The Antinomies of Poverty Law and a Theory of Dialogic Enpowerment

Abstract

The first purpose of this Article is to pursue an ideological inquiry with respect to the habits of perception and interpretation dominant in the practice of poverty law. As I hope to show, these habits reify and reproduce myths of legal efficacy, and inherent indigent isolation and passivity which sustain and reinforce relations of power oppressive to the poor. To explode those myths, I shall critique the dominant traditions of poverty law: direct service and law reform litigation. My thesis is that poverty cannot - indeed should not - be remedied by these traditions. Remedial litigation should not be mounted, even where altruistic 13 relief is possible, without the activization of class consciousness among the poor, nor without the political organization and mobilization of the poor.

Implicit in this thesis is the view that the poor are historical actors waging a day-to-day class struggle to assert control over their lives and communities. The battle against poverty and oppressive welfare systems is their common historical struggle. By relying on direct service and law reform litigation, poverty lawyers negate the poor as an historical class engaged in political struggle, thereby decontextualizing, atomizing, and depoliticizing that struggle. Moreover, by reifying the dissociated category of ingrained
indigent isolation and passivity, poverty lawyers reproduce isolation and passivity in the attorney/client relationship, thus inhibiting the potential for political struggle. Because these contradictions plague the practice of poverty law, the best hope for combating poverty lies not with lawyers, but with the poor themselves. It follows that empowering the poor should be the political object of poverty law.

Having established the goal of poverty law, I shall turn to my second purpose and endeavor to demonstrate that poverty can be soundly attacked only by applying an integrated theory of empowerment combining the elements of critical consciousness and discourse, the strategic methods of direct service and law reform litigation, and the collective force of clients acting together in local, state, and national political alliances.) To begin the hard practice of theory, I counsel poverty lawyers to apply critical consciousness, engage in dialogue, and redirect their efforts towards client empowerment, i.e., the activization of liberating class consciousness and the organization and mobilization of grass roots client alliances in local, state, and national communities. My hope is that client and community empowerment may serve as a strategic weapon in the continuing war against poverty.

Keywords: poverty law, community enpowerment