Unworthy yet Deserving: the Policy Implications of Elite Perceptions of Poverty in Israel in the 1960s and 1970s

This study examines how policy elites’ perceptions shape social policies related to poverty, focusing on the concepts of deservingness and worthiness. Using the development of the Israeli child benefit system in the 1960s and 1970s, it examines how policy elites morally evaluated and defined the poor, particularly large families. Using content and critical discourse analyses of parliamentary debates, the study examines theoretical models of deservingness and worthiness and uncovers contradictions between these ideas. Paradoxically, large families were seen as deserving because of their role in nation-building, but morally unworthy because they deviated from social norms. The results question the conventional overlap between deservingness and worthiness and show that social constructions of poverty can be both complex and contradictory. The study concludes with a discussion of wider implications for social policy, emphasising the importance of socio-cultural and political contexts in the distribution based on deservingness.