Ch 2 Yeatman Idea of the Welfare State

This essay analyses the implications of the state performing a welfare function for an extended period of time in relation to the social contract between women citizens and the state. It argues that a prolonged status of 'welfare provider' ascribes certain patriarchal attributes to the state, which in turn reduces the position of the citizens, especially women, to a mere 'beneficiary' level. With the use of two specific policy documents relating to public health – Well Woman Clinic (WWC) programme launched in 1996, and the Population and Reproductive Health (PRH) policy designed in 1998 – it shows that in the absence of a rights based approach to public health, women have become mere beneficiaries, as opposed to active citizens, of the prolonged welfare State of Sri Lanka. This relationship has deterred women citizens from exercising the right to demand their needs from the State.

Feminist Review, 2006

Journal of Social Policy, 2000

Readers are a bit like cheese-boards. Even the best of them can provide neither a selection sufficiently comprehensive to cater for every taste, nor a meal that is on its own entirely satisfying. Pierson and Castles claim that their Welfare State Reader brings together a 'selection from the very best and most influential writing on welfare of the past fifty years' (p. 1). They do indeed present some thirtyone diverse readings of high quality and pertinence. Inevitably, however, the materials they have chosen do not wholly encapsulate the main debates concerning the welfare state, nor do they by themselves provide an entire or coherent narrative. Having said that, it is a volume that probably deserves to find a place on the average Social Policy student's bookshelf alongside such 'resource' texts as George and Page's ( ) Modern Thinkers and Alcock et al.'s (1998) Student's Companion. The volume is divided into three parts. The first, on approaches to welfare, includes the only contribution not written in the twentieth century, namely an extract from Thomas Paine's Rights of Man, followed by sections focusing on 'classical' approaches (Asa Briggs, T. H. Marshall and Titmuss), 'Left' perspectives (The Commission on Social Justice, O'Connor, Offe and Korpi), 'Right' responses (Hayek, Murray and Mead) and feminism (McIntosh and Pateman). The second part, on 'debates and issues' is in five sections on welfare regimes (Esping-Andersen and Goodin & others), European welfare (Leibried, and Grahl & Teague), economic globalisation (Gough, Scharpf, Rhodes and Hirst & Thompson), demographic and social change (Estelle James, Beattie & McGillivray and Phillipson); and political challenges (Paul Pierson and Clayton & Pontusson). The final part is on the future of welfare (Hutton, Fitzpatrick, van Parjis, Kirk Mann and Giddens). Some two-thirds of the extracts were first published in the last decade. Whether they will all prove to have been seminal remains, of course, to be seen. It is by any account an impressive selection, but one cannot help wondering why there is nothing included from the nineteenth or early twentieth centuries? Why, although two feminist writers have been included, feminist critiques of regime theory have not? (It is interesting to note that a contribution from this genre -Lewis (1992) -appears in the list of acknowledgements to publishers, but does not feature in the volume itself: one might surmise that the editors for some reason had a last minute change of mind about including an extract from this article, but the copy-editor failed to spot the erroneous entry remaining in the acknowledgements!) The editors explicitly acknowledge that 'important issues, such as disability, ethnicity and the problems of service delivery, lie beyond our scope' (p. 1) but do not satisfactorily justify this. While Kirk Mann's engaging critique of postmodern interpretations is included, there is no substantive example of post-structuralist thinking on welfare. The strength of the book is that it does illustrate a number of key controversies,

2009

Theory and Society, 1997

This study proposes to shed light on rights and responsibilities of citizens specific to welfare state in terms of social policy. When doing this, statist and liberal perspectives of social policy literature will be considered. Status of rights and responsibilities will be underlined in the light of European context. Especially White's citizenship definition and arguments in specific to Western Europe will be incorporated into the text. Study also aims at demonstrating inevitable relationship between social policy implementations and welfare state idea. This inevitable relationship will be detailed by referring policy design maintained by governments and the re-distrubitive background of welfare state. Comparison among statist and liberal perspectives will also make visible this inevitable relationship among social policy implementations and welfare idea.

Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, 1998

Constellations, 2008