Cloward-Piven strategy - fundamentally transforming America https://www.cairco.org/reference/cloward-piven-strategy-fundamentally-transforming-america What is the Cloward-Piven strategy? The Cloward-Piven strategy was developed in 1966 by Americans Richard Cloward and Frances Fox Piven - both sociologists and political activists. The Cloward-Piven strategy focused on overloading the United States public welfare system in order to precipitate a crisis, which would ultimately lead to replacing the welfare system with a national system of "a guaranteed annual income and thus an end to poverty". An ancillary consequence of the strategy includes shoring up of the Democratic Party, which at the time was splintered by pluralistic interests. Another side effect would be relieving local and state governments of public welfare burdens, since the burden would be shifted to the federal government - in other words, in a manifestation of socialism. Taxpayers, of course, would cover the cost in either case. Cloward and Piven focused primarily on redistribution of income, stating that full enrollment in welfare programs: