Lucy A. Williams

The ideology of division: behavior modification welfare reform proposals.

Even before the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, the rhetoric of “welfare reform” debate blamed recipients for their poverty while diverting attention from structural problems of our society. Proponents of “reform” argued that by withholding welfare benefits, government could change recipients’ behavior, transform present recipients into “productive members” of society, and solve the intractable problems of poverty. This article analyzes two of the most popular behavior-modification models, Learnfare and Family Cap, and contends that these “reform” efforts were driven by a New Right agenda, an “ideology of division” that manipulated public opinion by highlighting racial and gender biases.

Issues and Challenges in Addressing Poverty and Legal Rights: A Comparative United States/South African Analysis

Abstract This article gives a comparative examination of poverty reduction strategies in the United States and South Africa. Three questions frame the discussion: 1) Are individual legally enforceable entitlements to the benefits of social and economic rights, particularly social assistance benefits, an important or even necessary tool in fighting poverty and realising social and economic rights? 2) Should anti-poverty policy privilege wage work and family contributions? 3) In light of economic globalisation, what problems are associated with viewing poverty-reduction strategies, particularly social welfare programmes, within a framework of nation-states and their subdivisions? Cast in the light of these questions, modern US poverty and social assistance policy reveal an abundance of misconceptions and biases which, over time, have reinforced opposition in the US to economic redistribution and the guarantee of minimally adequate living conditions for the poor. Regrettably, echoes of these failings in the US approach can be detected in the contemporary South African debate and in some recent South African anti-poverty initiatives.

The Justiciability of Water Rights: Mazibuko v. City of Johannesburg

Abstract This paper uses the case of Mazibuko v. City of Johannesburg, now set down on appeal in the Constitutional Court of South Africa, as the basis of a discussion of judicial enforcement of social and economic rights, with special emphasis on the right of access to sufficient water. The paper compares the conditions of the black township residents who brought the lawsuit and residents of wealthier, white areas of Johannesburg and calls attention to trends in water policy in South Africa running counter to egalitarian goals of the Constitution. The paper argues that judicial enforcement of social and economic rights can (although it does not necessarily) advance democracy by affording every person the minimum conditions necessary for meaningful political participation and enjoyment of his or her political, social, and economic rights. The paper proposes a new legal approach for analyzing access-to-water and other socioeconomic rights issues—the ‘developmental-reasonableness’ test which incorporates equality principles—as better suited than existing approaches to the transformative aspirations of the South African Constitution. The proposal urges that socio-economic rights jurisprudence emphasise redistributive measures.

Poverty, Wealth and Inequality through the Lens of Globalization: Lessons from the United States and Mexico

This article seeks to expand the U.S. domestic poverty discourse to incorporate cross-border connections of social welfare policy, low-wage work, immigration and international economic organization. The author looks at the U.S. and Mexico as an example in which these multiple legal discourses can be analyzed. First, I explore the long-standing labor and immigration ties between the two countries, and the creation of a false dichotomy within the U.S. of those in wage work and single parent families receiving social assistance benefits. I then focus on recent changes in U.S. social welfare policy toward single mothers, many of whom are in low wage work, and legal immigrants, the largest number of whom are from Mexico. I juxtapose these two groups to the single mothers employed in the Mexican maquiladoras and the women- and children-only villages in Mexico whose men are often undocumented immigrants in the U.S. By exposing the artificiality of national borders vis-a-vis nationality and electoral voice, I pose the question of redistribution as a cross-border issue, hoping to generate debate that might produce a more nuanced and comprehensive poverty strategy.