The Politics of a Guaranteed Income: The Nixon Administration and the Family Assistance Plan

by Daniel Patrick Moynihan

A prominent Democrat discusses The Nixon Administration and the Family Assistance Plan

Genres: History, Economics, Nonfiction

579 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

Daniel Patrick “Pat” Moynihan was an American politician and sociologist. A member of the Democratic Party, he was first elected to the United States Senate for New York in 1976, and was re-elected three times (in 1982, 1988, and 1994). He declined to run for re-election in 2000. Prior to his years in the Senate, Moynihan was the United States' ambassador to the United Nations and to India, and was a member of four successive presidential administrations, beginning with the administration of John F. Kennedy, and continuing through Gerald Ford.

Reviews

[Logan Mercer · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title alone catches the eye. “Nixon supported a basic income that would have halved poverty overnight?” Damn straight he did, and he almost got away with it too if it wasn’t for you well-meaning liberals who let perfect be the enemy of the good.

DPM is a giant and has always been one of my favorite senators/political figures of the 20th century. Here he REALLY nerds out on welfare-which is awesome-but it is ad nauseam at a certain point.

Surprisingly applicable to the contemporary political climate, DPM also tracks the rise of political science as a driver of policy, its limitations, and the executive branch’s expanding role in determining the Overton window.

Reallllly makes Nixon seem kind of badass! Obviously this was pre-watergate and it’s so interesting how that completely overshadows everything else he did. Also I love that the #1 Republican pushing back against FAP was governor Ronald Reagan! What great foreshadowing in a non-fiction policy book!

[Luke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Detailed participant history by Presidential advisor and sociologist, of the time America tried to institute a basic income (negative income tax) to replace welfare services. A relatively liberal policy, proposed by Nixon, torpedoed from the left and right. Plenty to relate to today, in terms of public and political opinions of welfare or a basic income, of technocratic policy against politics, and of story telling (and predicting your opponents stories) for complex proposals. But a lot of details.