Social movement targeting and policy outcomes: black mobilization and the war on poverty in the U.S. south, 1965–68

ABSTRACT What role do social movements play in the implementation of public policy? Using funding allocations by the U.S. federal government during the War on Poverty, we argue that pressures applied by social movements are a pivotal factor in policy enforcement. Further, where most scholars and activists emphasize the importance of targeting government actors, we instead demonstrate the efficacy of disrupting the business opponents of progressive reform (here, Southern White business interests). We test broad theories of implementation as shaped by outsider movement pressures, electoral forces, and technocratic “best intentioned” logics. Through county-level statistical analyses of antipoverty funding of all 736 counties in eight Southern states during the period 1965–1968, we show the following: the War on Poverty was most fully implemented in areas where Black protest was strongest; disrupting business interests, not just government actors, was an effective strategy for obtaining funding; and electoral and technocratic considerations mattered little without the pressure of an organized movement. This paper contributes to major debates in social movement and policy studies on the efficacy of electoral versus non-electoral strategies and the effectiveness of targeting business versus government interests.