Retreat and Retrenchment: Progressives and the Welfare State

This article examines the role of liberal ideology in the formation of the welfare state, explores the changing relationships between left-wing ideology and welfare statism, and investigates the causes for the diminishing influence of progressives on social welfare policy. This article investigates the emergence of the liberal hegemony in welfare statism, a phenomenon that marked the New Deal welfare state until the mid-1970s. Moreover, the authors examine the early response of the left to the welfare state and how that response dramatically changed with the election of Ronald Reagan. Also explored is the role played by neoliberals in chipping away at the foundations of the American welfare state. The authors suggest that welfare advocates must recapture the momentum lost to aggressive neoconservative welfare proposals.