Arguments for Welfare

Paul Spicker is Emeritus Professor of Public Policy at the Robert Gordon University.

• 1. Welfare and the welfare state / 2. The moral basis of social policy / 3. Benefitting other people / 4. Individualism and self-interest / 5. The limits of the market / 6. Providing public services / 7. The role of government / 8. Welfare as a way of realising other values / 9. Policy for society / 10. Does welfare have bad consequences? / Why welfare? / Bibliography / Index

In the past 30 years, the apparent consensus that government should promote social welfare has frayed. Much of the argument against the welfare state is that welfare policies are often counterproductive, exacerbating the problems of poverty and insecurity that they are supposed to solve. This text begins by rejecting these kinds of arguments, holding that the real issues are moral: the reason welfare provision is controversial is not disagreement about the effects of social policy, but disagreement about the moral basis for policies to promote social welfare. After a brief survey of theories of ethics, the author sets out a strong case for the welfare state drawing on all of these theories. The arguments of each chapter are summarized in a closing section, and the final chapter sets out a marvelously condensed statement of ‘twenty-six ... principal reasons for the provision of welfare.’ The book is clear and accessible, very much a primer, and the author is a distinguished authority on social policy. An excellent place to start, it invites deeper explorations of these issues.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty.