Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

“Welfare state” and “social policy” are generalizing concepts legitimizing political intervention to protect the weaker members of society, to reduce social inequalities, and to promote human capacities for action and self-reliance. The contemporary welfare state is the institutional expression of a political system committing itself to human rights, including social rights. Social policy is the generic name for strategies to solve social problems by political intervention, as well as for an academic discipline dealing with such issues. The idea that the king or the prince was responsible for the “security, welfare, and felicity” of his subjects was already part of premodern political ideology. In some countries (e.g., Prussia) there existed also a discernible set of policies aimed at promoting welfare ( Dorwart 1971 ). In the UK, the poor laws of Queen Elizabeth I (1599–1601) drafted some basic features of social policy, i.e., the definition of a problem (“poverty”), a classification of recipients and selective treatment (workhouse versus asylum), their entrustment to local officers, and rules of financing. The followers of John Locke, Adam Smith, and Immanuel Kant, however, opposed such a comprehensive political authority. Responsibility for security alone should remain with government or (in continental Europe) the state, whereas individuals should be responsible for their own ... log in or subscribe to read full text