Abstract
Scholarship on welfare privatization illustrates how the process often curtails and undermines public responsibility for the poor. In this article, I examine how recipients, policy makers, and judges participate in the legal process as a means of challenging and defending privatization. I look at cases of litigation initiated by public housing tenants between 1985 and 2012 to fight the demolition of their homes to explore the changing meaning of public responsibility within a shrinking public sector. My findings show that as legislative and administrative reforms steered courts toward a more flexible understanding of public responsibility, courts gave increasing attention to the economic hardships experienced by the state itself, while downplaying the plight of low-income tenants.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 670-700 |
Number of pages | 31 |
Journal | Law and Social Inquiry |
Volume | 41 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jun 1 2016 |
Externally published | Yes |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- General Social Sciences
- Law