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The article analyzes the dynamics of access among the welfare poor. Participation in political society is often considered from the perspective of the theory of democratic pluralism. This theory, which, in the 1960's, inspired a lively debate between those who found decisions controlled by monolithic elites and those who found multiple points of decision-making, has increasingly seen the empirical grounds of contention moving toward questions of participation and access to decision-making processes by non-elites. Access has been studied by analyzing the resources of individuals, the experience of new participants, the potential for manifestation of "quasi-groups," the effectiveness of group organization, and the response of competing groups, elites, and the public to the access-seeker. To comprehend the two-sided process of access-seeking, one must examine the forces that grant or block access as well as the parties that seek access. The central problem to which the empirical study of this paper is directed is the question of how difficult it is for a newly-formed group to gain a foothold in a presumably pluralistic structure of power.

The purpose of the article is to examine the scope of the U.S. welfare attitudes, the apparent stereotypical character of such attitudes, and their reasons for being. To explore these issues a survey of a representative sample of 1017 Americans was conducted in all sections of the country in the spring of 1969, focusing on views of the poor and welfare. The response percentages considered to be anti-welfare are in bold face type. In every case but one a plurality of these Americans took a negative position vis-a-vis those on welfare programs. On four of the seven statements, a majority took an unequivocal anti-welfare position, and at least four out of ten were anti-welfare in their responses to the other three items. In only one case, the mobility item, was the proportion willing to express uncertainty a sizeable minority. Most people on welfare who can work do not try to find jobs so they can support themselves. This criticism of the work attitudes of those on welfare is often tied to the issue of employability. The 1969 survey dropped the "not" out of the statement and asked respondents if they agreed with the sentence "Most people on welfare who can work try to find jobs so they can support themselves." More disagreed with this view of welfare recipients than agreed.