Includes bibliographical references (pages 105-111) and index.
Contents:
1. Understanding the welfare state -- The welfare state -- What welfare states do -- Welfare spending: How discussions about welfare go astray -- 2. The moral basis of social policy -- Consequences -- Universal principles -- Particular obligations -- Virtue ethics -- Morality and welfare -- 3. Benefitting other people -- Social responsibility -- 'Something must be done' -- Rights -- 4. Individualism and self-interest -- Rational self-interest -- Mutuality and social protection -- The common good: Interests in common -- Reclaiming individualism -- 5. The limits of the market -- Markets and welfare -- Services -- Competition -- Independent provision -- 6. Providing social services -- The public services: Governance, accountability and finance -- Why public services are not like businesses -- Why we need public services -- 7. The role of government -- Democracy -- Citizenship and the political community -- Residual and institutional provision -- Compulsion and control -- What governments can do and what they can't -- Welfare pluralism -- 8. Welfare as a way of realising other values -- Social justice -- Equality -- Freedom -- Human development -- 9. Policy for society -- Changing social structures -- Social policy and society -- The common good: The Welfare of society -- Individual and social objectives -- 10. Does welfare have bad consequences? -- Economic outcomes -- The effect of individual behaviour -- Good welfare and bad welfare -- 11. Why welfare?
Summary:
This book makes the case for the welfare state. Nearly every government in the developed world offers some form of social protection, and measures to improve the social and economic well-being of its citizens. However, the provision of welfare is under attack. The critics argue that welfare states are illegitimate, that things are best left to the market, and that welfare has bad effects on the people who receive it. If we need to be reminded why we ought to have welfare, it is because so many people have come think that we should not. -- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.