Framing U.S. Redistributive Policies: Tough Love for Poor Women and Tax Cuts for Seniors

Abstract

In recent years, income inequality in the U.S. has risen to historically high levels. Redistributive policies that differentially benefit lower‐ versus upper‐income households play a significant role in the widening economic gap. A discourse analysis of 284 articles from five major U.S. newspapers was conducted to examine dominant media framing of the Bush administration's welfare reauthorization proposal and the 2003 dividend tax cuts. Guided by critical theory ( Delgado & Stefancic, 2001 ; Wing, 1997), we found that dominant issue frames favored reduced support for progressive welfare policies and increased support for tax cuts. Implications for pursuing an economic justice agenda are discussed.

Motivational Accounts of the Vicious Cycle of Social Status: An Integrative Framework Using the United States as a Case Study

“…The motivational framework we applied here may help reframe ongoing policy debates regarding the redistribution of wealth. Some lawmakers portray redistributive policies and other social programs as undermining the motivation of their beneficiaries to succeed (e.g., Limbert & Bullock, 2009). If folks can earn a livable income on welfare, the argument goes, why would they try to make it on their own?…”

A latent profile analysis of attributions for poverty: Identifying response patterns underlying people’s willingness to help the poor

“…That is, is there a pattern of responses that is followed more often than others? Such an understanding has important implications for the framing of the debate around welfare and related policies aimed at redressing poverty (see Limbert & Bullock, 2009). That is, policies could be framed in a manner that targets shared (mis)perceptions about the causes of poverty.…”

“This is My Community”: Reproducing and Resisting Boundaries of Exclusion in Contested Public Spaces

“…Empirical studies suggest that ideas about who is considered a legitimate user of space and what behaviors are considered appropriate are reproduced through dominant narratives of exclusion (Dixon and Durrheim 2004;Dixon et al 2006). The dominant narrative in the US is rooted in an ethic of individualism and meritocracy that portrays poverty as the outcome of negative individual attributes, such as laziness and immorality, rather than structural disadvantage, such as classism, racism, and sexism (Bullock 2008;Limbert and Bullock 2009) and rising income inequality (Hochschild 1995;Krueger 2012). Consequently, attempts of displaced groups to meet their basic needs in public-seeking shelter, bathing, and disposing of waste-are not seen as symptomatic of deep underlying social injustice but as the result of deviant behaviors that threaten the local economy, defile the aesthetic and order of the street, and disrupt the enjoyment of the consumer experience (Amster 2003;Mitchell 1997).…”