Rethinking the Welfare State: The prospects for ... - e-Library

Introduction 5
Housing vouchers
In the United States, the Clinton administration faced similar challenges with the voucher
when it sought to place greater reliance on housing vouchers, as opposed to government
owned housing, in meeting the needs of the urban poor. Section 8 housing vouchers were
originally introduced by the Nixon administration, and have been a “staple of federal
housing policy for three decades.” 20 The Clinton administration sought to expand the
program by increasing the number of voucher allocations designated for rental (300,000
vouchers) and ownership subsidization (50,000 vouchers). 21 At the same time, the
administration proposed demolishing some of the worst public housing in its portfolio.
The administration argued that vouchers would promote more efficient delivery of
subsidized housing, while encouraging more socio-economically and racially integrated
neighborhoods. 22 Nevertheless, the expansion of the voucher program was criticized for
its adverse impact on established communities 23 and for its naïve reliance on the markets.
Critics claimed that the voucher program would increase homelessness or unsafe living
conditions. One critic likened the voucher program to the “beginning of a national policy
of racial cleansing.” 24 Another observed that: “People are excited and worried about this
(voucher) issue… It’ll force more people on the street, and that means more of
everything—more crime, more insurance, more money needed for other social
programs.” 25
Refugee vouchers
The British Labour government’s recent experience with vouchers earmarked for social
services for refugees constitutes another case in which political opposition subverted the
adoption of the program. In that case, the government wanted to replace cash subsidies
designed to subsidize the provision of social services to refugee claimants with a voucher
entitlement. The proposal faced effective opposition from a broad cross-section of British
interest groups, who were concerned about the magnitude of the voucher entitlement (set
at 70 percent of the poverty level) and the stigma associated with presenting vouchers for
food in supermarkets. 26 Vouchers were viewed as an insidious form of racial segregation
because “refugees will be the foreign-looking ones holding up the queue (in the grocery
store), getting free stuff.” 27 Vouchers would make some “of society’s most vulnerable
groups even more exposed to potential hostility.” 28 In reaction to the initiative, a number
of boycotts and protests were launched, and several NGOs declined to participate in the
proposed scheme. 29 By 2002, the government was forced to revoke the scheme and to
return to a system of cash benefits. 30
Health care
Indeed, it is noteworthy that even when proposed voucher initiatives are responsive to
normatively compelling public policy concerns that are not being addressed through
some other instrument, the political challenges confronting these programs are not trivial.
The ill-fated Clinton managed health care initiative (the Health Security Act (HSA))
illustrates this point. In his first week in office, President Clinton inaugurated the Task