survive because their enemies lack the ability to accumulate resources.
In a similar fashion, Cloward-Piven Strategy promotes the idea that as bureaucratic offices and programs are overloaded and fail, the government can replace them with something better. Their first target for capacity overload was the welfare system of the United States.
Backstory of Cloward-Piven Strategy
There were two main sociologists behind the development of the Cloward-Piven Strategy. College professors (and married couple) Richard Andrew Cloward and Frances Fox Piven wrote an article entitled ''The Weight of the Poor: A Strategy to End Poverty'' in 1966. Their article was published in The Nation magazine. This periodical is a progressive publication that focuses on solutions to political issues. It is the most prominent liberal publication and the oldest periodical publication in the United States that is still in existence.
One of the strongest influences on Cloward and Piven was the 1965 Watts riots in Los Angeles. As a result of these riots, political changes occurred. The welfare programs of the Lyndon B. Johnson administration were seen as responses to these riots.
Cloward-Piven Steps
There are four steps in the Cloward-Piven Strategy of welfare resolution:
- Drastically increasing welfare recipients
- Triggering an eruption of chaos as the welfare program begins to fail
- Shifting the responsibility for welfare programs from the local governments to the federal administration
- Supplying everyone with a government-provided guaranteed income
Cloward-Piven End Game
The ultimate purpose of the Cloward-Piven Strategy was two-fold: to end poverty and to install socialism. Cloward and Piven believed that the welfare programs existing at the time were simply a way for capitalists to oppress the poor under the guise of assisting them. Socialism, in their eyes, was the only way to help every member of American society.
Both of the goals of the Cloward-Piven Strategy involved getting a large populace on government-provided guaranteed income. This would give the government more control over individual lives. Not only would welfare programs be more efficiently carried out, but formerly disadvantaged and marginalized communities would be given equal rights and resources. The majority population, on the other hand, would be forced to comply with the policies of an increasingly socialist government.
In a way, the Cloward-Piven Strategy oppressed the minorities of American society as much as the existing welfare program did. Cloward and Piven proposed using welfare recipients not to help them gain resources but to further their broader goal of undermining the federal government.
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