Unworthy yet deserving: The social construction of the poor in Israeli policy elite narratives, 1960-1980

Unworthy yet deserving: The social construction of the poor in Israeli policy elite narratives, 1960-1980 Based on analyzing 288 minutes of two welfare committees in the Israeli parliament (Knesset) in 1960-1980, it was found that while the perceived morality of the poor did not align with the narrative of policy elites, the poor's sociodemographic and geographical characteristics contributed to the implementation of the young country’s policy objectives and national vision. As a result of these gaps, there appears to have been a socially constructed subcategory between the "deviant" and "dependent" poor categories. This subcategory emerged from the unique Israeli context and reflected the narrative of policy elites. First, I applied content analysis methodology by identifying central and recurring ideas and conducting open and axial coding (Braun & Clarke, 2006; Corbin & Strauss, 2008; Strauss, 1987). I then applied critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, 2012) to expose ideology as the mutual beliefs of policy actors (VanDijk, 2015) and discourse amendments made by policy elites (Skrentny, 2006), highlighting both individual perceptions and social constructions along partisan lines. In this analysis, I considered both cognitive and normative arguments (Schmidt & Radaelli, 2004), which means that I analyzed both the content of ideas and the interactions between policymakers (Schmidt, 2010). Considering that policy design is not a uniform process but varies according to context (Schneider & Ingram, 1997), this research emphasizes the narrative of political elites as a contextual and important frame of reference for policy paradigms and specifically for analyzing target populations’ social construction. Previous studies investigated deservingness as a perception that derives from, or overlaps, with worthiness (see, e.g., Ingram et. al, 2007; Ingram & Schneider, 2015; Romano, 2018; Steensland, 2010). The current study suggests a semi-conflictual relationship that may arise between these two concepts. This conflict stems from the dual perception of policy elites regarding the poor in the shadow of the gap between their narratives and reality. The poor were not perceived as embodying Israeli society's values but were recruited to take part in promoting them. Specifically, the contradiction between the social constructions based on the poor's cultural-morality valence, which makes them unworthy, and that between the definitional dimensions of the target population, which makes them deserve. Examining the policy context and policy elites' narrative in Israel in retrospect sheds some light on the locus of the social construction of the target population and narratives in the policy design process. Moreover, it emphasizes the significance of the research context of social constructions. Despite the research's specific setting, it has broader implications for comprehending the function of policy narratives and social constructions shaping welfare policy.