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Welfare State and Welfare Society*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2014

Geraint Parry
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Extract

‘CRISIS? WHAT CRISIS?’, THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER was reported to have replied to a question concerning the alleged crisis in sterling. In the case of the welfare state it might seem that the appropriate response would be ‘Which crisis? ’ since there are several on the menu - fiscal crisis, legitimacy crisis, crisis of ungovernability . Left, Right and Centre have become convinced that there is a crisis. This is after a period of history which had seen an unprecedented rise in the standard of living of the vast majority of the population living in what are normally regarded as welfare states.

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Articles
Information
Government and Opposition , Volume 20 , Issue 3 , 01 July 1985 , pp. 287 - 296
Copyright
Copyright © Government and Opposition Ltd 1985

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References

In addition to the contributors the following participated in the Workshop: Digby Anderson (Social Affairs Unit); S. E. Finer (All Souls, Oxford); Ian Gough (University of Manchester); Julius Gould (University of Nottingham); Ghira Ionescu (Gooernment and Opposition and University of Manchester); John Kay (Institute of Fiscal Studies); Sir Arthur Knight (Business History Unit, London School of Economics); Isabel de Madariaga (University of London); Abram de Swaan (University of Amsterdam). The authors and the issue editor would like to thank all the other participants in the Workshop for their contributions. Geraint Parry also thanks Mrs Lynn Dignan for her secretarial and administrative assistance.

1 Heclo, H., ‘Toward a New Welfare State’, in Flora, P. and Heidenheirner, A. (eds), The Development of Welfare States in Europe and America, New Brunswick and London, Transaction books, 1981, p. 395 Google Scholar.

2 Treasury, H.M., The Next Ten Years: Public Expenditure and Taxation into the 1990s, Cmnd 9189, HMSO, 1984, p. 21 Google Scholar.

3 Rosanvallon, P., La crise de l’Etat‐providence, Paris, éditions du Seuil, 1981, pp. 33–4Google Scholar. See also Ionescu, G., Politics and the Pursuit of Happiness, London, Longman, 1984, ch. 9 and passim Google Scholar.

4 e.g. Doyal, L. and Gough, I., ‘A Theory of Human Needs’, Critical Social Policy, 10, 1984, pp. 6–38 Google Scholar. This paper was also presented at the Government and Opposition Workshop.

5 Walzer, M., Spheres of Justice: A Defence of Pluralism and Equality, Oxford, Martin Robertson, 1983 Google Scholar. See especially ch. 3.

6 ibid., p. 68.

7 For a discussion of the influence of type of regime on the development of the welfare state, see Flora, P. and Alber, J., ‘Modernization, Democratization, and the Development of Welfare States in Western Europe’, in Flora, P. and Heidenheimer, A., op.cit., pp. 37–80 Google Scholar

8 See Glazer, N., ‘Towards a Self‐Service Society’, The Public Interest, Winter, 1982, pp. 66–90 Google Scholar for a discussion of decentralizing tendencies in welfare systems.

9 Rosanvallon, op cit., third part.

10 Offe, op cit, p. 288. See also the comments by Cazes on this option.

11 Rose, R., Getting by in Three Economies: The Resources of the Official, Unofficial and Domestic Economies, Glasgow, University of Strathclyde Studies in Public Policy, No. 110, 1983 Google Scholar.

12 Rose, R., Understanding Big Government, London and Beverly Hills, Sage Publications, 1984, p. 235Google Scholar.

13 John Kay contributes to a full discussion of the development of social security and of the rival proposals for reform in Dilnot, A. W., Kay, J. A. and Morris, C. N., The Reform of Social Security, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1984 Google Scholar.

14 Ionescu, G., op. cit., p. 169 Google Scholar

15 Rosanvallon, op. cit., p. 31.