Ideologies Of Welfare

A revised and rewritten version of the best-selling textbook, described by Sociological Review as 'essential reading for every student of social policy. '

Considering the principles underlying social welfare provision, this text surveys the main schools of thought in this area, from the New Right and Democratic Socialism through to feminist and green thinking. This edition takes into account the changes in thinking about social welfare provision.

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This book introduces students to the diversity of theoretical perspectives on welfare, both illuminating the distinctiveness of each ideology and highlighting important continuities in thought. It goes on to illustrate how these theories are reflected in and challenge the development of welfare policy.

An introduction to the current debates about the future direction of welfare reform on both sides of the Atlantic. The first part outlines a range of different perspectives on welfare, and shows how each of these perspectives rests upon a different assumption about the role and purpose of welfare policy and a different understanding of human nature and motivation. Some of these perspectives see the primary role of welfare as to reduce inequalities, while others see the central objective as the reduction of welfare dependency. The second part shows how the current debates in Britain and the United States are informed by these perspectives, and argues that debates about inequality and dependency are not mutually exclusive but address different dimensions of the same problem. In all, this text should be valuable reading for courses in social policy, health, and social welfare, as well as those with a political and wider interest in welfare reform.

This book suggests how welfare can be re-formed by taking the American ideological context as a road map for which welfare changes are possible and which are not, laying out a framework for welfare as America enters the twenty-first century.