Date of Award
4-28-2023
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Political Science
First Advisor
Jennifer Erkulwater
Abstract
As American political actors have framed poverty as a choice made by the unambitious, it has become clear that our society has a pervasive misunderstanding of poverty. Policy Feedback Theorists assert that the design of our welfare policies contributes to this fallacy, raising the question of whether there is a relationship between policy design and the way citizens act and feel. This thesis uses quantitative data from the American Citizen Participation Study and qualitative data from two original interviews to test the existence of “policy feedback effects” on program participants’ feelings of efficacy. Quantitative evidence suggests limited evidence of policy feedback effects among a homogenous sample, but I am unable to generalize these results for the broader population. Qualitative evidence corroborates the existence of feedback, but the data fail to make specific connections to program design. Overall, this inquiry highlights the need for methodological advancement within policy feedback theory in order to manage the democratic and human implications of policy feedback effects.
Recommended Citation
Gural, Ava, "Policy Design and the Lived Experience of the Poor: A Test of Policy Feedback Effects and Efficacy" (2023). Honors Theses. 1679.
https://scholarship.richmond.edu/honors-theses/1679