Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Welfare And Foreign Aid Practices In The Contemporary United States: A Governmentalstudy, Philippe Fournier

Philippe Fournier

This article aims to expose the main governmental shifts in recent Americanhistory (1961-2000) by examining two programs: the Assistance to Families with DependentChildren (AFDC) and the Agency for International development (US-AID). Through the ex-ploration of primary and secondary sources, we analyse the production, organisation andcirculation of governmental practices in the realms of both domestic and foreign policy. In theAmerican context, practices of government typically revolve around freedom, efficiency mo-dels and individual responsibility. Throughout the analysis, we find that the general critiqueswhich have guided reforms and experiments in both areas converge around the same ele-ments. This testifies to the fact that …