A Confluence of Conservative Principles: Newt Gingrich, the Republican Party, and 1990s Welfare Reform

Abstract

Welfare reform in the United States, always a contentious subject, became a prominent national issue in the 1990s, leading up to the 1996 passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA). The reform was pushed through Congress by a resurgent Republican Party led by the fiery Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich. Today, PRWORA is still hailed by many conservatives as a major step forward in changing the way social welfare works in America. It is not immediately obvious, however, just how conservative Republican welfare reform really was. In fact, the reform effort and the ideologies and justifications behind it had their roots in the Elizabethan poor law of 17th century England. The concepts of paternalism and social darwinism that were so prevalent in the old English laws were major characteristics of 1990s welfare reform in the United States as well.