Lessons for Charting Future Social Program Expansions: What Factors Help Explain Why Some Programs Have Been Greatly Enlarge?

​​​​Robert Greenstein,​ the founder and former head of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities who has been a leader in efforts to expand and defend US social programs for the past five decades, will lead a series of three study groups exploring these issues.  Attendance at any or all of these sessions is open to anyone interested.

This series is co-sponsored by the Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy.

Session 2 of What Succeeds and What Fails Politically in Efforts to Strengthen the US Social Safety Net and Markedly Reduce Poverty -- and What Lessons Can We Draw for the Future?

Based on the experience of the past 40-50 years, this session will delve into key factors associated with whether social programs do well politically and expand over time or fare poorly and get cut back. We will discuss such factors as: whether a targeted program is targeted narrowly to people below the poverty line or reaches significantly above that on the income scale; different trajectories of cash versus in-kind programs; the role of work and whether a program requires a work record; which population groups a program serves; efforts to use the tax code as a mechanism for delivering income support; and the important effects of how federal and state roles are defined for a program, especially with respect to which level of government provides a program’s financing or sets a program’s rules.

This study group / discussion is open to all. Registration is not necessary.
M-RCBG welcomes individuals with disabilities to participate in its programs. To request accommodations or ask questions about access provided, please email: mrcbg@hks.harvard.edu