Richard Piven Pros And Cons

The Cloward-Piven Strategy or the “Crisis Strategy” was implemented, ultimately to accelerate or hasten the fall of capitalism within the United States government. The overall method of the strategy was to hasten the fall of capitalism by overloading government bureaucracy with impossible demands. An overload of demands would eventually push the capitalistic society into a depression, an economic collapse. It was first proposed in 1966 by sociologist teachers at Columbia University, Richard Andrew Cloward and Frances Fox Piven.

It was after the event of the 1965 riots, congregated in the black district, in Los Angeles California that the Cloward-Piven Strategy emerged. The beginnings of this idea, bureaucratic overload, were expressed in an article, The Weight of the Poor: A Strategy to End Poverty, published by both Cloward and Piven. It was an instant success and people from around the country were buying into the idea with much interest and enthusiasm. The article called out and blamed the “ruling class” for the downfall and suffering of the poor. The main argument was that welfare, a financial support system from the United States government to aid people in financial need, was in fact not aiding the poor but rather it was weakening the poor. The welfare system allows the government and the ruling class to keep the poor within a social

The NWRO had four goals that they believed was essential in the fight for rights: a reasonable income, justice, dignity, and participation within the democratic government. Thousands joined NWRO and reached their height in 1969, however the organization came to an end in 1975. It was replaced by the modern organization, Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). ACORN still looks to implement the Cloward –Piven Strategy in our modern democratic