38
programs. With the passage of the OBRA AFDC changes, the idea of workfare became a viable
possibility for welfare reformers. Eight of the WIN demonstration projects became the
laboratory for Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation (MDRC) studies that ultimately
became instrumental in promoting a strong work component in the Reagan administration’s more
comprehensive 1988 welfare reform, the Family Support Act (FSA).
75
The administration succeeded in overcoming the inherent limits present in the welfare
policymaking subsystem, whereby typical policymaking reform occurred in terms of expanding
AFDC and its associated programs. In the past, even when restrictive measures were imposed on
welfare, they were accompanied with significant additions of funding. For example, the WIN
program – the first work requirement attached to AFDC – was also associated with additional
funding for states to implement their programs, plus additional assistance to be offered
participants in those programs job training and/or child care. The AFDC changes that were part
of OBRA 1981 were part of an effort to reduce federal spending on welfare, reduce federal
control over state administration, and reduce participation in AFDC. The extent of the Reagan
administration’s success is a measure of their ability to have circumvented the constraints of the
welfare policymaking subsystem. By achieving their welfare changes as part of a huge national
budget reconciliation, they essentially made welfare policy changes outside of the policymaking
subsystem.
By comparison, in the 1988 Family Support Act the Reagan administration sought to
achieve a substantial reordering of welfare priorities within this policymaking subsystem,
through the regular legislative process, in a high profile national welfare reform.
76
Significantly,
the policymaking subsystem participants were highly influential in the FSA process, including
75
On the 1981 demonstration studies in the policymaking process for the FSA, see Baum 1991.
76
For an excellent history of the FSA legislative process, see Edelman 1995; also Handler 1987-88.
Convention