Success Or Failure

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) replaced the sixty-year-old Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. Welfare was turned to workfare due to TANF program's work incentives. Since then the effects of such welfare reform has been on hot discussion. After reviewing the evolution of American welfare reform, this paper explores the failure of the work-incentive-centered welfare reform in the U.S. by examining the confusing results and evaluating some program policies. The causes and roots leading to the inefficiency of the work-incentive-centered welfare reform are also discussed by understanding the ironies of devolution, the conflicts in cultural paradigm and the politics of welfare reform. With all these analyses, it is visible that work incentives have not helped the success of American welfare reform.