What Do Debtors Deserve?

• In Event: The Politics of the Credit Welfare State: Access, Inequality, and Democracy

Abstract

The federal system of consumer bankruptcy filing has been an important avenue for relief for financially distressed individuals since at least the early 1980s, when both credit access and bankruptcy filings skyrocketed. While it is rarely viewed as part of the formal American welfare state, consumer bankruptcy provides important material relief to a financially distressed population in an era of widespread personal indebtedness. Further, like “welfare” (AFDC—now TANF), consumer bankruptcy was targeted for neoliberal and paternalistic reforms as part of the personal responsibility crusade of the 1990s. This paper explores the role of bankruptcy in the American welfare state through an analysis of congressional hearings and floor debate from the 2005 Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (BAPCPA). Using existing analyses of welfare reform debates as a starting point, I systematically analyze the political discourse around debtors and indebtedness that emerged during those debates. This productive comparison reveals the social construction of debtors at play in the BAPCPA debates, highlighting continuities—but also important differences—between the ways that debtors and welfare recipients were conceptualized and represented by policymakers.

Author

• Serena Laws, Trinity College, Hartford CT