Responsibility, Rights, And Welfare: The Theory Of The Welfare State PDF
Preview Responsibility, Rights, And Welfare: The Theory Of The Welfare State
ER d e i tes dp bo yn Js . i Responsibility, Rights, Db oi nli and Welfare at ly d, The Theory of the Welfare State MR oi og nh t s , a n d W e l f a Edited by r e J. Donald Moon ISBN 978-0-367-28583-8 www.routledge.com aninformabusiness (cid:31) RESPONSIBILITY, RIGHTS, AND WELFARE RESPONSIBILITY, RIGHTS, AND WELFARE The Theory of the Welfare State EDITED BY J. Donald Moon ~l Routledge ~ ~ Taylor & Francis Group LONDON AND NEW YORK First published 1988 by Westview Press Published 2019 by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright © 1988 by Taylor & Francis All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Responsibility, rights, and welfare. Includes index. 1. Social justice. 2. Human rights. 3. Welfare state. 4. Liberalism. 5. Responsibility. I. Moon, J. Donald. JC578.R47 1988 320'.01'1 87-31587 ISBN 13: 978-0-367-28583-8 (hbk) CONTENTS Preface vii 1 Introduction: Responsibility, Rights, and Welfare, ]. Donald Moon 1 Part One Justifications for Welfare 2 Reasons for Welfare: Economic, Sociological, and Political-but Ultimately Moral, Robert E. Goodin 19 3 Needs, Agency, and Welfare Rights, Raymond Plant 55 Part Two Liberalism and the Welfare State: Historical Perspectives 4 Liberal Guilt: Some Theoretical Origins of the Welfare State, Stephen Holmes 77 5 Welfare Rights as Property Rights, Thomas A. Horne 107 6 The Logic of Liberal Equality: John Stuart Mill and the Origins of the Political Theory of Welfare State Liberalism, Richard Krouse and Michael S. McPherson 133 v vi CONTENTS Part Three The Welfare State: Prospects and Problems 7 Altruism and the Welfare State, David Miller 163 8 Democracy Against the Welfare State? Structural Foundations of Neoconservative Political Opportunities, Claus Offe 189 About the Contributors 229 Index 231 PREFACE The chapters collected here were originally presented at a meeting of the Conference for the Study of Political Thought (CSPT) on "Poverty, Charity, and Welfare: The Theory and Practice of the Welfare State," which was held at Tulane University from February 14 to 16, 1986. This volume also represents something of a memorial tribute to Richard Krouse, who was involved in the conception and planning of the meeting. He brought to this project the keen intelligence and deep sensitivity that he brought to all of his work; tragically, he was killed in an automobile accident before this book could be published. I am grateful to the Murphy Institute of Political Economy and Policy Analysis at Tulane for its generous funding of that conference, and to its director, Richard Teichgraeber III, who was cochairman of the meeting. Judith Schaefer did a superb job in making arrangements for the meeting. I would also like to acknowledge the assistance of Melvin Richter of the CSPT, without whom the meeting would not have taken place, and Spencer Carr of Westview, whose consistent interest in and attention to this project was vital to its success. Brian Fay read and offered valuable comments on an earlier version of the Introduction. My wife, Amy Bloom, gave me invaluable advice and support at every stage of this project. ]. Donald Moon vii J. DONALD MOON 1 INTRODUCTION Responsibility, Rights, and Welfare The welfare state, once widely viewed as the crowning achievement of modern politics, has come to be seen as deeply problematic. Although reports of its crisis and imminent demise have been exaggerated, the hope it once offered of a just society, achieved without revolutionary violence, has not been realized. In the academy, its intellectual and moral underpinnings have come under increasing attack. In the polity, new movements have arisen that either reject important parts of the welfare state in the name of such traditional values as individual initiative and responsibility, or proclaim a vision of political life and address a set of issues for which the welfare state appears to be at best an irrelevance. Few today see the welfare state as an answer to the most pressing problems of society, as the "middle way" between the extremes of laissez-faire and collectivism, a way that promises to defuse the intense, ideological conflict that threatened democratic societies before World War II. Yet, in spite of these doubts and in the face of these attacks, the welfare state endures. Even though conservative regimes may have reduced the rate of growth of public expenditures, they have not significantly changed the welfare state's major institutions and programs. On the other hand, as the French Socialists bitterly discovered, efforts to go beyond the welfare state have, so far at least, been unsuccessful. The chapters in this book explore the social, historical, and philosophical bases of the welfare state and so help us to understand why it has been durable while, at the same time, engendering so much criticism. The contributors examine the ways in which the welfare state gives expression to the deepest impulses and values of our way of life as it deals with the issues of poverty and social dislocation. Their discussions enable us to see the welfare state as an effort to resolve some of the deep tensions and conflicts among the most fundamental aims and conceptions that constitute our moral and political culture, and thereby 1
The list of books you might like
