Date of Award
2004
Degree Name
Sociology
College
College of Liberal Arts
Type of Degree
M.A.
Document Type
Thesis
First Advisor
Kenneth Ambrose
Second Advisor
Richard Garnett
Third Advisor
Frederick Roth
Abstract
Throughout America’s history, various welfare assistance programs have been implemented in an attempt to prevent the poor from coordinating a social uprising to overturn capitalism. Applying sociologist Karl Marx’s theories on capitalism and the presence of a false versus a class consciousness one can trace the growth of industrialization in American with the increasing efforts devoted to subduing the impoverished. Actions ranging from the imprisonment of the poor to child saving in the 1700 and 1800s to the use of police force to dissipate uprisings of the indigent in the 1900s provide evidence of the government's continued efforts to prevent both capitalism and its benefactors. This thesis employs the use of a historical comparative method of research to examine the American public's-particularly the government's-attitude toward the impoverished and the actions taken to prevent the poor from disrupting the capitalistic system.
Subject(s)
Public welfare - Sociological aspects.
Poor - United States.
Recommended Citation
Foley, Jill R., "Punishing the Poor: America’s Use of the Welfare System as a Means of Controlling the Impoverished" (2004). Theses, Dissertations and Capstones. 588.
https://mds.marshall.edu/etd/588
Included in
Politics and Social Change Commons, Sociology of Culture Commons, Work, Economy and Organizations Commons
