Welfare Reform, Management Systems, and Policy Theories of Child Well-Being

Children's interests were frequently invoked during the congressional debate of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (hereafter referred to as the Personal Responsibility Act). Those who supported the act, those who wanted to amend it, and those who opposed it outright all argued that they were the ones who knew what was best for children. Yet legislators did not share a common understanding of children's interests. Behind these various claims rested different ideas about what children needed and how public policy could improve children's lives, and the adoption of the Act did not resolve these competing visions.