1st Edition

Welfare Rights and Social Policy

By Hartley Dean Copyright 2002
    272 Pages
    by Routledge

    272 Pages
    by Routledge

     Welfare Rights and Social Policy provides an introduction to social policy through a discussion of welfare rights, which are explored in historical, comparative and critical context.

    At a time when the cause of human rights is high on the global political agendathe authorasks why the status of welfare rights as an element of human rights remains ambiguous. Rights to social security, employment, housing, education, health and social care are critical to human well-being. Yet they are invariably subordinate to the civil and political rights of citizenship, they are often fragile and difficult to enforce, and because of their conditional nature they may be implicated in the social control of individual behaviour.

    List of Illustrations
    Acknowledgements
    Introduction
    PART I - WELFARE RIGHTS IN THEORY
    1. The Social Rights of Citizenship
    The Amelioration of Class
    The Origins of Rights
    Social Rights and 'Privatisation'
    Summary/Conclusion
    2. Poverty and Need
    Defining Poverty
    Defining Need
    Rights and Equality
    Citizenship and Welfare
    Summary/Conclusion
    3. Welfare Rights in Global Perspective
    Social Rights and Social Development
    Welfare State Capitalism
    The Globalisation of Social Policy
    Global Citizenship and Human Rights
    Summary/Conclusion
    4. Critiques of Welfare Rights
    The Neo-Liberal Challenge
    The Neo-Marxist Challenge
    The Challenges of 'Post-Modernity'
    Summary/Conclusion
    PART II - WELFARE RIGHTS IN PRACTICE
    5. Rights to Subsistence
    A Hybrid System
    The Traditional Means-Test
    Enforcing Family Responsibilities
    Security in Old Age
    The Rights of Disabled People and Carers
    Summary/Conclusion
    6. Rights to Work
    Employment Protection
    The Working-Age Benefits Regime
    'In Work' Benefits
    Incapacity
    Summary/Conclusion
    7. Rights to Shelter
    Paying for Housing
    Protection Against Exploitation and Eviction
    Housing Conditions
    Homelessness and the Rationing of Social-Sector Housing
    Summary/Conclusion
    8. Rights in Education, Health and Social Care
    Education
    Health
    Social Care
    Summary/Conclusion
    9. Rights of Redress
    The Juridification of Welfare
    Access to Legal Expertise
    The Role of the Courts
    Administrative Redress
    Summary/Conclusion
    PART III - RETHINKING WELFARE RIGHTS
    10. Discourses of Citizenship, Rights and Responsibility
    Traditions of Citizenship
    Interpreting Rights
    Rights and Responsibility
    Summary/Conclusion
    11. Welfare Reform or Social Resistance?
    Welfare Reformism
    Social Resistance
    The Autonomous Subject and the Ethical State
    Summary/Conclusion
    References
    Index

    Biography

    Hartley Dean