Kathleen Sullivan

The State’s Relations: What the Institution of Family Tells Us about Governance

The authors examine family as an institution of governance in American welfare provision in nineteenth-century poor laws and the twenty-first-century earned income tax credit. Their study demonstrates family’s important role achieving public policy aims, illustrates the extent to which governments have relied on nongovernmental actors, describes the tools they use, and shows how citizens’ relationship to the state is translated back through nongovernmental institutions. Called upon in the task of governing, family—the hallmark of the private sphere—illustrates the mechanisms that governments use and the extent of governing authority necessary to get actors to comply with policy aims.