REVISIONING CITIZENS: U.S. DEMOCRATS’ CARE POLICIES AND CONTESTED CITIZENSHIP REGIMES IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

Robyn Rowe, CUNY

US President Biden’s expansive pandemic relief agenda has been declared “transformational” and “paradigm changing,” suggesting that Democrats’ neoliberal approach to social and economic policy may be giving way to new ideas. This paper uses the analytical lens of “citizenship regimes” to take a closer look at how discourses and practices underpinning Democrats’ policies have changed over recent decades. It focuses on Democrats’ care policies to trace continuities and change in perspectives on citizenship represented by the distribution of responsibilities among state, market, family and community, the definition of rights and duties, and the organization of governance. I bring to light the development of multiple, competing understandings of citizenship and explore contests over inclusions and exclusions related to race, gender, class, and place of origin that are reshaping care policies. I argue that the pandemic, recession and pressure to address systemic racism, Democrats have placed greater emphasis on social investment (SI) citizenship discourses that are broader and more inclusive of older and disabled Americans and care workers, and more gender and race “aware,” than an older neoliberal inflected SI perspective. At the same time, progressive Democrats have had some success in articulating a distinct conception of a “social liberal” citizenship constitutive of principles of racial justice, worker empowerment, immigrant rights, and universal health and care policies, although vague on issues of gender and not grounded in equality per se. These two perspectives have not displaced deeply embedded neoliberalism: Democrats’ commitment to marketized, devolved governance, reluctance to use regulatory tools and unwillingness to fund programs adequately, underscores continuing strength of neoliberal ideas and practices of a narrow model of citizenship based on disciplined personal responsibility and paid work. I explore contradictions and tensions within and between these competing citizenship logics and limits they place economic and social inclusion, recognition and equality.

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 Presented in Session 10. Citizensip: Histories of Exclusion and Processes of Change