Policy Feedback Interrupted? SSDI and Community Decline in High Benefit Areas

• In Event: Pushing Barriers: The Place of Disability in Politics and Political Science Mini-Conference: Linking Attitudes towards Disability, Disability Policy and Institutions

Abstract

Policy feedback theory suggests that public policies can influence political institutions and political behavior among mass publics. Policies generate both resource and interpretive feedback effects, providing tangible benefits and conveying signals about social status and citizenship. One federal social program that is more prevalent in non-metro regions of the country is Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). Using administrative records from the Social Security Administration and county-level data on industry and civil society from 1999-2020, I examine why positive feedback effects may fail to emerge in communities with high concentrations of SSDI beneficiaries. I argue that positive feedback effects are less likely to appear when successful claims are costly, in terms of time and resources, and when benefit receipt stigmatizes and isolates target populations. Such policy characteristics further hinder feedback processes in economically deprived communities where there is high competition for scarce resources and few substitutes for social capital.

Author

• Elizabeth Thom, Harvard University