Word: caps
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...poor in each community were to initiate, plan, and carry out the priority projects for the local agencies as much as possible. In Mavimum Feasible Misunder-standing Daniel P. Moynihan chronicles the internecine struggle within the initiating camp concerning the philosophy of CAP. Moynihan conceived the title of his critique by paraphrasing the most confusing phrase of the document outlining the CAP. No one has taken credit for the description, "maximum feasible participation," which outlines the nebulous federal requirements concerning the involvement of indigenous poor people within their local CAP...
...relying on a structure based on "consensus." The "apathetic" poor, or rather the low income citizens already intimidated by the overwhelming bureaucracy of federal government, responded to a request for "participation" in this new program apathetically; when so-called democratic elections for representation to the directing boards of local CAP's were announced rarely did more than five per cent of the possible voters turn out. And when representatives of the poor did try to work with members of the political power structure and social and civic organizations, friction over priorities resulted more often than "consensus...
Perhaps the CAP was a victim of its own rhetoric; promising too much, when the structures the local agencies sought to change represented the very fabric of American, life, Certainly, many CAP's suffered from an "inversion of purpose." The administrators of local, agencies became concerned with maintaining alliances which perpetuated the organization (and alienated those who were to benefit from the CAP) rather than encouraging initiative and imagination...
...Moynihan's book will testify for those interested in complete data, the Economic Opportunity Act barely passed in the U. S. Congress; troublesome and untimely eruptions in the cities-ostensibly indicating a failure in the CAP to some legislators-caused worry among the legislators. New federal directives to the local CAP's encouraged "maximum feasible participation" in the implementation of projects rather than in the planning stages. Any hope for success of the CAP throughout the country was buried by these new guidelines. The bureaucratic morass created in various local agencies, a general mismanagement of funds by the executives...
...WHOLE concept of organizing people on an altruistic basis... is a lot of crap," according to a respected (or the respected) community organizer, Saul Alinsky. Alinsky raises questions fundamental to a discussion of the governmental CAP. A sense of personal dignity must precede a feeling of freedom; and a sense of dignity only results from self-determination. If people do not have a role in the decision-making process of institutions directly affecting their lives, such as new community organizations, the goals of CAP drift into the realm of the illusory. The clement of power rests at the heart...