The Road not Taken: Conservatism’s Debate on Welfare Reform in the 1980s

Author: Chengjun Zhong

Field of Study: Economics; Mathematical Sciences

Program Affiliation: Source Project Research Program

Faculty Mentors: Will Glovinsky

Easel: 49

Timeslot: Morning

Abstract: The present day conservative orthodoxy of hostility to social welfare spending obscures the rich history of debates about welfare reform that took place during the Reagan administration. Although President Reagan was rhetorically strongly opposed to welfare, describing it as a “tragedy,” he did not follow up with large-scale welfare reform. Indeed, the economic advisors that guided Reaganomics were as divided on welfare. Economist Milton Friedman produced a docuseries, “Free to Choose” to educate the public on neoliberal economic ideas such as the Negative Income Tax. Contrariwise, staunch conservatives such as Martin Anderson opposed welfare. The eventual laws enacted during the Reagan presidency, such as the expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit in 1986, were ultimately pragmatic: pursuing electoral popularity over the principle of opposition to welfare. This divide at the heart of the Reagan Revolution serves as a guide on how modern-day conservatives can reform the welfare system.